From 1 January 2015 the list of information about clients which banks must provide to the tax authorities is expanded (Law of the Republic of Belarus of 30 December 2014 No. 224-Z). In particular, information about client bank account activity must be provided to the Belarusian tax authorities in response… – Continue reading
Date: 18-Mar-15 to 19-Mar-15 Location: The Johannesburg Country Club (Woodmead) / Johannesburg / South Africa Category: Banking, Finance & Investment Conferences & Trade Fairs In response to an increasing awareness of the importance of Mauritius, and in light of the recent DTA agreements coming into effect 1 January 2015, now… – Continue reading
Delhi HC noted while treating advertising, marketing & promotional expenses by Indian arm of an MNC as int’l transactions, ‘the exercise undertaken should not result in over- or double-taxation In a reprieve to multinational companies (MNCs) and their subsidiaries operating out of India, the Delhi High Court has laid out… – Continue reading
Towards the end of last December, the cabinet passed resolutions representing the latest attempt to turn Thailand into an attractive location in which to establish an international headquarters (IHQ). This is the third attempt in a little over a decade to lure multinational companies to Thailand. The first regional operating… – Continue reading
Irish eyes are smiling in corporate America. The Emerald Isle has emerged as the world’s top recipient of U.S. foreign direct investment, according to a report from the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland. In the first nine months of 2014, Ireland beat the likes of Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and… – Continue reading
LG, Sony, Daikin, Haier, Reebok, Canon and many such MNCs lost an important tax case in the Delhi High Court today. It’s transfer pricing dispute about the money spent by the subsidiaries of these MNCs in India in promoting and maintaining the international brand. Payaswini Upadhyay reports on this landmark… – Continue reading
In a development that will usher in relief to multinational companies and reduce litigation, the central board of direct taxes (CBDT) on Monday notified rules for implementation of roll back provisions of advance pricing agreements (APAs). The provisions for roll back of APAs were announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley… – Continue reading
Giving Northern Ireland politicians the ability to set the province’s rates of corporation tax will help boost the private sector, a minister has said. Baroness Randerson said the move would allow Northern Ireland’s economy to be “rebalanced” away from over-reliance on the public sector. Her comments came as she introduced… – Continue reading
ESPN has a great series entitled “30-for-30” where the narrator asks, “What if I told you …?” What if I told you that a state agency, charged with protecting the interests of Hoosiers actually endorsed the bid of an offshore equity fund to buy the Indiana Toll Road lease rights… – Continue reading
On March 13, 2015, New Zealand’s Minister of Revenue, Todd McClay, announced the Government’s tax policy work program for 2015/16, which includes key international tax reforms aimed primarily at countering base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). In particular, the Government intends to focus on the following areas of reforms: •… – Continue reading
As the OECD/EU project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) moves towards its next set of reports in autumn 2015, Ireland Inc.’s low tax offering has been, and will be, further refined. While the 12.5% corporate tax rate remains beyond approach both domestically and internationally, the BEPS initiative has… – Continue reading
SHANGHAI — China says it will appoint independent auditors to assess the value of overseas assets belonging to the country’s biggest state enterprises. According to a Xinhua News Agency report, the state assets department of China’s State Council (or cabinet) on Tuesday announced that accounting firms could bid for the… – Continue reading
Transactional work varies from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction with the ebb and flow of various economic cycles, but a prevailing theme across the EMEA region has been that more and more advisory firms are urging taxpayers to prepare for the impact of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) action plan. Joe… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: The Goods and Services Tax will not be imposed on rentals of commercial units below RM500,000 a year, says Najib Tun Razak. The prime minister said the government had also decided that supply services for all stratified residential houses would be GST-exempt. He said under subsection 18(2) of… – Continue reading
In 2013, STHL and its subsidiaries generated $38.6 billion in sales of crude oil, after purchasing $38.5 billion in crude and fuel products from third party and other companies from the SOCAR group. Malta has been hosting Azerbaijan’s state oil company (SOCAR) since 2007 thanks to its favourable tax regime… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE – The Government yesterday made public its response to feedback on proposed new regulations to help financial institutions here comply with a new United States law that is being imposed worldwide. The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) requires all financial institutions outside the US to regularly submit… – Continue reading
FOCUS: As charity trustees, university governing bodies have an overriding duty to act in the best interests of their institution. However, the HMRC’s hardening stance on tax planning and the current political climate could leave them treading a fine line between their desire to maximise revenue for the university’s purposes… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The European Commission will lay out plans on Wednesday designed to limit tax avoidance in the wake of recent revelations that major corporations were paying minimal state contributions across the European Union. EU members will be required to share information on cross-border tax rulings, according to a draft… – Continue reading
New Zealand has a broad-based tax system consisting principally of: income tax fringe benefit tax resident and non-resident withholding tax (RWT and NRWT) goods and services tax (GST) Accident Compensation levies import tariffs and miscellaneous excise duties, and local authority rates on property. Stamp duty, gift duty and death duties… – Continue reading
Part of the African continent, with neighboring countries such as the Reunion Islands, Madagascar and the Seychelles, is the island republic of Mauritius. Over the centuries, Mauritius has been occupied at different times by three of the world’s greatest maritime powers. Beginning in 1578, Mauritius was a Portuguese possession and… – Continue reading
Tax Regulation Number PER-01/PJ/2015, which is supposed to be effective starting this year, has triggered controversy within the banking industry. This is mainly due to the new obligation for banks to disclose details on every customer’s tax payments on deposits or savings interest. The Finance Minister needed to postpone indefinitely… – Continue reading
New tax charge A new regime which will charge non-UK tax resident owners of UK residential property to capital gains tax (CGT) is due to come into force on 6 April 2015. The draft legislation was published as part of Finance Bill 2015 on 10 December 2014, after an extensive… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Axis Bank, the country’s third-biggest private sector lender, plans to step up offshore investment banking as it aims to market bonds globally amid rising corporate India’s interest in overseas markets. The bank, which has been topping the league table on bond sales, may also tie up with some international… – 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
Switzerland has made further progress on meeting international tax compliance standards after being upgraded to phase 2 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) tax transparency review process. However, Switzerland faces a potentially tougher examination in the coming months, particularly regarding the use of stolen bank data by… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shown its support for recent fiscal reforms in Ukraine by approving a four-year funding plan. The Executive Board of the IMF has now approved a four-year extended arrangement for Ukraine, worth about USD17.5bn, approved under the Fund’s exceptional access policy. This program will replace… – Continue reading
The ongoing global initiatives around exchange of tax information and publication of beneficial ownership information, while ostensibly in pursuit of transparency, have their origins in the need for the larger, richer countries to increase tax revenues, and the perception that taxpayers are hiding assets abroad and out of the tax… – Continue reading
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has reiterated his “rock-solid” commitment to the country’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate. In a speech to the Irish Chamber of Commerce, Atlanta, Kenny said that his Government is “fully committed to pursuing policies that create the ideal conditions for enterprise and investment.” He pointed… – Continue reading
SUSRIS serves as your chronicle of developments in the Saudi-US relationship, in the Kingdom and in the region. As part of our service we archive the daily news reviews produced by the Saudi-US Trade Group and selected press clippings and other resources. You can find these archives and more on… – Continue reading
When the Obama administration changed the rules to make it harder for US companies to move their headquarters—and their taxable profits—overseas through the reverse mergers called tax inversions, it put the kibosh on at least one such deal. But now critics of the move say rules have made it easier… – Continue reading
Ireland is facing a fresh threat to its 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate, as MEPs begin investigating low rates across Europe, reports the Irish Independent. A 45-member EU Parliament Tax Inquiry Committee, formed in the wake of the Lux Leaks scandal, has been tasked with investigating various tax arrangements… – Continue reading
Rules are tangled and dispute resolution is excruciatingly slow. The government’s trying but it’s a long haul As Asia’s third-largest economy, India is a major investment destination. However, in recent years, the unpredictable tax regime has has been a major stumbling block to its potential. According to a recent World… – Continue reading
Switzerland is moving towards “greater transparency” in providing administrative assistance on tax matters, a global body today said amid India making efforts to bring back illicit funds stashed by its citizens in Swiss banks. Long perceived as a safe haven for unaccounted wealth, Switzerland has been facing international pressure to… – Continue reading
UK offshore industry trade association Oil & Gas UK has called for “urgent action” to reduce and simplify North Sea oil and gas taxation, including a double digit reduction in the Supplementary Corporation Tax on UK producers. The trade body, led by outcoming CEO Malcolm Webb, said the right action… – Continue reading
The present French Tax Update will focus on (i) certain noteworthy tax courts decisions issued in the last months of 2014 and in the first months of 2015, and (ii) the so-called projet de loi Macron (Draft Macron Law) adopted by the Assemblée Nationale in February 2015 and now discussed… – Continue reading
Court ruled in favour of the tax dept and held that market intangibles are international transactions and hence come under the transfer pricing ambit New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday brought clarity on application of transfer-pricing rules on marketing intangibles in a long-awaited judgement that will reduce disputes… – Continue reading
UPDATED, March 16, 4:10 p.m.: Offshore investors are breaking into the hotel market at a rapid rate, and despite what it may seem like from recent headlines, not all are arriving from China. The buyers – many of them hailing from Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia and Singapore – were involved in… – Continue reading
Tocqueville Asset Management founder Francois Sicart warns that hiding from the taxman is futile, but postponing taxes is profitable You can’t escape taxes, but you can gain an advantage by legally delaying their payment. That is a model that legendary investor Warren Buffet exemplifies, and it is one of several… – Continue reading
Amid a spreading climate of fear in Russia, underscored by the late February assassination of Boris Nemtsov, Russians with something to lose are increasingly trying to find safe havens abroad for their assets. The net outflow of capital from Russia reached $151.5 billion in 2014, according to statistics compiled by… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s efforts to collect taxes on American corporations’ overseas earnings that have been shielded by so-called tax inversions may have backfired, triggering a wave of foreign takeovers of American firms, according to a report published Sunday in the Financial Times. To reduce taxes on foreign earnings, corporations based… – Continue reading
Multinational tech giants Google and Facebook could soon be charged goods and services tax on advertising booked by Australian companies if a proposal flagged by federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is adopted. While multinational corporations continue to come under fire for minimising their tax bills in Australia, Turnbull has floated… – Continue reading
– The Indian financial system needs to rethink its regulatory norms The role of the banking and financial service sector (BFS) in the process of economic development has always attracted attention. The framework of the Indian financial system needs a relook if we need to ensure unhindered credit availability to… – Continue reading
The Finance Ministry on Monday notified the Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) rules governing rollback provisions in transfer pricing cases. Though the provisions were announced in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden Budget in July 2014, they could not be activated because the rules were not codified. Consultants said the move could… – Continue reading
PwC expects that UK Chancellor George Osborne’s 2015 Budget will seek to strike a balance between ensuring fiscal responsibility and enticing support from prospective voters. On March 18, Osborne will deliver the Coalition Government’s final Budget ahead of the May 7 general election. PwC pointed out that, crucially, the resultant… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service wrapped up the 2015 “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams last week with a warning to taxpayers about aggressive telephone scams continuing coast-to-coast during the early weeks of this year’s filing season. The aggressive, threatening phone calls from scam artists continue to be seen on a… – Continue reading
Center City-based Morgan Lewis, the largest law firm in the U.S. in terms of lawyers based domestically, is growing again, this time overseas. The firm said Sunday it was combining with the Stamford Law Corp., an 80-lawyer firm based in Singapore, a booming commercial hub and island nation with a… – Continue reading
Our ‘special relationship’ with the US gets forgotten when America looks at threats to the dollar’s dominance For a while now the phrase “special relationship” has sounded a touch desperate when spoken in a British accent and a tad condescending if uttered by an American. The lopsidedness of this transatlantic… – Continue reading
Rio Tinto has warned that multinational companies could be discriminated against if moves to combat tax “base erosion and profit shifting” went too far. With Australia and the other 33 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ramping up efforts to prevent multinational companies avoiding tax, Rio… – Continue reading
A group of U.S. senators is renewing a push to allow states to collect sales tax from remote retailers that don’t have a physical presence in the state, a move they say would level the playing field between online and traditional retailers. The Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the Senate… – Continue reading
THIS article continues our series on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), specifically looking at Action Plan 13, which prescribes a revised set of standards for transfer pricing (TP) documentation and a template for country-by-country reporting (CBCR) of income, earnings, taxes paid and certain measures of economic activity. Chapter V… – Continue reading
