The value of import exemptions for the first nine months of this year exceeded what the government has budgeted for the period by more than a billion Ghana cedis. The revised budget of government estimated the value of import exemptions for the first three quarters of the year at a… – Continue reading
€1 trillion a year: that’s how much tax evasion and tax avoidance is costing European tax payers every year, according to the European Commission. Parliament set up a special committee to investigate these practices in the wake of the Luxleaks scandals and came up with plans to ensure multinationals pay… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has described its newly unveiled Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan as a “change of paradigm.”1 A few very large global groups aside, a more apt description may be a minefield for the unwary. BEPS has received considerable air time… – Continue reading
When in 1915 Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity, providing a unified description of gravity, the impression was that said theory applies to big objects (like stars) as well as to small objects (subatomic particles). But during the following 15 years it was discovered that in the “small… – Continue reading
The UK Government launched a consultation on 22 October 2015 regarding the UK corporate tax rules for interest deductibility. The consultation seeks views on the design of a general limitation for UK corporation tax deductions for interest and similar finance costs, imposing a capcalculated by reference to a fixed percentage… – Continue reading
Eight tax treaties and protocols were passed forward for a ratification vote by the full US Senate at a business hearing of the Committee on Foreign Relations on November 10, reports Tax News. The Committee approved the new US double taxation agreements (DTAs) with Chile and Hungary, and protocols to… – Continue reading
The fundamental contradiction between IndAS and taxation is that the latter is based on real income theory while the former is based on economic substance of transactions The country is undergoing an overhaul under the present government at the Centre, and so are its corporate laws. The country’s tax regime… – Continue reading
Across the globe, base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is making headlines and drawing the attention of not only governments and tax authorities but also non-government organizations, activists, lobbyists and the general public. As the public debate has spread to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the focus now centers… – Continue reading
The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has helped grab £5.17 billion in lost tax held in secret offshore bank accounts. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has revealed the figures in a FATCA update. The IRS says the controversial law has made identifying offshore cash and investments that taxpayers… – Continue reading
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) impacts Irish funds from 1 January 2016. The CRS framework represents a globally coordinated approach to the disclosure of income earned by individuals and organisations in order to combat tax evasion. It emerged from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in February 2014… – Continue reading
On October 6, 2015 Poland and Sri Lanka concluded a new Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income (Hereafter: the DTA). When entering into force this new DTA will replace the existing Double Taxation Agreement (stemming from 1980)… – Continue reading
DUBLIN (Alliance News) – After the European Commission ruling that multinationals received unfair tax benefits in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Ireland is braced for an EC ruling on whether its taxation treatment of technology company Apple constituted state aid. “I don’t know what the outcome will be, but this is… – Continue reading
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service announced the exchange of financial account information with certain foreign tax administrations as the next step in efforts to combat offshore tax evasion. This is a significant portion of the IRS’s efforts to enforce FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which was enacted in… – Continue reading
As a reminder, the international automatic exchange of financial account information is considered by most countries as particularly efficient in the fight against tax evasion and international tax fraud and is becoming the new global standard (considering the US FATCA legislation, the OECD Common Reporting Standard). The Belgian Council of… – Continue reading
Good and Services Tax to apply to online services and digital goods delivered from offshore from October 2016. New Zealand is powering ahead with a plan to tax digital goods and online services delivered from offshore providers such as Netflix. Introducing a Bill into Parliament today, revenue minister Todd McClay… – Continue reading
The voluntary disclosure is passing under the banner of the last kilometer. By November 30, the games will be made. One can already say that the operation is a success announced. Order of Chartered Accountants of Milan has estimated that the transaction will derive from the tax authorities at least… – Continue reading
Currently 15,980 foreign companies are operating in Korea. While hiring workers and producing goods and services, foreign investors encounter numerous difficulties and experience a variety of grievances. One particular grievance brought to our attention is that they suffer from a discrepancy between the value of imported goods assessed by the… – Continue reading
Antalya, Nov. 16: The Group of 20 nations today pledged to adopt sound macroeconomic policies to achieve strong, sustainable balanced growth. The near-term objective would be to support growth, create jobs and put debt as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) on a sustainable path. Data show that several… – Continue reading
The OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) reforms do not go far enough in changing the international corporate tax system, G20 leaders have been told. In a letter to leaders at the G20 summit in Antayla, Turkey, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and others from the Independent Commission for… – Continue reading
Amazon, Facebook and Google in line of fire after committee backs proposals to force multinational corporations to pay tax where they make their sales MEPs have launched a scathing attack on Facebook, Google and Amazon in the European parliament, accusing them of diverting profits worth billions of pounds to low… – Continue reading
A sharper focus on offshore banking activity and tax avoidance has seen HM Revenue & Customs grow its Affluent Unit by more than 50% in the past two years. In 2013 the unit had 213 people in its function whereas now headcount sits at 327, an increase of 54%. It… – Continue reading
The FINANCIAL — Apostle Matthew was a tax collector in Galilee — perhaps the most hated occupation in the ancient world. By quitting his job and deciding to follow Jesus, Mathew accomplished one the greatest transformations possible in a person’s life. Modern tax inspectors are certainly not expected to follow… – Continue reading
A number of multinational companies have been in the news recently for alleged tax malpractices. Various countries which are facing budget deficits are convinced that additional tax revenues can be collected, especially from multinational companies. What is it all about? A business typically faces many risks. A risk is the… – Continue reading
As Deputy Prime Minister, the holier-than-thou Nick Clegg made huge play of how his Lib Dems forced their Tory Coalition partners to crack down on tax avoidance. Offshore tax havens, in particular, were his target, when he said: ‘There are millions of people who pay their taxes . . …. – Continue reading
The taka has continued to decline against the dollar in the past three weeks due to sustained demand for the greenback from banks and importers, according to data from the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association. The average BC (bills for collections/import payments) selling rate reached over Tk 80 a dollar… – Continue reading
Gaborone — Clients of Standard Chartered Bank Botswana should brace themselves for exciting times with the launch of the offshore fixed income proposition under its wealth management portfolio. Speaking at a breakfast launch with clients and media, the head of wealth management for Botswana and Southern Africa at Standard Chartered… – Continue reading
Once again, a possible corporate inversion is making headlines and once again, the Obama administration has proven it does not understand the real reason inversions occur. In response to news that pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Allergan are in merger discussions, the Obama Treasury department has suggested it would do its… – Continue reading
By the summer of 2015 more than 90% of Russian banks joined the FATCA Now they need to how to implement the next steps (grant to the March 30, 2016 data on US tax residents), and prepare for the future requirements of FATCA. To send the required information to the… – Continue reading
MELAKA: Some 180 participants from 47 countries will attend the five-day 36th annual Technical Conference of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) here from tomorrow. The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) said among the countries taking part in the conference are Australia, South Africa, Brunei, India, New Zealand, Canada, Pakistan,… – Continue reading
Indonesia is set to end its “bank secrecy” policy in September 2017, allowing the country to exchange tax information with other countries, which would be a major step in the fight against tax evasion and financial fraud. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that Indonesia would be an early adopter of… – Continue reading
* G20 leaders say they will deliver on vow to lift global growth * G20 promise not to surprise markets with policy decisions * World leaders agree to tackle tax dodgers, pledge to cooperate on migrants (Adds details, background) BELEK, Turkey, Nov 15 The heads of the world’s 20 largest… – Continue reading
CORK, Ireland — As lord mayor of this quiet seaside city in southern Ireland, Chris O’Leary seems to have a situation most other local politicians can only dream about. Blue-chip international companies like Apple, Dell and IBM have all set up shop in and around this city, filling newly built… – Continue reading
Early last week, Greece’s financial prosecutors sent a long letter to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, urging him to appoint more inspectors and expert staff to boost their efforts to raise much-needed revenue from tax evasion, Kathimerini understands. The 26-page letter, the second to be sent to Tsipras this year, was… – Continue reading
Plans to change Switzerland’s banking secrecy laws have been temporarily shelved. The reforms would have made it easier for the Swiss authorities to get information from domestic banks about suspected tax evaders. The cabinet said on Wednesday that the change of heart was due to the slim chance of success… – Continue reading
Normative Instruction no. 1.474, of June 20, 2014, excluded Switzerland from the list of Jurisdictions with Favoured Tax Treatment (JTF) and included it in certain cases within the concept of privileged tax regime (RFP). The matter is now governed by Law no. 11.727 which, as well as widening the concept… – Continue reading
Pfizer Inc.’s buyout bid for Allergan Plc has financial markets on edge over a possible new move by the U.S. Treasury Department against tax-inversion deals, but the outlook for any such steps was still unclear. For months, Treasury has offered no fresh guidance on the inversion issue, leaving tax experts… – Continue reading
Leaders of world’s major economies gather in Turkish city of Antalya Leaders of the world’s major economies gather in the Turkish city of Antalya this weekend for the tenth annual G20 summit. The summit takes place at a sensitive moment in international affairs. The war in Syria and the resulting… – Continue reading
Telecoms giant MTN Rwanda is in talks with the revenue authority to settle a Rwf9 billion ($12 million) tax dispute out of court. In a case that has lasted over two years, the Rwanda Revenue Authority dragged MTN Rwanda, the country’s largest mobile phone services provider by market share, to… – Continue reading
3/11/2015 – On 11-12 November 2015, the first Asia-Pacific Technical Meeting on BEPS discussed the outcomes of the BEPS Project, and the challenges countries face in the region in implementing BEPS, and explored how countries in the region can engage in the implementation, on-going development and monitoring of the measures… – Continue reading
Luxembourg and Netherlands must recoup unpaid tax from Fiat and Starbucks of €20m-€30 each The European Commission has ordered Luxembourg and the Netherlands to recover unpaid tax from Fiat and Starbucks in the region of €20 million to €30 million each. On October 21st, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager condemned tax… – Continue reading
Facts A Peruvian company (Company A) offered its services in Chile and had a commercial relationship with a Chilean company (Company B). Both companies were under shared ownership. The Tax Administration decided to assess withholding taxes for services that Company A rendered for Company B, as it considered the latter… – Continue reading
The Swiss tax office has agreed to a request from the Netherlands to hand over information about Dutch nationals with accounts at the biggest banking group in Switzerland, UBS, reports Dutch News. The request targets Dutch nationals who have had more than €1,500 on their accounts over the past two… – Continue reading
French lawmakers sought to tackle corporate tax avoidance on Thursday, voting to require big French companies to report tax information on their foreign activities on a country-by-country basis from 2016. The French government wants to get an early start on implementing an OECD recommendation for country-by-country reporting that aims to… – Continue reading
In the first step towards boosting trade and investment between the two nations, Australia and Germany have signed a new tax treaty in Berlin. It also marks an attempt to improve the integrity of the tax system by pinning down on multinational tax evasion. The deal, which preceded the arrival… – Continue reading
The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for its members’ international economic cooperation and decision-making. Its membership comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and together they represent 85% of global Gross Domestic Product. The 2015 G20 Summit will be held in Turkey for the first time and… – Continue reading
It has been a matter of dispute between income tax authorities and tax payers that whether regular assessing officer is required to analyse returns before referring a case to a transfer pricing officer (TPO). Various judicial and quasi-judicial bodies have passed several orders on this issue. Some verdicts may conflict… – Continue reading
By the very criteria set in the United States by the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC), several states in the US are “tax havens”. But, they have not been named in the legislation passed by the legislatures of Oregon, Montana and others. Among the MTC criteria for determining a tax haven… – Continue reading
US citizenship, Greencard, can no longer be a way of saving tax for some, as India has agreed to provide information for compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which became law in March 2010. Either US citizens or institutions cannot refrain from paying tax on their investments… – Continue reading
ANZ Banking Group has paid an instalment on its 2016 financial year company tax in order to get enough credits to maintain a fully franked final dividend in 2015, raising the spectre of future ANZ dividends being only partially franked or the dividend payout ratio falling to reflect the growing… – Continue reading
Jakarta (ANTARA News) – The government step to offer cuts on income tax for firms willing to revaluate their assets, as promised in its economic policy package, has received positive responses from many companies. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro is convinced that numerous companies have been interested in conducting asset revaluations… – Continue reading
