France charged UBS with tax fraud on Wednesday for allegedly helping French clients hide money in Switzerland, judicial sources said. The Swiss bank is also suspected of using dual accounts to hide the flow of capital into Switzerland. The judicial source said the charges relate to money kept in accounts… – Continue reading
BOSTON (CBS) – The real estate market has been busy this year. And if you sold your house this spring or have it on the market you may get a tax break when you sell your home. If your home has been your primary residence for two of the last… – Continue reading
The OECD is looking at closing tax loopholes which allow some companies to legally pay little or no tax. The proposed changes to the international tax regime must continue to allow a company to be incorporated in Ireland but not pay tax here if its tax home is covered by… – Continue reading
The U.S. Senate will proceed to debate a bill ending tax advantages for companies that move jobs abroad and giving a tax break for companies moving jobs back. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley says that’s progress, given that a similar move two years ago failed to reach the 60-vote threshold required…. – Continue reading
U.S. tax law intended to nab billionaires who hide money in tax shelters is terrorizing middle-class dual citizens with no income south of the border Like many people in Canada who still have American citizenship, Pat is both scared and angry. The semi-retired suburban Vancouver woman is trying to relinquish… – Continue reading
The OECD, a club of rich countries, has done well to unveil a single global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information to combat money-laundering and tax evasion. The new common standard will override banking secrecy. It mandates banks, brokers and fund houses to collect information from their clients… – Continue reading
Canada and the UK on July 21, 2014, signed a protocol to their Double Tax Agreement that amends its withholding tax and information exchange provisions. The Protocol includes an exemption from withholding tax for payments of interest made in respect of loans between persons at arm’s length. The headline withholding… – Continue reading
Taxes charged by governments are a lot like consumer prices charged by retailers. The more you raise the price, the less money you actually bring in as shoppers learn to find better deals elsewhere. This is precisely what many American corporations are doing, shopping around for better tax rates in… – Continue reading
As reported in Clyde & Co’s 2011 article titled ‘Chinese charterers deducting taxes from hire payments’ (click here to view), foreign vessel owners engaged in business with Chinese charterers have long faced China’s Enterprise Income Tax regime (“EIT”). That regime looks set to extend further into the international transportation sector… – Continue reading
EFG International AG (EFGN), the Swiss bank controlled by billionaire Spiro Latsis and his family, said it set aside 21.4 million Swiss francs ($24 million) to pay a penalty to U.S. authorities probing tax evasion. That amount represents EFG’s “best estimate of the final cost of the penalty,” the Zurich-based… – Continue reading
The county Department of Finance is taking a dim view of a proposal by Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille to give some homeowners a bigger tax break on their primary residence. Wille, at a meeting Monday of the Real Property Tax Stakeholder’s Task Force, said she wanted to increase the base… – Continue reading
Watching big pharmaceutical companies and other major U.S. corporations line up to make foreign acquisitions that will bring them a low-tax haven as headquarters, a middle market CEO/owner/entrepreneur could easily become jealous. Are you feeling stuck with an effective tax rate of 25%, 30% or even 35%? For the likes… – Continue reading
World banking giants Barclays and Deutsche Bank have been accused by the US of helping more than a dozen hedge funds in tax evasion. Addressing a news conference, US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chairman Carl Levin said the banks sold complex option products to Renaissance Technology that saved them… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said it is effectively using the information received from various countries to combat the menace of tax evasion and avoidance. “Effectively utilising the information received from treaty partners to combat tax evasion and avoidance,” Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said in a… – Continue reading
On June 30, the United States and Israel signed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) regarding FAT CA. FAT CA became effective in the US and other countries on July 1 and will officially take effect in Israel once the Knesset passes enabling legislation. But the Bank of Israel has already instructed… – Continue reading
In the latest moves towards implementation of the FATCA Intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) signed by the BVI with the US and the UK, the BVI Government has released draft Guidance Notes for public consultation. A copy can be accessed from the Ministry of Finance website. The draft Guidance Notes have been… – Continue reading
More than half a billion pounds is set to be wasted this year in inheritance tax as individuals fail to place their life protection policies “under trust”. The figure, which is up £58m on last year, was revealed in research by unbiased.co.uk, which also found that only a quarter of consumers… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce, in a policy statement on July 15, 2014, has advised countries not to adopt exit taxes, to ensure that double taxation is avoided and to promote the free movement of capital. In its statement, entitled “Exit taxes: Serious obstacles for international business restructurings and movements… – Continue reading
The corporate inversion trend tells us that global tax competition is intense and that U.S. tax reform is long overdue. Our combined federal-state corporate tax rate of 40 percent is far higher than the rates of our trading partners. Inversions are a bid by companies to create self-help tax reform… – Continue reading
We feel the blush of confidence that wealthy celebrities who invested in film funding schemes were on the wrong side of it othing quite tickles our appetite for indignation like seeing a fresh bunch of famouses named and shamed in the Sunday papers for their involvement in a possible tax… – Continue reading
FATCA was implemented worldwide at the beginning of this month, but the impact (and costs) are only now just beginning to filter through to the financial services community. Part of the US Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE), FATCA aims to ensure Americans, wherever they are and whatever investments… – Continue reading
New Delhi/Paris: In a major development in the fight against black money, multilateral grouping OECD Monday unveiled a ‘single global standard’ for automatic exchange of financial account information by various countries including India and Switzerland.The new framework, to be presented before a meeting of G-20 finance ministers in September, would… – Continue reading
lter Domus Improves Client On-boarding with Adoption of Thomson Reuters FATCA Solution Thomson Reuters FATCA solution helps Alter Domus clients comply with regulatory requirements and provides competitive advantage NEW YORK/LUXEMBOURG, July 21, 2014 – Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced that… – Continue reading
The Board of Airline Representatives in Pakistan (BARIP), Karachi has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to exempt certain categories of international passengers/travellers from payment of four percent withholding tax that include infants, transit passengers, diplomats, airline staff/supernumerary crew and Hajis from July 1, 2014-15. In a latest communication to… – Continue reading
Governments across the world have collected more than €37bn of tax from secret offshore accounts since 2009, it emerged on Monday as new details were unveiled of the next phase of the global crackdown on tax evasion. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published its global standard for automatic… – Continue reading
More than half a billion pounds is set to be wasted this year in inheritance tax as individuals fail to place their life protection policies “under trust”. The figure, which is up £58m on last year, was revealed in research by unbiased.co.uk, which also found that only a quarter of consumers… – Continue reading
Commissioners have yet to decide how much will be exempt from the tax. Officials in Lower Macungie for months have talked about their desire to give a break to people who pay taxes on residential properties. It’s looking more likely that will happen in 2015. Township commissioners last week continued… – Continue reading
Switzerland is a great place to hide stuff, and its latest secret could be the biggest yet. Hitler loved to hide gold he plundered inside of Swiss vaults. In fact, it’s estimated that 100 tons of Nazi gold was laundered through Switzerland. After World War II ended, Switzerland repositioned itself… – Continue reading
InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS Majority of the local stock brokerages have remained outside the US-mandated reportorial compliance among foreign financial institutions, a worldwide campaign designed to flush out hidden overseas wealth and minimize tax abuse among Americans and green card holders through offshore accounts. A total of 178 Philippine-based financial firms,… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands dominates the offshore world, but can it maintain its leading position? The Cayman Islands is the quintessential offshore jurisdiction. Tax-neutral, with a government and financial regulator keen to keep up with the latest developments in the financial services sector, Cayman has ridden out the financial crisis and… – Continue reading
Government plans to establish a tax haven that will encourage wealthy corporations to move their operations to Macedonia have won a mixed response.Financial experts have broadly welcomed plans by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to set up tax havens on the ground that they will boost employment in the financial and… – Continue reading
Two important dates have now passed in relation to Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA“) – 30 June 2014 when Financial Institutions were required to capture details of their existing customers for remediation purposes and 1 July 2014 when Financial Institutions were required to have procedures in place which would… – Continue reading
Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) plans to allow the sale of offshore structured products linked to China’s securities and stock indexes on the island as early in late July and no later than the end of this year, our sister paper Taipei’s Want Daily reports, citing FSC chairperson William Tseng…. – Continue reading
Canada Revenue Agency says Metlege collected $110,077 in HST from tenants, but didn’t report it One of the most prominent commercial developers in Halifax has been fined $82,544 for income tax evasion. Anthony Joseph Metlege, also known as Tony Metlege Jr., was issued the fine Thursday in Halifax Provincial Court… – Continue reading
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Charleston County has hired an outside company to help it track down tax dodgers. The Post and Courier of Charleston reports (http://bit.ly/1nNzgzG ) that officials think hundreds of millions of dollars of property in the county may be undertaxed. That’s because some people may be claiming… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The FBR is seeking extraordinary powers to access private bank accounts of citizens, apparently to catch tax dodgers, locate assets beyond means, sources of funds, detect foreign travels and raise revenue for the government. For the purpose, the FBR has recommended that its intelligence wing be allowed to perform… – Continue reading
Fallout from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Almost 80 percent of Americans living abroad are considering relinquishing their U.S. citizenship to escape the consequences of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, according to deVere Group. That represents an increase of 11 points since last year. The Foreign Account Tax… – Continue reading
Many Expect to Assume More Responsibility for Documentation and Files PR Newswire NEW YORK, July 17, 2014 NEW YORK, July 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Most companies involved with transfer pricing believe that a streamlined audit process will be the greatest benefit resulting from the new Transfer Pricing Audit Roadmap developed by the Internal Revenue Service… – Continue reading
Technically, merging and reincorporating abroad to avoid taxes is called an inversion. Bluntly, it’s called a disgrace. U.S. companies should push for tax reform rather than departing on paper and handing their tax burden to American taxpayers. The latest to seek refuge from Uncle Sam is Salix Pharmaceuticals of Raleigh,… – Continue reading
Andrew Mitchell, who was at the centre of the Plebgate affair, is said to have invested in a film scheme which HMRC considers a tax avoidance programme Andrew Mitchell, a former cabinet minister, has been identified as having invested in a film finance company which has been declared as a… – Continue reading
(CNN) — Some of the world’s most well-known companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Boots and Starbucks have become successful partly by convincing us through their products that their corporate values align with consumers’ personal values. But what happens when these companies behave in ways that seem to betray our trust?… – Continue reading
FTSE 100 companies have had to increase the amount of money they set aside to cover the cost of tax disputes and litigation by an additional £139m taking provisions for tax disputes to £2.39bn in the last year – up from £2.25bn in the previous year, reveals Thomson Reuters legal… – Continue reading
Notwithstanding (read: Because of) certain free-airfare offers on the part of the Department of Justice! A former Swiss banker and top UBS AG executive slated to go on trial for allegedly aiding U.S. tax evasion has asked that witnesses too spooked to step foot in America be able to testify… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs has recovered £135m from 24,000 clients named on a list of HSBC’s Swiss private banking operation, which were revealed in a leak by a former employee. Lin Homer, chief executive of HMRC, told a hearing at the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last night that… – Continue reading
British Columbia’s securities regulator is funnelling more resources into a crackdown on suspicious trading activity coming from offshore bank accounts in “secrecy” jurisdictions, saying the accounts often belong to locals who are hiding their identities. Lang Evans, manager of special investigations at the British Columbia Securities Commission, is heading a… – Continue reading
The taxman has doubled collections from property developers and landlords in the fiscal year ended June 30, as efforts targeting the sector’s tax avoidance yield result. The Kenya Revenue Authority yesterday said it has collected Sh2.1 billion from the sector from Sh1 billion in the previous year. KRA had accused… – Continue reading
Switzerland and Iceland have signed a new double taxation agreement (DTA) which lowers withholding tax rates and provides for the exchange of information in line with international standards. It will replace the existing DTA, signed in 1998. The treaty sets a withholding tax exemption for dividend payments from significant holdings… – Continue reading
For those living in America who have pensions saved from their time in the UK, the complexity surrounding the tax viability of transferring into a potentially highly beneficial QROPS can be slightly off-putting. Many will search the HMRC QROPS list and see 14 schemes listed in the USA. Schemes such as Kraft… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON — From abortion to electronic privacy to background checks for gun purchases, a strange thing has been happening on the floor of the House as it debates its spending bills for the coming fiscal year: the stirrings of liberalism. The House on Thursday voted 221 to 200 to approve… – Continue reading
The BVI Government has signed a Model 1B (non-reciprocal) Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) in relation to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), it was announced on 30 June 2014. The IGA can be accessed here. As expected the final IGA is in substantially the same form as the model agreement. There… – Continue reading
