Tax directors at many organizations anticipate their companies will grow by entering into new domestic and international markets in the years ahead, according to a new survey by BDO USA. In a sign of an improving economy, 50 percent of the 100 tax directors at $1billion-plus public companies surveyed by… – Continue reading
As the above title indicates (it is only a modest exaggeration), the Treasury Greenbook regarding the FY 2016 budget proposes a radical restructuring of the system for U.S. taxation of foreign income of U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs). Some Congressional players have suggested that these proposals are an opening bid in… – Continue reading
It’s not just fatcats feeling the pain of FATCA Tax Day is particularly bittersweet for the estimated 7-8 million American citizens living outside the United States. Not necessarily because they have to pay taxes, but that they have to deliver microscopic filings of all their overseas bank accounts and financial… – Continue reading
Introduction Soft commodity prices, divergent monetary policies across major economies, high unemployment rates and weak world trade have all conspired to slow down global economic recovery over the past seven years. Consequently, governments have had to cut spending as future revenues remain uncertain. This has led governments to look for… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: India’s syndicated loan borrowing in overseas markets has collapsed in the January-March quarter as Indian companies have taken the bond route to fund their expansions, and investments are yet to pick up. Loans denominated in US dollar, Japanese yen or euro dropped 75 per cent year-on-year. India G3 syndicated… – Continue reading
New Delhi, April 15 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that while the tax authorities could move under the law to raise tax claims against Vodafone, in another case involving the de-merger of its towers business, the assets transfer, as such, cannot be blocked. The apex court bench of… – Continue reading
April 14 — When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. companies are now at least partially exempt from the… – Continue reading
Increased mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals space has been a boon for healthcare-heavy Israel exchange traded funds. Year-to-date, the Market Vectors Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA) and the iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EIS) are up an average of 11.6%, an advantage of 260 basis points over the MSCI… – Continue reading
Beijing enlists seven firms, including PwC, to investigate projects and holdings this year Beijing has appointed seven audit companies, including international firm PwC, to look into the overseas assets of major state-owned enterprises as it tightens the reins on the business giants. The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac)… – Continue reading
The Labour party call for stripping non-domiciled UK residents of tax privileges has gone down well with people at large April 15, 2015: In January 1799, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger brought in a 10 per cent tax on income for Britons for the first time, as part… – Continue reading
Increased mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals space has been a boon for healthcare-heavy Israel exchange traded funds. Year-to-date, the Market Vectors Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA) and the iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EIS) are up an average of 11.6%, an advantage of 260 basis points over the MSCI… – Continue reading
Sometimes compliance realities outpace enforcement and regulatory requirements. When it comes to FinCEN’s proposal to implement a beneficial ownership rule for financial institutions (see Here), global financial institutions do not need to worry about the outcome of the FinCEN regulations. Global financial institutions already have to know their (your) customer… – Continue reading
Guernsey’s fiduciary sector was represented at a prominent international estate planning conference in the United States. Three representatives of Trust Corporation International attended the 11th annual International Estate Planning Institute event in Times Square, New York, where the firm was also a gold sponsor. A distinguished panel of experts debated… – Continue reading
Everyone’s “favorite” day of the year is less than 24 hours away – Tax Day. And the big question is: Have you filed your return yet? (If you haven’t, stop reading this and go take care of that. This will still be here when you’re done.) By now, most people… – Continue reading
As the saying goes, there are two certainties in an uncertain world: death and taxes. The corporate world, while unable to eliminate the former, is doing everything in its considerable power to eliminate the latter. As recent developments over the past couple of years show, transnationals are determined to not… – Continue reading
EU’s Highest Court Rules on Information Exchange On 19 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a significant judgment on the application of EU competition law to information exchange between competitors. The case was an appeal from the European Commission’s 2008 decision to fine banana importers Dole,… – Continue reading
Washington, D.C. – As tax day approaches, it’s important to remember that small businesses end up picking up the tab for offshore tax loopholes used by many large multinational corporations. U.S. PIRG joined Senator Bernie Sanders, Bryan McGannon of the American Sustainable Business Council, and Bob McIntyre of Citizens for… – Continue reading
Duncan Card believes that his new law firm will be instrumental in attracting foreign investment to the Island. Bennett Jones (Bermuda) Ltd, which practises in association with the Canadian law firm of the same name, will be led by managing principal Mr Card, a Bermudian who has returned with his… – Continue reading
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) drops a bomb on corporations who are dodging taxes by hiding money overseas by introducing new legislation that will force tax dodgers to pay their fair share. Here is part of what The Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act of 2015 would do: 1. Ending the rule… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has reminded American citizens and resident aliens, including those with dual citizenship, who have lived or worked abroad during all or part of 2014 that they may have a US tax liability and a filing requirement in 2015. The agency pointed out that a filing… – Continue reading
PARAMUS, N.J., April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Broadscope Fund Administrators, an independent private equity fund administration firm, released a white paper outlining key US FATCA and UK FATCA reporting and registration deadlines for Cayman Islands private equity firms. The paper, US and UK FATCA Reporting Obligations for Cayman Islands Domiciled… – Continue reading
Research by the Guardian and the Tax Justice Network reveals 28 English clubs with substantial shareholdings overseas, opening up the football leagues to criticism for allowing ownership structures that could be used for tax avoidance Almost one in three of the 92 Premier and Football League clubs are now substantially… – Continue reading
Analysts upbeat on the company’s standalone prospects The recent share price performance of Shire Plc (LON:SHP), the London-listed drugmaker left at the altar by US pharma giant AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last year, suggests that the company will continue to thrive on its own, a view supported by recent analyst comments on… – Continue reading
When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the corporate income tax…. – Continue reading
– Rising Cost of Compliance Within The Tax And Financial Regulatory Environment Creates Opportunities For Increased Efficiency – CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As the economy continues to accelerate, many organizations plan to grow by entering into new markets in the years ahead, reveals the first ever BDO USA, LLP Tax Outlook Survey. Fifty… – Continue reading
1. NON-TAX ISSUES 1.1 Domestic law 1.1.1 Briefly describe your legal system and its origins Canada is a federal state, with legislative powers divided between the federal and provincial governments. The federal government has legislative jurisdiction over issues concerning Canada as a whole, including foreign affairs, international trade, banking, telecommunications,… – Continue reading
The Revenue Office will take steps to tax social networking sites and implement other regulations related to e-commerce. After the implementation of this regulation, all such virtual sites will be deemed as “work places” and the advertisers of social networking sites will also be deemed as “electronic tax payers.” Moreover,… – Continue reading
His softball sentence of two years probation ended five years ago. But billionaire real estate developer Igor Olenicoff still can’t put behind him his December 2007 guilty plea to lying on his federal tax return about some $200 million he kept offshore. For that, he can blame his own litigiousness… – Continue reading
Every year, corporations and wealthy individuals use complicated gimmicks to shift U.S. earnings to subsidiaries in offshore tax havens – countries with minimal or no taxes – in order to reduce their federal and state income tax liabilities by billions of dollars. While tax haven abusers benefit from America’s markets,… – Continue reading
[JURIST] A Milan court declared on Tuesday that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile, JURIST news archive] has fully served his sentence for tax fraud and will now be permitted to travel out of the country. Berlusconi was found guilty of tax fraud [JURIST report] in 2012 and… – Continue reading
The Minister of Finance for Luxembourg says his country – labelled by critics as a tax haven for multinational corporations – is committed to sweeping international tax reforms being pushed by the G20 and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as long as they create a “level playing field.”… – Continue reading
A crackdown on alleged tax abuses by private equity managers has been drawn up by Labour as part of a £7.5bn plan to “come down hard on tax avoidance and evasion”, reports the Financial Times. The party said it would “re-write the rules that allow private equity managers to get… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone Authority (UAQ FTZ). This agreement has been signed to ensure international standards of transparency in the exchange of information for tax purposes, as per Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)… – Continue reading
This is relevant mainly for (1) Hong Kong companies or investment funds selling securities in Chinese listed companies and (2) ship or aircraft leasing companies resident in Hong Kong who (finance) lease vessels and aircraft to lessees in mainland China. On 1 April 2015, Hong Kong and mainland China signed… – Continue reading
The European Commission has announced a package of measures aimed at increasing tax transparency between Member States. The central focus of the measures is the automatic exchange of cross-border tax rulings given by tax authorities. Under current rules, Member States are obliged to provide details on their tax rulings to… – Continue reading
In recent years, the State Administration of Taxes (“SAT”) has paid closer attention to fees resident enterprises pay their overseas related parties, concerned that multinational groups have shifted profits away from China through aggressive tax planning and by paying unreasonable service fees and royalties overseas. Following PRC’s active participation in… – Continue reading
Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, HDFC Bank and many others have signed up for space in Gujarat’s International Finance Tec-City (also known as Gift City). In fact, banks are expected to be the first to kick off operations in 2016/17, when the International… – Continue reading
The ‘Green Governor’ has a reputation for innovative thinking and problem solving. He is renowned for his support of the agriculture sector and his focus on SME as well as green banking. As one of the most progressive and well-respected Central Bank Governors in the world, United World discusses Bangladesh’s… – Continue reading
Historically taxpayers have faced difficulty overcoming a presumption against a change in domicile to a foreign jurisdiction. Intellectual property generally will be the most valuable asset held by technology companies and, in fact, many other business entities across all sectors of the economy. A recent analysis of S&P 500 companies… – Continue reading
Shift a rock in the garden and the insects underneath will scurry away to cover. Only the foolish or desperate stand their ground, ready to take you on. So when a Senate committee decided to probe the tax arrangements of some multinationals last week, and they fought back, it was… – Continue reading
International and local experts discuss best judicial solutions for intellectual property and money laundering crimes UAE – Dubai Judicial Institute (DJI), in partnership with the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) of the U.S. Department of Justice, held a special joint workshop designed to raise more awareness… – Continue reading
Ahead of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) return deadline of 31 May, two recent updates have changed the reporting criteria. UK financial institutions are no longer required to file nil returns Following a recent clarification from the US Internal Revenue Service(IRS) – see question C19 – HMRC has… – Continue reading
Offshore investment entities in the Cayman Islands and many other international financial centers should now start turning their attention to compliance with the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) promulgated by GATCA – Global FATCA. They must document all account holders existing on December 31, 2015, with the exception of entities with… – Continue reading
Jury selection began today in federal court in New Orleans for the trial of Seven Arts Entertainment founder Peter Hoffman and two others accused of defrauding Louisiana’s film incentive program. Hoffman, his ex-wife and producer Susan Hoffman, and actor and film producer Michael Arata were indicted last year for conspiring… – Continue reading
Who Will Be Next? How To Respond To A Tax Investigation The international political community continues to make the most threatening noises about those who they believe do not pay enough tax. Long gone it seems are the days where it was accepted that a person could properly organise his… – Continue reading
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) is returning to the catastrophe bond market, as expected, with its largest transaction to date, a proposed $450m two tranche Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1) offering. TWIA had always been planning to include a catastrophe bond within its 2015 reinsurance renewal, as long as… – Continue reading
In the five years since the eurozone crisis exploded, the European Union has adopted a great number of measures to improve its fiscal governance. Yet amazingly, it still does not have a robust, harmonized way of measuring and monitoring the financial activities of its member states, reports the Wall Street… – Continue reading
The list of international financial institutions signing up to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is still growing. Another 3,734 registered as FATCA compliant during March, taking the total number to 160,010 from 227 financial jurisdictions – up from 156,276 in February. Every organisation listed has… – Continue reading
It has become increasingly fashionable to compare the results of Greece and the Baltic States’ response to the financial crisis of 2008, most recently last month with the Financial Times’ column with John Dizard. This, however, is a classic textbook case of comparing apples to oranges. Greece’s crisis was chiefly… – Continue reading
A new watchdog team of the revenue authority is ready to start operation to check transfer mispricing by the multinational companies (MNCs) on their tax returns as such trick is allegedly used in underhand cross-border transactions. The revenue board recently completed appointment of officials for enforcing the measure. It was… – Continue reading
