For those taxpayers with undisclosed foreign assets, time is running out. With the introduction of FATCA and a global standard for the automatic exchange of information between countries’ tax authorities, it is unlikely that undisclosed foreign assets will remain as such for long, resulting in serious consequences for the taxpayer…. – Continue reading
When a rock-star French economist comes to our country to tell us that the surest way to fix inequality is to tax the hell out of the privileged, they are guaranteed a sympathetic audience. And so we will partly have Thomas Piketty to thank when Pravin Gordhan introduces tax hikes… – Continue reading
During a political season in which populist fury and anger at big business is running high, two presidential candidates want to eliminate the ability of multinational firms to keep earnings overseas and avoid U.S. taxes. They also just happen to be the two most surprising and disruptive candidates in the… – Continue reading
It’s unlikely anybody was particularly surprised when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced a number of initiatives to increase the amount of tax revenue; from sugar tax to a “tyre levy” to an increase in a number of existing sin taxes. But it’s perhaps the relaxing of voluntary disclosure rules that… – Continue reading
In its time, the Irving empire has had plenty of federal contracts — all of them lucrative, many of them controversial. So it wasn’t a surprise to hear that a federal cabinet committee is reviewing Irving’s $26 billion sole-source (but still unsigned) contract to build a fleet of warships for… – Continue reading
Treaties limit the tax poorer nations can place on British companies doing business within their borders, says ActionAid. The UK has signed a high number of tax deals with some of the world’s poorest countries, potentially depriving those states of millions in tax revenues every year, according to an analysis… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing (TP) issues have never been such a critical part of the global economic agenda as they are today. Following the release of the report addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) in February 2013, OECD and G20 countries (including India) adopted a 15-point Action Plan to address BEPS… – Continue reading
If January is a month of New Year resolutions, February can be said to be a month of New Financial Year expectations with Indian Government announcing its fiscal policy strategy, including taxation regime for the next financial year. The Union Budget of 2015-16 was the first full budget presented by… – Continue reading
On February 23, US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D – Michigan) and Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D – Maryland) introduced legislation aimed at reducing the number of corporate tax inversions by limiting the use of “earnings stripping.” Tax inversion techniques… – Continue reading
Deputy head of the US Financial Advisory and Audit Firm (USFAAF) Jim O’Neill said US citizens and green card holders in Egypt and Arab countries are obligated to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, commonly known as FACTA, to avoid paying fines or imprisonment. According to O’Neill,… – Continue reading
Anthea Scholtz calls for a careful balance between ‘spending’ and ‘revenue-generating’ activities. All eyes will be on Parliament on 24 February 2016 when South Africa’s annual national Budget will be presented by the newly re-appointed Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan. The Budget speech has over the years given South Africans… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi promising tax cuts and a $1.5-billion fund for India’s start-up eco-system, young entrepreneurs hope that the Budget 2016-17 will have some concrete steps to foster new businesses. “Implementation of nationwide GST (Goods and Services Tax) will help in simplifying the entire tax structure,… – Continue reading
Each year, people fall prey to tax scams. That’s why the IRS sends a list of its annual “Dirty Dozen.” Stay safe and be informed – don’t become a victim. If you get involved in illegal tax scams, you can lose money or face stiff penalties, interest and even criminal… – Continue reading
The stock markets are facing the overhang of possible changes in the treatment of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax for equity in the forthcoming Union Budget. Currently, under LTCG tax, there is zero tax if a share is held for more than a year. This provision had been brought in… – Continue reading
Any country that agrees to adopt the OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) project minimum standards and pay an annual fee will be allowed to participate in future BEPS project work, according to a plan agreed to by the OECD today. The OECD’s framework for BEPS plan implementation, to be… – Continue reading
Is India back on the world map as a lucrative investment jurisdiction? Does the world see the Make in India dream becoming a reality? Well, the $222 billion investment pledges received during the Make in India week do resonate the revived positive sentiment! In fact, recent policy measures have clearly… – Continue reading
Malta has always insisted it is no tax haven, but it employs a system which allows foreign shareholders to claim a six-sevenths’ refund on their taxed dividends, taxed at the maximum 35%. There’s a new battle lining up for the Maltese government inside Brussels: an aggressive fight against tax avoidance… – Continue reading
The government reportedly wants to extend to three years the holding period for investments in listed shares to qualify for capital gains tax exemption. This accepts the need to change the present capital gains tax regime but might not be the best way to go about it. It would discriminate… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Competition Commission has been exempted from paying taxes on fee and government grants received by it till financial year 2020-21. The government has decided to extend certain income tax exemptions for the fair trade regulator as the earlier one ends this financial year. According to a notification issued… – Continue reading
Governments globally should take steps to adjust taxation systems to close loopholes allowing multinational corporations to avoid paying taxes in countries of their origin, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Monday. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The IMF chief said taxation allows governments to mobilize their revenues. She… – Continue reading
In the wake of the global financial crisis, an unprecedented wave of regulation has swept through the financial services industry, impacting market participants at every level. As the industry grapples with the challenges and costs of implementation, it is an opportune time to pause and reflect on initiatives undertaken in… – Continue reading
The Treasurer announced this morning that the Government will use the foreign investment system to ensure tax compliance by multinational companies when investing in Australia. Using the FIRB process will add an additional mechanism for the Government to monitor and enforce tax compliance by multinational companies. It has long been… – Continue reading
FINANCE Minister Pravin Gordhan is widely expected to announce a new foreign exchange control and tax amnesty in his budget on Wednesday in a bid to encourage taxpayers who have not disclosed billions of rand worth of offshore assets to declare them and pay the due tax. The move would… – Continue reading
The Government has released an issues paper on New Zealand’s implementation of an OECD initiative the OECD claims will “end banking secrecy as we have known it.” The OECD’s Automatic Exchange Of Information (AEOI) initiative is setting a global standard for sharing information between countries with the aim of reducing… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Continuing its crackdown on misuse of stock exchange system for tax evasion, regulator Sebi on Wednesday barred 22 brokers from securities market for executing ‘reversal trades’ worth over Rs 8,100 crore to generate fictional profits or losses. However, these trading members would be allowed to function as stock… – Continue reading
THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) has released the details of its strategic plan reaching well into the next government, by which it intends to effect improvements in tax administration. BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares on Feb. 15 issued Revenue Memorandum Order No. 6-2016 detailing the bureau’s Strategic Plan 2016-2020…. – Continue reading
Search giant Google – now a subsidy of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – transferred around 11.7 billion euros ($13 billion) from its European operations to its accounts in Bermuda in 2014, in order to limit the tax burden on this income. This tax avoidance practice is often known as “Double Irish… – Continue reading
RIYADH — Madawy Bint Saud Bin Musaed Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has praised the efforts of the US Financial Advisory & Audit Firm (USFAAF) for solving the growing problems of the Saudi nationals holding the American passports regarding the tax payment and the importance of submitting the tax return on… – Continue reading
If you think Uncle Sam has too many other problems to worry about what assets you may be hiding overseas, think again. “Governments are catching up to the fact that there is now a global economy and are requiring increasing reporting to ensure they collect ‘their fair share’ of tax… – Continue reading
FOREIGN investors could be stripped of their Australian assets if found to have deliberately shifted profits offshore to avoid paying tax. For the first time new tax rules will be imposed on large multinational companies buying into Australia, forcing them to either pay tax on their local earnings or pack… – Continue reading
Bermuda’s international business chiefs said they would swallow increased taxes if the Government continued to cut its costs and pushed ahead with reforms in the public service. Insiders added that the sector wanted to see the Government live up to its pledges to make the Civil Service more accountable, close… – Continue reading
The oil price slide is driving tax reforms across the region as Arabian Gulf economies seek to shore up a potential US$700 billion deficit. All six Arabian Gulf states are planning to introduce Value Added Tax (VAT) collectively. Various other tax reforms are also underway. The IMF warned in October… – Continue reading
Malta’s deficit will go down to an unprecedented 1% of GDP and debt will be cut to 64.3% of GDP in 2017. Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna has welcomed Malta’s stable ‘A’ Fitch Rating , saying the latest report, published last night, “shows that Malta’s economy will keep on growing.”… – Continue reading
The Indian government clarified on Friday that the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standards (CRS) will not entail reporting of all fixed deposits and auto sweep facilities in pre-existing savings bank accounts. “During stakeholders consultations, representatives of financial institutions informed that in such… – Continue reading
The decade-old arrangement allowed Alphabet to enjoy an effective tax rate of just 6 per cent on its non-US profits last year Google moved euro 10.7 billion euros ($12 billion) through the Netherlands to Bermuda in 2014, as part of a structure which allows it to earn most of its… – Continue reading
New Delhi :The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued a clarification with regard to an inter-governmental agreement between India and USA signed for implementation of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The CBDT further said in its statement that the Government of India has also joined the Multilateral… – Continue reading
Free-market advocates say retrospective tax claim on the British telecom major sends a negative message to global investors. It seems to be a weak argument Like all tax disputes, the one that involves Vodafone and the government is quite a tangled one. The company has been absolved of tax liability… – Continue reading
Double tax treaties enable competent authorities of the treaty partners to exchange important tax information necessary for implementing the treaty or the domestic laws on taxes of every kind and description imposed. For instance, exchanges of information may be made regarding tax avoidance by companies of the contracting states.Nevertheless information… – Continue reading
Documents released during the internet giant’s court battle with the US Internal Revenue Service over a possible $1.5bn in unpaid taxes detail a complex restructuring and a deal with Luxembourg that delivered Amazon multimillion-dollar savings Amazon is facing a landmark court ruling in the US that could prise open its… – Continue reading
The US Treasury Department has issued a revised version of the US Model Income Tax Convention (the 2016 Model). The Convention is used as a starting point in bilateral treaty negotiations with other countries and was last updated in 2006. The 2016 MTC, which was released on February 17, includes… – Continue reading
A quiet revolution is taking place across Europe. It isn’t playing out on the streets of capital cities or in the debating chambers of national parliaments. It has been slowly happening with every newspaper headline about how little corporation tax some companies pay relative to their size. It is also… – Continue reading
What is FATCA? FATCA refers to US legislation more fully known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and includes the US Treasury regulations implementing it. It was enacted as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010 (otherwise known as the, “HIRE Act”) on 18 March… – Continue reading
On February 15, 2016, the President of the Russian Federation signed Federal Law No. 32-FZ “On Amendments to the First and Second Parts of the Russian Tax Code (with Respect to the Taxation of Controlled Foreign Companies and the Income of Foreign Organizations)”, introducing a new set of amendments to… – Continue reading
Having launched and led the battle against offshore tax evasion, America is now part of the problem DEVIN NUNES raised eyebrows in 2013 when, as chairman of a congressional working group on tax, he urged reforms that would make America “the largest tax haven in human history”. Though he was… – Continue reading
Mumbai Tribunal rules buyback transaction taxable as capital gains, exempt under India-Mauritius Tax Treaty; even if considered as dividend, tax withholding does not apply This EY Tax Alert summarizes a recent ruling of the Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (Tribunal) in the case of Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Pvt. Ltd…. – Continue reading
The 15 part action plan aims to tackle global inequalities in taxation income, increasing transparency for tax administrators and significantly improving Multinational Enterprises’s compliance. With tax regulations of large corporations at the forefront of all policy makers’ minds, this latest endeavour from the OECD and G20 will address the varying… – Continue reading
Last month the European Commission launched its Anti Tax Avoidance Package, propelled by unprecedented political support for the fight against perceived tax avoidance by multinationals. In it the European Union stresses its full support for recent recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) BEPS project and it… – Continue reading
As part of strategic effort to tackle cases of international tax avoidance and evasion, Kenya has joined the league of 93 global nations; united to address the economic vices and has now signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The signing of the crucial agreement, last… – Continue reading
CAN NEPAL IMPOSE CAPITAL GAINS TAX ON NCELL BUYOUT DEAL? This question has been making rounds ever since TeliaSonera, the largest shareholder in Nepali telecom operator, Ncell, announced its decision to sell 60.4 per cent of its stake in the telecom company to Malaysian giant, Axiata, for $1.03 billion. Divergent… – Continue reading
Wealthy taxpayers who split time between states should be prepared to prove where their true home lies. You’re lounging by the pool of your second home in Florida, chuckling as you think of your friends back home braving the blizzard in Massachusetts. And you’re musing: Perhaps it’s time to escape… – Continue reading
