KARACHI: Federal budget for fiscal year 2015-16 (FY 16) is apparently hinting government is interested in promoting black money or trying to force decent tax paying investors to invest in real estate sector, stock brokers say. Instead of giving incentives, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has dismayed taxpayer investors by increasing… – Continue reading
Financial institutions around the world must ‘get their act together’ for the introduction of the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in seven months, Linedata has warned. Justin Hayes, product manager at the international software provider, dubbed the automatic exchange agreement between an initial 58 countries “FATCA on steroids’ and an… – Continue reading
Error meant that BBC Trust was not told in advance about creation of two companies designed to benefit from creative industry tax credits The BBC Trust has fired a warning shot over the bows of the corporation’s executives, calling on them to “have regard to the BBC’s reputation” following public… – Continue reading
He has distorted the facts about the nation’s current tax system. Chris Christie repeatedly has said that U.S. corporations are taxed twice on income earned abroad, claiming in one speech that IRS officials “don’t recognize the tax you paid to a foreign country.” That’s false. It’s true that the U.S…. – Continue reading
The new law on the taxation of controlled foreign companies (the ‘CFC’ law) and other anti-offshore measures effective as of 1 January 2015 have raised a number of questions for clients and advisers. A number of changes to the new laws were long anticipated and have now been passed by… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing has emerged as a key focus area both globally and locally. From an international scene, the OECD/G20 venture — a club of advanced countries in Europe and North America, has been working on action plans to help tax administrations deal with Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project…. – Continue reading
On May 24, Premier Li Keqiang and a delegation of Chinese senior officials arrived in Chile. During the visit, China and Chile signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTA), updated their Free Trade Agreement and agreed on setting up an RMB clearing center in Chile, reports China Briefing. China and… – Continue reading
Governments around the world could find themselves under-resourced when the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act deadline for collecting information on US clients arrives in September, one expert has said. Ellen Zimiles, managing director, head of global investigations at US firm Navigant, said governments will be handed an “unprecedented” amount of… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service Wednesday reminded taxpayers with offshore accounts of two important June deadlines related to Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts filings and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. All taxpayers with a FBAR filing requirement must report their foreign assets by June 30, with those taxpayers living abroad… – Continue reading
The number of voluntary disclosures of offshore income and assets to Canada’s tax authority nearly doubled in the year ended March 31 from the previous 12 months, the first time such figures have been gathered since the Canada Revenue Agency put in a whistleblower reward system to root out tax… – Continue reading
Speaking at the Insurance Day 2015 Summit on 10 June 2015, Minister of Finance Bob Richards told attendees that “the more we drive home that the insurance sector in Bermuda is not a stereotypical tax haven gimmick to key onshore decision makers the less the threat from IRS and other… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE, June 11 (IFR) – By selling what market sources say is the first offshore bond from a Chinese trust company, Zhongrong International Trust has opened a new funding route for the country’s shadow banks as they look to expand overseas. Zhongrong, China’s second largest trust company in asset terms,… – Continue reading
Issues of tax domicile have figured in the UK election, with arguments over ‘non dom’ status and the transparency of overseas territories. However, as the dust settles on some of the rhetoric, it is essential that this does not cloud the legitimate benefits that offshore jurisdictions have brought to the… – Continue reading
Multinational firms said to be ‘cheating’ African countries out of billions of dollars that could be used for health care and education. G7 leaders Monday pledged to reform the international tax system by minimizing transfer pricing, according to Public Finance International. Transfer pricing involves internal transactions between a large company’s… – Continue reading
Dirty money resulting from crime, corruption and tax evasion is estimated to cost over one trillion dollars every year. It exacerbates poverty and inequality, and should be regarded as one of the most pressing issues globally. An Oxfam report found that G7-based companies and investors cheat Africa out of tens… – Continue reading
THE North-East is becoming a “dustbin” for Scottish rubbish because of devolution, one of the region’s MPs has warned. Kevan Jones, the North Durham MP, said a “commendable” Scottish initiative to boost recycling had backfired by sending waste across the border instead, sometimes illegally. And he warned the problem was… – Continue reading
A raft of reforms to EU anti-money laundering rules will come into force later this month after they were finalised and published in the official journal of the EU, reports Out Law. The fourth Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Directive will take effect from the 26 June. EU countries will have two… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg Tax Authorities have confirmed that the deadline for FATCA reporting with respect to financial accounts as of 31 December 2014 has been extended from 30 June 2015 to 31 July 2015. The FATCA Agreement (Model 1) between Luxembourg and the United States was signed on 28 March 2014…. – Continue reading
Sydney, 10 June (Argus) — The Australian government has released legislation to tighten rules governing corporate taxation such as the use of offshore tax havens. The bill is not aimed at any particular sector of the economy, but several resource and commodity companies have come under scrutiny following a Senate… – Continue reading
Minister of Financial Services the Hon. Hope Strachan said international best practices are evolving at a rapid pace, particularly as it relates to automatic tax exchange initiatives, tax transparency, anti-money laundering and financial crime, and e-commerce, reports the Bahamas Weekly. Making her contribution to the 2015 Budget Debate in the… – Continue reading
The Diverted Profits Tax (DPT), known by many as the “Google Tax”, is intended to stop large groups diverting profits from the UK by seeking to avoid creating a UK permanent establishment or using arrangements or entities which lack economic substance to exploit tax mismatches. Tax mismatches occur where intra-group… – Continue reading
Heads of state meeting at the G7 Summit in Bavaria, Germany committed to promoting automatic exchange of tax information and tax rulings to discourage multinational companies from shifting profits from country to country to avoid taxes, reports Accounting Today. In a joint declaration, the G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to… – Continue reading
Swiss banks that aren’t dependent on the country’s crumbling financial secrecy laws may find international expansion easier than those that sold hidden accounts in the past, according to Switzerland’s financial supervisor. “The shift away from businesses which rely on some elements of banking secrecy is changing the perception” of Swiss… – Continue reading
Hong Kong, as a world financial centre, will undertake legislative changes to implement automatic exchange of information of account holders Exchange of information is a recognised tool to enhance tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion. As a major financial centre, Hong Kong is committed to following global standards. While… – Continue reading
The Argentine Supreme Court ruling on Toepfer International, a commodity exporting firm, has finally been published, tw o months after the decision, providing lessons for BEPS action 10 (cross border commodity transactions). This case, AFIP v Alfred C Toepfer Internacional, belongs to the first group of three controversies, related to… – Continue reading
Individuals who renew their US passport need to take into consideration that their Social Security Number (SSN) and country of residency will be forwarded to the IRS. Since July 2014, the passport renewal instructions forms have dedicated a specific paragraph detailing this new procedure: “Section 6039E of the Internal Revenue… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI — India’s goal of a friendlier tax regime for global companies to help power China-beating economic growth is hitting a manpower hurdle. Fewer than 20 officials face the complex task of working with hundreds of multinationals on pacts to avert tax rows, people familiar with the matter said,… – Continue reading
A special scheme is provided for foreign-securities holding companies or ETVEs (Entidades de Tenencia de Valores Extranjeros) in the Corporate Income Tax (“CIT”) Act 27/2014. ETVEs are regular limited liability companies (S.L., S.A. or other company forms), subject to the normal CIT on its income, but exempt from taxation on… – Continue reading
Prime minister says he has proof he is innocent of charges of money laundering and tax evasion while president calls for his resignation Victor Ponta, Romania’s prime minister, said on Tuesday that he was prepared to go to court to answer charges of money-laundering, forgery and tax evasion as the… – Continue reading
In November 2014 the WikiLeaks scandal known as “LuxLeaks”, the large scale exposure of over 340 companies (such as IKEA, Coca-Cola and Disney) who paid a rate of one per cent or less tax on profits moved to Luxembourg by advance pricing arrangements has affected all nationalities and brought the… – Continue reading
In a year when technology deals are set to break records, U.K. targets are proving popular. About $20 billion of deals were struck for British technology companies in the last 12 months, almost double the amount spent a year earlier. U.S. buyers accounted for about half the acquisitions. They included… – Continue reading
Shire is considering a move to acquire Swiss biopharma company Actelion in a move that would boost its rare disease portfolio. According to a report in the Sunday Times, Shire made an informal approach to Actelion about a possible £12.4bn takeover several weeks ago, but the opening bid was turned… – Continue reading
FORMER Tinian Sen. David M. Cing, one of the proponents of the Tinian casino initiative, said the troubles facing Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino did not occur overnight and are now “killing us here.” Recently, a $75 million in civil fine was imposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s government wants banks to toughen up checks to avoid accepting untaxed assets, possibly including a refusal to do business with a client who can’t show the money has been regularized, reports Bloomberg. For clients from countries that aren’t covered by automatic exchange of information agreements, banks will need to… – Continue reading
Demands for greater transparency from business about their tax affairs have prompted more than half of all FTSE 100 companies to disclose information about their approach to taxation, compared with less than a third two years ago, reports the Financial Times. The rise in disclosures is a sign of the… – Continue reading
Proposed Amendments To Cyprus’s Assessment And Collection Of Taxes Law The Cyprus Government has published a draft law amending the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law (Law 4 of 1978) in order to facilitate implementation of agreements for automatic exchange of information with other countries. When it is enacted, the… – Continue reading
An organisation that represents American expats has called on the United States Treasury to amend tax regulations to exempt those living abroad from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). FACTA was introduced in 2010 to tackle what was seen as a growing number of wealthy US citizens living abroad… – Continue reading
EU regulators today gave Poland and Estonia a month to hand over details of their tax ruling practices. It also ordered 15 other countries to provide data on individual tax bills as part of a region-wide investigation. Pressures on government budgets since the global financial crisis have spurred a crackdown… – Continue reading
New Delhi/Mumbai: India’s goal of a friendlier tax regime for global companies to help power China-beating economic growth is hitting a manpower hurdle. Fewer than 20 officials face the complex task of working with hundreds of multinational companies (MNCs) on pacts to avert tax rows, people familiar with the matter… – Continue reading
Top congressional lawmakers have ramped up discussions over international tax reform as the outlook for business and comprehensive reform has dimmed. The president has flatly rejected individual rate cuts, and efforts toward business-only reform have flagged as the pass-through community has rejected most proposals that would leave it out of… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing has been raking in significant tax controversies and has also emerged as one of the leading arms of the Indian tax law. Transfer pricing has been raking in significant tax controversies and has also emerged as one of the leading arms of the Indian tax law contributing a… – Continue reading
The country’s affluent investors have roughly doubled their offshore investment, curbing growth at Brazil’s wealth management firms. Scandal, recession and weak oil prices have caused economic vitality to seep out of Brazil. Now the money is following. Wealthy Brazilians are sending more of their assets overseas because of concerns about… – Continue reading
U.S. agricultural and crop chemicals giant Monsanto (MON) could shift its headquarters to Europe in a tax-savings strategy if the company succeeds in its $45 billion unsolicited bid to merge with rival Swiss rival Syngenta. Details of the tentative plan came Monday as Syngenta reiterated its opposition to the transaction,… – Continue reading
08/06/2015 – Pushing forward efforts to boost transparency in international tax matters, the OECD today released a package of measures for the implementation of a new Country-by-Country Reporting plan developed under the OECD/G20 BEPS Project. The Country-by-Country Reporting Implementation Package will facilitate a consistent and swift implementation of new transfer… – Continue reading
OVERSEAS investment by Thai companies has been surging in recent years and this trend is almost certain to continue. One of the questions frequently asked by Thai investors when seeking to acquire foreign operating companies or establish overseas subsidiaries is what type of funding structure would be the most tax… – Continue reading
On 20 May 2015, the European Parliament increased the hunt for tax evaders, money launderers and terror financiers by adopting the fourth instalment of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (“AMLD”). The main novelty of the new directive is the introduction of a central UBO-register, a public register which identifies the ultimate… – Continue reading
Where a foreign company renders professional services to a South African company, it is important that the foreign entity considers whether, as a result of rendering such services, the foreign company will create a permanent establishment in South Africa. The reason why this becomes important is that where a foreign… – Continue reading
OECD propose country-by-country reports on their financial affairs Proposed new obligations on multinationals to produce country-by-country reports on their financial affairs will have a “massive impact” on them, a leading member of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation has said. Pascal Saint-Amans , director of the Center for Tax… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has adopted a dispatch on the Corporate Tax Reform Act III (CTR III), a package of reforms it said will strengthen the country as a business location and ensure companies make an appropriate tax contribution. The Council agreed on the parameters of the CTR III on… – Continue reading
June 8 – With the international spotlight focused on corruption and money-laundering at FIFA and doping claims in athletics, the Qatar-based International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) is laying on a specialist session in Geneva in September to explore how sport, governments and the wider stakeholder community can tackle the… – Continue reading
