The Australian press is incandescent with rage after it discovered that the fruit themed cargo cult Apple has worked out a way of avoiding giving billions to its taxman. Apple is already in hot water for overcharging Australians for its shiny toys and now it seems that it is refusing to pay tax…. – Continue reading
Government forecasts for the amount it can recoup through closing tax loopholes are vulnerable to “great uncertainty”, MPs have said. The Treasury Select Committee suggests these projections should be limited when drawing up budgets. Reporting on last year’s Autumn Statement, the committee said projections for some previous schemes had been… – Continue reading
Albania Government approved a new law aiming to ban money transfers between related companies in order to collect more corporate profit tax, and to fight tax avoidance from big corporations. The law, designed by International Financial Corporation, was approved by the government this week. Transfer pricing is used by companies… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Britain’s budget forecasts are in danger of becoming too reliant on hard-to-predict windfalls from the fight against tax avoidance, lawmakers said on Saturday. The government has projected that by tightening its rules to reduce legal tax avoidance the state could net 6.8 billion pounds ($11.37 billion) in new… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Amazon’s tax affairs could come under more scrutiny in Britain, tax experts said, after a judge questioned whether it really was organized in the tax efficient way it said it was. The ruling comes as big technology groups, including Amazon, face increasing scrutiny in Britain over their tax… – Continue reading
France’s 2014 Finance Act (No 2013-1278) requires that the additional amount of tax assessed by the tax authority upon the launch of a Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) must be paid in advance of an outcome. This measure was introduced by repealing Article L. 189 of the Tax Procedures Code (LPF), with effect… – Continue reading
Switzerland may no longer be a honeymoon spot for tax evaders. A new international standard of tax data sharing is set to make things harder for tax haven networks around the world that have in the past included Switzerland and tiny island nations and enclaves. But India would have to… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON – The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, has spent several years examining the ways offshore banks have aided and encouraged U.S. taxpayers in evading their responsibility to pay what they owe. By using secret bank accounts, these taxpayers conceal their income and therefore avoid paying taxes…. – Continue reading
U.S. President Barack Obama’s call on Tuesday for an end to billions of dollars in tax breaks echoes a 979-page draft reform plan last week from Dave Camp, the top Republican tax writer in the House of Representatives. Given the gridlock in Washington, neither the Democrat Obama, who included the… – Continue reading
BANGALORE: In response to the letter written by finance minister P. Chidambaram, the Swiss finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf has informed that the Swiss authorities can’t share the details of the bank accounts held by Indians in Swiss bank without the consent of the account holders, reports Economic Times. An Indian… – Continue reading
Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) compliance, and in particular anti-money laundering (“AML”) controls, remains a focus of regulators as evidenced by record fines levied in recent weeks. On February 7, 2014, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) suspended a former AML compliance officer at Brown Brothers Harriman (“BBH”) and assessed… – Continue reading
The Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will, from 1 July 2014, impose an array of new reporting obligations, especially on foreign financial institutions that serve Americans, including the need to report directly to the IRS. Leading many non-resident Americans and EU based financial firms calling for change or looking… – Continue reading
Cambodia has agreed to help the United States in its global effort to crack down on tax evasion by working with local banks to hand over financial data on US residents and business interests abroad, according to tax experts and officials. Speaking yesterday at the 17th Government-Private Sector Forum held… – Continue reading
The Canadian government is bending over backwards, and bending our laws, to allow the U.S. to enforce its new tax compliance act. Canadian visitors to Washington sometimes wonder why their embassy stands at the foot of Capitol Hill. The answer? To be close to where Canada’s laws are made. Case… – Continue reading
When a bipartisan Senate panel last week lambasted Swiss bank Credit Suisse for helping rich Americans evade billions in taxes, some watching the high-profile hearing couldn’t help but notice an elephant in the room. That is, Sen. Rand Paul. The connection? Paul for years has single-handedly blocked an obscure U.S.-Swiss… – Continue reading
The Republican Party has recently formally approved a petition to repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – the repeal comes just 5 months before the act is set to come into effect. The main sponsor of the Republic party resolution to repeal FACTA, is Solomon Yue, who is a… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The Swiss authorities have told the Indian government they will not be able to share information on bank accounts without the consent of the account-holders. In a letter last month, Switzerland’s finance minister also told her Indian counterpart that the 2011 Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, under which India… – Continue reading
Pension professionals in Gibraltar will soon be able to offer Qualifying Non-UK Pension Schemes (QNUPS) from Gibraltar. The Gibraltar Government has, in consultation with the Gibraltar Association of Pension Fund Administrators (GAPFA), worked to enable the sector to offer Gibraltar QNUPS. Discussions then took place between the Government… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann on Wednesday demanded movement in European Union tax talks with Switzerland and other non-EU countries and linked this to whether Vienna will agree to automatically exchange data on cross-border savings. His remarks to reporters after he met Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel appeared to… – Continue reading
Feb 26 (Reuters) – Luxembourg is talking to China about allowing mutual recognition of investment funds based in the two countries, a senior Luxembourg official said on Wednesday. Such an agreement would boost the European financial centre’s bid to be a major hub for the offshore renminbi, or yuan, currency,… – Continue reading
Luxembourg has been widely hailed as an international investment center for years. The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) provides a number of reasons underlying the country’s designation as a top fund-industry choice. Its legal and regulatory framework for investment funds is recognized for its excellence by the global… – Continue reading
Kevin E. Packman is a Partner in our Miami office While Israel welcomes immigrants, and even provides them with tax incentives, it is serious about ending any perceived notion that it is somehow complicit with taxes evaded by its foreign residents in their home country. As such, it plans to… – Continue reading
On February 20, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued additional final and temporary regulations (T.D. 9657)under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (FATCA) as well as new regulations (T.D. 9658) that modify the international withholding, backup withholding and information reporting rules that apply outside the scope of FATCA. FATCA generally… – Continue reading
The Russian Finance Ministry will offer companies based offshore but with operations in Russia a choice: either disclose their ultimate beneficiaries and maintain their zero tax rate, or pay taxes at the higher Russian rate. Under Russia’s current corporate tax structure, offshore beneficiaries of Russian companies are treated as de-facto… – Continue reading
The Vodafone tax issue has affected investor sentiments towards India: ABAX Corporate CEO NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 26: The Vodafone tax dispute and General Anti-Avoidance Rules have impacted investor sentiment badly. Coupled with the delay in revising the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Mauritius, fund flow from the island-nation has… – Continue reading
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has formed the much-awaited cell recently in a bid to conduct preparatory work for enforcing the transfer pricing (TP) law. The board has issued an order, ‘Transfer Pricing Cell Order-2014’ by defining nine-point work-plan for the cell. The cell will work under the supervision… – Continue reading
El Salvador’s tax authority (DGII) has published a new Form 982 for transfer pricing returns. The form can be downloaded from the tax authority’s website. The new Form 982 now includes section C, which requires information on supporting documentation about transactions with low-tax jurisdictions. Section B already required details regarding… – Continue reading
Iceland has recently enacted its own transfer pricing legislation, which became effective from January 1, 2014. Prior to that date, there were no specific transfer pricing provisions in Icelandic law. Iceland’s new transfer pricing legislation, included in Article 57 of the Income Tax Law (No 90/2003), is based on the… – Continue reading
A documentary on the working of tax havens in the context of the double taxation avoidance treaty between India and Mauritius reveals that while India may have received foreign investments due to the treaty, tax losses on its account run to the tune of tens of thousands of crores. Is it worth… – Continue reading
As noted in our previous post, the recently signed Inter-Governmental Agreement between the Canada and the U.S. relating to FATCA (the IGA) will modify the FATCA reporting obligations for Canadian financial institutions. Under the IGA, the term “Financial Institution” (or “FI”) includes custodial institutions, depository institutions, investment entities and specified insurance companies. For… – Continue reading
Authorities aren’t waiting for new reporting laws to go into effect to track down Americans who they say owe money The US needs money — and it’s willing to go to the ends of the earth, including Israel, to track down deadbeats who are evading their taxes. Israel was named… – Continue reading
The overlap of Australia’s new transfer pricing laws with the thin capitalization rules is causing challenges and likely duplication of analysis for taxpayers – particularly for the arm’s length amount-of-debt test. Australia legislated comprehensive new transfer pricing laws in 2012[i] and 2013.[ii] These laws were passed in two installments: Subdivision 815-A, dealing with… – Continue reading
March 24 –July 1 is a hard and fast deadline for implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, Internal Revenue Commissioner John Koskinen told tax practitioners. Koskinen, speaking March 24 at the Tax Executives Institute midyear conference, said the agency will be understanding when financial intermediaries that are building… – Continue reading
Switzerland must adopt a position on sharing bank client data with foreign tax authorities more quickly than originally thought and cannot hold back until all other countries have introduced the practice, its finance minister told a Swiss newspaper. So far, 42 countries have declared an interest in automatically sharing information… – Continue reading
UK Government and HMRC Crack Down on Secret Bank Account Tax Evasion. Here, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (L) chats with Osborne before the G20 round table meeting in Sydney.Reuters Britain’s government and its taxman have announced the net is closing on people who are evading tax… – Continue reading
G20 finance ministers speak loudly, mention big stick The world’s top 20 finance ministers have signalled once again that they’re sick of their taxes disappearing offshore and have signalled a strong intention to get their cash back. The ministers in question are all members of the Group of Twenty (G20)… – Continue reading
Feb 24 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are widening their probe of how Swiss banks helped wealthy Americans avoid taxes to look at insurers as well, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. Insurers in Switzerland have been preparing for months for U.S. officials to investigate products known as insurance… – Continue reading
Credit Suisse Group , Switzerland’s second biggest bank, went to great lengths to assist US customers trying to open Swiss bank accounts and evade taxes, entertaining them at a Swiss-themed ball in New York and golf tournaments in Florida and opening a branch in the Zurich airport to serve Americans… – Continue reading
Zara’s celebrity chic helps make its Spanish parent company, Inditex SA, the world’s biggest fashion retailer. Singer Taylor Swift, reality-television personality Kim Kardashian and Kate Middleton, Prince William’s wife, have all been spotted wearing the stylish, low-cost brand. Another reason for Inditex’s industry-best profit margins of almost 15 percent: the… – Continue reading
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a hearing on a crackdown on offshore tax evasion that has stalled as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG. (C:US) The hearing will focus on “the status of efforts to hold Swiss banks and their U.S. clients… – Continue reading
The G20 finance ministers have once again agreed to cooperate to counter aggressive cross-border tax avoidance by multinationals. Many US firms are using tax avoidance schemes for their non-US earnings while they shamelessly claim they are paying appropriate taxes in the source countries in which they operate. The OECD responded to earlier… – Continue reading
The company has found a home in the British Virgin Islands, the finance ministry admits, though it might change that policy. Israel Bonds, a Zionist stalwart that fosters the country’s economic development, is registered in the British Virgin Islands, without the organization ever making the fact known in its English-… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) requires foreign financial institutions (“FFIs”) to disclose the foreign accounts of U.S. taxpayers to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). FFIs that fail to comply with FATCA will be subject to a 30% withholding tax on certain U.S. source income starting July 1, 2014…. – Continue reading
The days of multinational companies being able to use the Double Irish Dutch Sandwich to avoid taxation may soon be coming to an end, with the G20 group of nations looking to create a reporting standard to allow for automatic exchange of tax information. In the official communique coming at the end… – Continue reading
Kiwis could be forced to surrender their private details to United States authorities as part of a deal to combat tax-dodging. Those affected could include high-profile New Zealanders in entertainment, sports and business who have previously lived in the US. The Government has stressed the law changes to override New… – Continue reading
A tribunal has found that a tax avoidance scheme which involved celebrities, fund managers and other high earners claiming that they were second-hand car dealers in their spare time did not work. The decision, which will save the country £290 million, is the fourth consecutive win by HM Revenue and… – Continue reading
UTI International (Singapore) chief executive officer Praveen Jagwani says the asset manager had to remove American investors because of the compliance burden Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) brings. The regulation requires financial institutions to use enhanced due diligence to identify US citizens that have invested in either non-US financial… – Continue reading
The Island is a step closer to sealing the landmark FATCA tax-sharing agreement with the United States. Treasury minister Eddie Teare has won Tynwald support for measures to enshrine it in Manx law. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was signed by the Isle of Man and the United States… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released a final package of regulations Thursday to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and amend the regulations to align them with existing tax rules. FATCA was included as part of the HIRE Act of 2010, with the goal of combating… – Continue reading
The United States permanent subcommittee will be holding a hearing as they try to solve issues surrounding offshore tax evasion as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks including credit Suisse Group AG. According to a statement by the committee, the focus will be on the status efforts to hold… – Continue reading
