Ordinary taxpayers on the streets of Berlin and elsewhere may be confused if you ask them about the “cum-ex” share switch scandal. However, this shady tax avoidance practice has cost them and the treasury a lot of money. Several German banks, exploiting a now-closed loophole relating to the excessive claiming… – Continue reading
VALLETTA, Jan.11 (Xinhua) — The 2017 International Tax Co-Operation Report published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)showed Malta to be a tax compliant jurisdiction ,the Maltese Finance Ministry said on Thursday. “This is exactly what we have been stating all along in the face of unfair criticism… – Continue reading
The General Department of Taxation called last week on banks, insurance companies and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to accurately report the taxpayer identification numbers (US-TIN) of clients with US citizenship. The statement, issued on January 3 and signed by GDT’s general director Kong Vibol, said reporting accurate US-TIN numbers is necessary… – Continue reading
Apple Europe Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc., said it expects to pay more tax in the UK and paid an extra GBP136m for prior years up to September 26, 2015, after an extensive audit by HM Revenue and Customs. In its end-of-year accounts made up to April… – Continue reading
Police and tax agencies raided South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges this week for alleged tax evasion South Korean financial authorities had previously said they are inspecting six local banks that offer virtual currency accounts The crackdown comes as the South Korean government attempts to calm frenzied demand for cryptocurrency trading… – Continue reading
The United Arab Emirates Cabinet on January 7, 2018, approved two double tax agreements concluded by the territory in 2017 with Moldova and Croatia. Double tax agreements seek to facilitate trade and investment between two or more countries by setting out the taxing rights of the territories involved, to ensure… – Continue reading
The Income Tax Department recently released a clarification stating that it would accept requests for mutual agreement procedures (MAPs) and bilateral advance pricing agreements (BAPAs) in transfer pricing disputes with all countries regardless of the existence of specific provisions in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs). A 2012 survey by… – Continue reading
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif has instructed Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Economic Affairs and Revenue Miftah Ismail to implement tax reforms to strengthen the economy. During a meeting at his Raiwind residence, Nawaz instructed Miftah to refund 100 per cent sales tax to exporters by February… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service is looking to tax early adopters of cryptocurrencies who profited from it. Now the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has set its sights on the early adopters of cryptocurrencies, particularly those who earned from the blockchain technology. The IRS is concerned that between 2013 and 2015, only… – Continue reading
The U.S. Treasury Secretary is disputing a decision by the European Union to place Guam, and American Samoa, on its blacklist of noncooperating tax jurisdictions. In a letter to EU Secretary General Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote that “there is no basis for concluding that American Samoa… – Continue reading
The GOP tax bill that was signed into law by the white house late last year, significantly reduced corporate taxes which has piled pressure on other significant economies around the world to adjust so as not to lose investors to the United States. Just hours after President Trump signed the… – Continue reading
The “fair and efficient” taxation of corporate profits and the fight against tax avoidance and evasion through enhanced administrative cooperation are among the priorities of the new Bulgarian presidency of the European Union, which commenced on January 1, 2018. The recently released program of the Bulgarian presidency states that it… – Continue reading
Ernst and Young Solutions LLP, Singapore, has released its wish list for the Singapore Budget 2018, calling for reforms to sharpen the territory’s competitiveness. The firm said that Singapore should maintain its 17 percent corporate income tax (CIT) rate, which is one of the lowest in the world, but recommended… – Continue reading
A European Union consultation is ongoing on a draft Directive that would make permanent the provision in the EU VAT Directive that requires all member states to levy a minimum standard VAT rate of at least 15 percent. In the absence of the measure, the temporary restriction would be repealed… – Continue reading
THE Cabinet yesterday approved a draft bill aimed at preventing the transfer of assets and profits for the purpose of avoiding tax liabilities. Also approved yesterday were proposals requiring that juristic persons with interconnected transactions of more than Bt30 million a year send the authorities a clarification report and a… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s abandonment of banking secrecy for international tax dodgers is having an unexpected side effect at home: more domestic tax cheats with accounts around Europe are coming forward. If 2017 was the glide path for Switzerland’s international data-swapping agreements, this year means business: Swiss banks must automatically share client data… – Continue reading
More than 100 companies with international operations are being asked for the first time to give the Tax Authority marks for its performance. Taxpayers in Israel rarely have the opportunity to rate the performance of the Israel Tax Authority. Even if they did, they would be apprehensive about doing so… – Continue reading
India entered into three more advance pricing agreements in December, with two unilateral agreements and a bilateral APA concluded with authorities in the United Kingdom. With the signing of these agreements, the total number of APAs entered into by the Central Board of Direct Taxes totals 189, comprising 173 unilateral… – Continue reading
Hong Kong published two bills in its Official Gazette on December 29 to introduce provisions to counter base erosion and profit shifting and to alter its business tax regime. The bills are to be tabled before the Legislative Council on January 10, 2018, and must pass through three readings before… – Continue reading
‘Globes Israel’ claims that a secret department was set up in France’s tax authority specifically to investigate French Jews for tax evasion. The French have set up a secret department within their tax authority that employs 20 Hebrew speakers in order to find out if Jews are trying to evade… – Continue reading
A number of trends are converging, and U.S. tax reform will make navigating them more complex. Those handling international M&A tax planning are facing two sets of challenges that require more proactive tax planning across the board. The first is the tightening fiscal net around the structure and financing of… – Continue reading
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said “Tonnage tax systems are meant to promote the competitiveness of the EU shipping industry in a global market without unduly distorting competition. I am pleased that Malta committed to adapt its tonnage tax system to achieve this. Moreover, by encouraging the… – Continue reading
European finance ministers are worried. They say the United States’ big tax reform bill contains measures that would unfairly disadvantage European business and contravene global fair-taxation rules. Are they right? Last week, the finance ministers of Europe’s five biggest economies — Germany, France, the UK, Spain and Italy — wrote… – Continue reading
On December 15, 2017, the CRA released the final version of Information Circular IC 00-1R6 – Voluntary Disclosures Program (“VDP”) for income tax, after receiving and considering community input on the June 2017 draft version. This article summarizes the important differences between the draft and the final ICs and discusses… – Continue reading
Introduction As the government continues to grapple with a budget deficit and strained public finances, there remains considerable pressure on HMRC to crack-down not only on tax evasion, which is illegal, but tax avoidance, which HMRC refers to as “bending the rules of the tax system to gain a tax… – Continue reading
The European Commission is launching an investigation into Ikea’s tax construction in the Netherlands. European Commissioner on competition Margrethe Vestager is expected to officially announce the investigation on Tuesday, British newspaper the Financial Times reports. The Swedish furniture company is suspected of evading nearly a billion euros in taxes between… – Continue reading
Vietnam has lost thousands of billions of dong in taxes as foreign enterprises, especially large-scale ones, refuse to pay based on the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. Massive revenue without having to pay taxes The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation has recently issued an ultimatum for Uber B.V Netherlands… – Continue reading
On December 13, 2017, the Indian income-tax department reportedly conducted surveys at bitcoin exchanges across the country to assess the risk of individuals who may have evaded taxes. Surveying Indian Exchanges Typically such surveys are conducted by the department without prior warning and include relatively extensive scrutiny of the assessee’s… – Continue reading
The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler has said federal government tax defaulters have until March 2018 to declare assets and income via the Voluntary Assets and Income declaration Scheme (VAIDS) or face the consequence. Fowler speaking at the media workshop programme in Lagos, recently, said… – Continue reading
Bitcoin is referred as cryptocurrency and would be the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The circulation of Bitcoin has been a cause of concern among central bankers across the world. The Reserve Bank of India too has cautioned users, holders… – Continue reading
The European Union is reportedly threatening to blacklist Antigua and Barbuda if it does not harmonise its tax rates for onshore and offshore financial services. This is according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne who was speaking in the parliament on Tuesday during the presentation of the Automatic Exchange of Financial… – Continue reading
Laws regulating digital currency exchanges for the first time have been approved by Parliament in a major milestone for the burgeoning local sector. The amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act easily passed through Parliament at the end of last week thanks to bipartisan support, despite the Opposition… – Continue reading
The FINANCIAL — Transfer Pricing Rules were implemented by the Government of Georgia in 2011, based on OECD guidelines. Since the number of international companies in Georgia is increasing steadily, Transfer Pricing Rules have become a point of obvious interest. However, multinational companies operating in Georgia are not sufficiently well-informed… – Continue reading
For a nation of nearly 200 million people, not many Nigerians pay taxes. Indeed, as of May 2017, only 14 million—or one in five—of Nigeria’s estimated 70 million economically active citizens were paying taxes. As such, Nigeria’s government has typically earned much less than it could have from taxes. Back… – Continue reading
Australian tax rules relating to cryptoassets remain in their infancy, comprising largely of antiquated rules for fiat currency transactions, with impractical attempts at guidance from revenue authorities. This practical guide summarises the Australian tax issues for some typical cryptoasset transactions. In this innovative sector, no two transactions are the same…. – Continue reading
For the first time, the OECD has published a map that sets out countries’ participation and compliance with international tax initiatives, looking specifically at the exchange of information in tax matters, with the old international standard – the exchange of information on request – and the new, on the automatic… – Continue reading
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland will continue fighting tax evasion, allowing the government to keep public debt in check and finance its public spending agenda, Prime Minister-designate Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday. He also told the Catholic Trwam television that value added tax revenue would most likely increase by 30 billion… – Continue reading
The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service ( LIRS ) on Thursday shut 11 hotels, restaurants and event centres over alleged failures to remit their taxes under the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Laws of Lagos State 2009. Mr Seyi Alade, Director, Legal Services of the LIRS, said this after a… – Continue reading
A tax bill to counter base erosion and profit shifting by multinational companies was introduced into Parliament on December 6. The Taxation (Neutralising Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Bill contains measures to prevent multinationals from using: Artificially high interest rates on loans from related parties to shift profits out of… – Continue reading
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has threatened companies stashing money abroad with ominous consequences unless they repatriate their funds, media reported. The president’s latest sally against the prevalent use of offshore banking accounts is, however, undermined by his own family’s predilection for salting away their riches overseas. Speaking on December 6… – Continue reading
The American Chamber of Commerce in the European Union has criticized the proposals put forward in the European Commission’s recent consultation on options for new tax rules or a new tax on digital firms. The aim of that consultation is to help the Commission to define an approach to the… – Continue reading
The UK Government has released a consultation on the royalty withholding tax targeting digital firms announced in the UK’s most recent Budget. Under the proposal, the Government intends to introduce legislation in Finance Bill 2018-19 to broaden the circumstances in which certain payments made to non-UK residents have a liability… – Continue reading
The International Centre for Tax and Development has released a working paper on how to best support developing countries in the area of taxation. The paper says that developing countries would particularly benefit from support in the implementation of two areas that were covered by the OECD’s base erosion and… – Continue reading
On December 2, the OECD released the first analysis of individual countries’ progress in spontaneously exchanging information on tax rulings in accordance with Action 5 of the BEPS package of measures released in October 2015. The first annual report on the exchange of information on rulings evaluates how 44 countries,… – Continue reading
THE Deputy Prime Minister believes the Bahamas has “done everything we could possibly do” to escape the European Union (EU) ‘tax haven’ blacklist that will be issued tomorrow. K P Turnquest told Tribune Business that the Minnis administration “has no reason to think” this nation will be deemed a ‘non-cooperative… – Continue reading
South Africa, Jersey, and Belgium are among a handful of territories that have recently announced an extension to the due date for country-by-country reports under the new frameworks being introduced under Action 13 of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting Action Plan. The CbC report is one element of… – Continue reading
The Serbian Ministry of Finance has published draft amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act (CITA), which are expected to be formally approved by the Government within days. If approved by the Parliament, as expected, CITA amendments will take effect from 1 January 2018. The most important novelties concerns recognition… – Continue reading
Coinbase, the world’s largest Bitcoin brokerage and wallet platform, has won a partial but significant victory in its fight against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as Cointelegraph previously reported. Brief history of Coinbase v. IRS On January 15, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that the IRS sent the company a… – Continue reading
A new royalty withholding tax will apply from April 2019 where a non-UK resident entity making sales in the UK pays a royalty to a connected party in a low tax jurisdiction, according to a consultation document which sets out further details of the proposal, which was first announced in… – Continue reading
The number of outstanding tax treaty related disputes in the UK increased in 2016 by almost 20% from 262 at the beginning of the year to 314 at the end of the year, according to statistics released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The statistics show the… – Continue reading
