Jan 19 (Reuters) – Chinese companies that have borrowed heavily in dollars face sharply higher currency hedging costs at a time when the yuan’s rising volatility means they need to hedge more. The yuan unexpectedly weakened 2.4 percent against the dollar in 2014, its first significant loss since the landmark… – Continue reading
In the world of offshore asset protection and personal finance, you regularly come across the claim that there are only two countries that actively tax their residents’ worldwide income: the United States and Eritrea. All other countries only tax income earned at home. That’s apparently no longer true. It turns… – Continue reading
Amazon made its bones avoiding taxes, and its tax history could bear on its current EU troubles. Amazon got bigger and more nimble than anyone else by betting on America’s love of tax avoidance.By edging the competition with no sales tax, Amazon grew to become the poster child of sales… – Continue reading
In May of 2014, financial firm Credit Suisse AG pled guilty to serious criminal charges. The giant bank aided and assisted approximately 22,000 wealthy U.S. taxpayers (whose names Credit Suisse AG escaped having to send to the Justice Department for law enforcement) for over a decade in filing false income… – Continue reading
We commissioners have vowed to clamp down on evasion and fraud to make sure all companies pay their fair share 2014 was the year the world discovered there is no whisky in a double Irish and no cheese in a Dutch sandwich. Discussions about fair taxation and tax avoidance featured… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. Luxembourg’s unorthodox tax deal with Amazon was laid bare by European Commission investigators on Friday, who believe it artificially lowered and “capped” the online retailer’s tax bill,… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
Wisconsin’s Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin reintroduced legislation this week to implement the “Buffett Rule” as part of a tax fairness package. Baldwin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, introduced a bill that would require multi-million-dollar earners to pay at least 30 percent effective federal tax rate. It would generate an… – Continue reading
The debate of the last couple of years about corporation tax in Europe resembles a popular ‘whodunnit’: point at an obvious suspect before realising that things are not as they seem. The storyline is still being written, but it risks taking a shortcut by identifying some politically convenient suspects, without… – Continue reading
House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., this week jumpstarted the sputtering effort to allow states to collect sales taxes on sales by out-of-state, mostly Internet-based, sellers. Known as “home rule and revenue return,” his plan would allow Internet purchases to be taxed – but at the rate established by… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
The Greens/EFA group has succeeded in its bid to set up a special enquiry committee into tax evasion and dumping, after gaining the support of over 25 per cent of MEPs, as required by parliament rules. This comes on top of an enquiry report currently being drafted by parliament’s economic… – Continue reading
The US IRS system being launched for Fatca compliance filing places new demands on firms seeking to comply with the foreign tax withholding law. Will the new system prove workable? The launch by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this week of its International Data Exchange Service (IDES) seems intended… – Continue reading
An update on the state of global wealth planning and reporting I recently sat down for a brief chat at our booth with Joan Crain, Senior Director and Wealth Strategist at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, and she had some interesting perspectives to share on global wealth planning in light of… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has reaffirmed its active engagement in the second phase of the G20 / Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project while underscoring the importance of a coordinated and consistent approach to tax law changes. ICC continues to… – Continue reading
On Jan. 13, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act. The bill would eliminate incentives for U.S. companies to shift jobs overseas, close offshore loopholes to ensure corporations are paying their fair share in taxes, and change rules on corporate inversions…. – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) information exchange network has gone live and is receiving the first reports on the financial affairs of US taxpayers. The online network links tax authorities in 110 countries and more than 145,000 financial institutions with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Financial institutions outside… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry has proposed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act 2010, in order to further improve it in lines with suggestions of the stakeholders regarding the anti-money laundering efforts and the Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regime. A well-placed source at the Finance Ministry told Customs… – Continue reading
North York pharmaceutical company Dalton Pharma Services is expanding its operations with help from Ottawa. The contract manufacturing and drug development research company is receiving more than $2 million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). The company itself is putting in an additional $6.3 million… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3e5cbbfa-9bff-11e4-b6cc-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3OtSPx5Gf The European Parliament is poised to launch a full inquiry into sweetheart… – Continue reading
He was known to authorities as Brazil’s black-market central banker, a career criminal who smuggled cash for the rich and powerful by private jet and armored car. Now Alberto Youssef — a rum-runner turned money-launderer turned reputed billionaire — has emerged as a principal player in the biggest corruption scandal… – Continue reading
The European Parliament’s Green Party cleared the first legal hurdle in its push for a probe of tax evasion in the wake of revelations about hundreds of sweetheart deals for companies in Luxembourg. The proposal gathered the backing of more than the required 188 EU lawmakers in order to seek… – Continue reading
Potential impact on American citizens and Israeli citizens living in the United States should not be ignored January 14, 2015, St. Louis, Missouri…A historic agreement between Israel’s second-largest bank and the United States government could lead to substantial financial penalties or even potential criminal prosecution for United States citizens and… – Continue reading
Earlier this month, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) released revised transfer pricing guidelines, providing a better defined view of how the IRAS will handle transfer pricing matters. IRAS has explicitly noted that the arm’s length principle should be applied on a transaction-by-transaction basis, which suggests that each transaction… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has opened the International Data Exchange Service (IDES) for enrollment. Financial institutions and host country tax authorities will use IDES to securely send their information reports on financial accounts held by U.S. persons to the IRS under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) or pursuant… – Continue reading
If you want to abandon “lawful permanent resident” status, or if you want to rely on a treaty tie-breaker to claim nonresident status, you need to take some affirmative steps. Unfortunately, the taxpayer in Gerd Topsnik v. Commissioner1 did not do so. The taxpayer, a German citizen, applied for and… – Continue reading
OFFSHORE property funds should outpace most local property funds in terms of capital growth this year. Many developed countries’ property markets are offering developers low interest rates amid increasing economic growth, while SA is expected to struggle to grow and a number of property funds here will be beset with… – Continue reading
In the light of the recent revelations about Luxembourg tax avoidance schemes for multinational corporations, a quarter of the European Parliament on Wednesday (14 January) backed the Greens’ proposal to set up a full inquiry committee on tax evasion and dumping. Managing to get the required support of 188 MEPs… – Continue reading
It explains how recent amendments to the Singapore-UAE Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement will translate to more savings for UAE tax residents when they fund Singapore companies. Singapore (PRWEB) January 14, 2015 With the recent signing of the protocol to amend and improve the Singapore-UAE Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Top officials from IT, BPO and eCommerce sectors today requested Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to address certain issues related to taxation in the Budget 2015-16, and provide incentives for setting up data centres in the country. They also suggested that the minister look at ways to help in… – Continue reading
THE taxman has checked up on more than 3000 of the super rich it says dodged more than $1.3 billion in tax last year. So far, it says it has recouped half that money. The Australian Taxation Office said that in 2013-14 it did compliance checks on 2440 of the… – Continue reading
Under Kazakhstan law, generally, both resident and non-resident legal entities may own shares in a Kazakhstan bank. National Bank Pre-Transaction Consent. Generally, there are two thresholds entailing the necessity to obtain the National Bank of Kazakhstan (the ‘NBK’) (financial regulator) pre-transaction consent: (i) “large participant”, whereby an entity controls ≥10%… – Continue reading
With foreign investment, energy security and strategic partnerships at the top of his agenda, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi criss-crossed eight countries, including the US, Australia, Japan and Nepal, meeting more than 40 international leaders in the first six months of his tenure. Mr Modi is riding high on… – Continue reading
Yesterday, the US Taxation Office (IRS) announced the International Data Exchange Service. If you’ve not heard of it, it’s is an outgrowth of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires every single bank in the world to get in bed with IRS to share information about customers. We’ve… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) -– So how did the previously obscure term tax inversions become part of Washington parlance, fodder for the next presidential campaign and the issue that helped derail a U.S. Treasury nominee? Thank, or blame, depending on your perspective, cutting-edge tax lawyers, populist Democrats, a banana seller, a drugmaker, a… – Continue reading
Banks are taking steps to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreement signed between Cyprus and the USA, the Bank Association said on Wednesday. Cyprus and the US signed the agreement in December and the deal was ratified by Parliament. FATCA aims to combat tax evasion… – Continue reading
Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão said in December he would ask Revenu Québec to look into whether Bombardier Inc. used Luxembourg as a way to avoid paying provincial taxes. What he didn’t say was that the results of those inquiries would remain secret. Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists discovered… – Continue reading
The Department of Finance is understood to be “open-minded” over what rate should be applied to its proposed ‘knowledge box’ tax regime for patents and intellectual property assets developed here. The department yesterday formally launched its planned consultation process for the programme, which was announced in October’s Budget. There has… – Continue reading
The National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson is a strong and vocal advocate for taxpayer rights. Her annual report to Congress castigates the IRS for its unfair application of offshore account penalties, and its disparate treatment of innocent Americans caught in reporting snafus. Some of the report asks the IRS to… – Continue reading
The Government has unveiled a three-month public consultation on the proposed Knowledge Development Box, with submissions invited from businesses and the wider public. The proposed scheme, also known as a patent box, was announced in the Budget and is due to come into force next year. It will provide for… – Continue reading
While Chinese officials aren’t required to disclose their assets publicly, citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $US1 trillion and $US4 trillion in untraced assets have left… – Continue reading
Ireland: The Department of Finance will publish a consultation document Wednesday on the proposed ‘knowledge box’ patent tax regime that will be enacted in replacement of the Double Dutch tax avoidance scheme. Late last year Department officials hinted that a 5% rate was under discussion to match the Dutch rate…. – Continue reading
On October 14 2014, Ireland’s Minister for Finance (the Minister) announced changes to Ireland’s corporate residence rules. Following much speculation, the Minister confirmed that Ireland would change its rules to restrict the ability of Irish incorporated companies to be treated as non-Irish resident. Under existing Irish law, an Irish incorporated… – Continue reading
Outlook A missive from Amazon drops into my inbox. The retailer, tech giant, delivery drone developer and candidate to replace Spectre in the next Bond movie, wants to trumpet the thousands of new jobs it created last year. Six thousand, in case you were interested, and apparently that is the… – Continue reading
Top officials from IT, BPO and eCommerce sectors today requested Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to address certain issues related to taxation in the Budget 2015-16, and provide incentives for setting up data centres in the country. They also suggested that the minister look at ways to help in growth of… – Continue reading
On 6th January 2015, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (“IRAS”) released revised transfer pricing guidelines, providing a better defined view of how the IRAS will handle transfer pricing matters. These guidelines call for taxpayers to prepare and maintain contemporary transfer pricing documentation. In addition, they specify thresholds for related… – Continue reading
* Bonds up around seven points * Kaisa missed bond coupon payment last week * Case could be test of China’s bankruptcy law (Adds comments, updates price) By Umesh Desai HONG KONG, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Bonds issued by Kaisa Group rose sharply on Tuesday after the embattled Chinese property… – Continue reading
The Chamber of Commerce believes the new regime will have an adverse effect on the recently recovering property market The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry has expressed its strong disagreement with the new Property Tax announced by Government in the Budget for 2015. The new regime, it says,… – Continue reading
PROVIDENCE — With tax reform one issue that congressional Republicans and Democrats might agree on this year, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse announced Monday his plans to introduce three bills aimed at making the super rich pay more through a “fairer” tax system and closing loopholes that allow some corporations to… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has introduced an International Data Exchange Service that financial institutions and tax authorities in other countries will use to report tax information under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. Financial institutions and host country tax authorities will use IDES to securely send their information… – Continue reading
