On October 5, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) unveiled the consensus plan reached by the Group of 20 and more than 40 other countries regarding its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. BEPS refers to tax-dodging tactics by multinationals that erode a home country’s tax base… – Continue reading
As a business leader, EY is proud to announce a seminar from its series of regulatory updates, aimed to keep stakeholders abreast of current changes in legislation. The FATCA and OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) seminar will be held on October 20, 2015 at the Hilton, St Julian’s between 08:30… – Continue reading
Emmanuel Mayah, Jeff Mbanga, Francis Kokutse and Nick Mathiason contributed to this joint investigation by the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) and Finance Uncovered, a global reporting project involving journalists in 54 countries. Shortly after Cyril Ramaphosa left MTN to become South Africa’s deputy president last year, he lashed… – Continue reading
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, appearing Friday at the City Club of Cleveland, said the United States has to again understand that money that targets road and bridge development and other infrastructure improvements is an investment. “Our parents left us with a transportation system and an infrastructure that was the envy… – Continue reading
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne suggested he’ll announce measures next month to enshrine in U.K. law an international plan to crack down on tax dodging. Osborne said Friday the so-called base-erosion and profit-shifting plan will be implemented by Britain at the “next fiscal event,” indicating it will form part… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The chief of India’s apex direct taxes body has said the era of tax avoidance will end with the implementation of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) regime, and that the tax department will have to gear up to take action against those attempting to avoid tax. “The… – Continue reading
The Swiss Government has tasked the Finance Ministry with responding to the OECD’s recommendations on base erosion and profit shifting. Welcoming the OECD’s proposals, the Council said: “In general, the project outcomes will allow for [the] better coordination of international tax law rules and make it possible to close the… – Continue reading
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Friday that the Obama administration would implement new rules that would lead to sharing business’s information with foreign governments. Lew praised the final recommendations from an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development project meant to battle offshore tax avoidance, saying there was a “critical need… – Continue reading
The fallout for Australian firms from the BEPS project “won’t be radical in Australia, as we have already moved pre-emptively to strengthen our laws,” Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer has said. Commenting on the release of the OECD’s final BEPS reports, O’Dwyer said: “The Coalition Government’s measures line up with the… – Continue reading
This French Tax Update will focus on (i) the main provisions of the draft Finance Bill for 2016 (Projet de loi de finance pour 2016) issued by the French Government on September 30, 2015 and to be discussed before the French Parliament between October and December (“Draft Finance Bill for… – Continue reading
EVENT OVERVIEW Globally, countries are campaigning for watertight tax regimes and gradually but definitely towards commercially driven business practices, and BEPS seems to be the way to it. Around 44 countries, including India, have come together to create a code to enable looking at transactions with a borderless lens for… – Continue reading
VietNamNet Bridge – Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh has disagreed with the opinion that Coca-Cola has been conducting transfer pricing in Vietnam, affirming that the soft drink manufacturer is innocent until proven guilty. Vinh made the statement at the Vietnam Global Investment Forum held in Hanoi in… – Continue reading
Corporate income tax Italian corporate income tax (imposta sul reddito delle società, or IRES) is due by resident companies on their worldwide income. A company is deemed to be resident within the Italian territory when it has any of the following elements located in Italy for the major part of… – Continue reading
Remarkably on schedule, the OECD this week issued a comprehensive and integrated set of measures to attack base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) on a global basis. Comprising 15 “Actions” on central issues such as transfer pricing, country-by-country reporting and transfer pricing documentation, treaty abuse, preferential tax regimes, permanent establishments,… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): Government faces some serious challenges over the next 18 months to update the regulatory regime that protects the country’s financial service sector ahead of a task force inspection in March 2017. Francis Arana, head of the Anti-Money Laundering Unit in the Attorney General’s Chambers, who is coordinating the… – Continue reading
The Russian government has approved legislation that would conceal property owned by state officials and would hamper anti-corruption investigations, Transparency International (TI) warns. The move to make the state property registry secret is not yet law – it still has to go before parliament. TI, an anti-corruption watchdog, said the… – Continue reading
MTN Uganda has been accused of failing to provide evidence to justify shifting huge amounts of cash out of Uganda to a briefcase company located in Mauritius, potentially lowering its tax bill in Uganda – the subject of which remains an ongoing dispute with Uganda Revenue Authority, it has emerged…. – Continue reading
A quarter of companies say they won’t meet the first deadline proposed by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) action plan, reports Economia. Globally, 74 per cent said they will complete their country-by-country analysis by the first due date, December… – Continue reading
Oct 8 (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday he would propose a monitoring scheme to ensure the full implementation of a proposed system to overhaul the way international companies are taxed. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published proposals on Monday to change outdated… – Continue reading
Singapore has given the thumbs up to an international plan that aims to clamp down on tax avoidance by multinational firms, reports the Straits Times. The Republic says if the plan is soundly implemented, it will help foster free and fair economic competition. Singapore agrees with the main principle of… – Continue reading
The global war on corporate tax avoidance doesn’t look like being so gruesome after all. The OECD reckons that governments are losing out on at least €213bn per year from aggressive tax planning by multinationals, reports the Irish Independent. A new book by a Berkeley University economics professor estimates that… – Continue reading
The Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base is strongly opposed by Ireland The European Commission has opened a public consultation into its proposed scheme for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) ahead of its planned re-launch next year. The EU’s executive arm is seeking insights from stakeholders by January 8th… – Continue reading
Senior tax executives are preparing for changes in the tax landscape as a result of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting project. A new survey by Ernst & Young, presented Thursday at its 34th Annual International Tax Conference, found 88 percent of tax directors… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON — The Texas and Florida Bankers Associations have requested a rehearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit) of its August decision to dismiss their case challenging the validity of 2012 IRS regulations requiring deposit interest income to be reported and setting up an exchange agreement on U.S…. – Continue reading
The IRS has posted text of a Competent Authority arrangement (CAA) between the United States and Hungary, pursuant to the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed in 2014 to implement the FATCA regime. The CCA with Hungary follows CAAs that were signed by the United States in September 2015 with both the… – Continue reading
On 5 October 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued a final package of reports in connection with its Action Plan to address Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), as well as a plan for follow-up work and a timetable for implementation. The OECD’s BEPS Action Plan,… – Continue reading
There are implications for multinational enterprises in Australia with this week’s release by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of final recommendations for substantial international tax reform under the base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) project. OVERVIEW The final BEPS package follows on from, and is largely consistent with,… – Continue reading
New Zealand needs to be careful not to get out of step with the rest of the world in implementing tax changes on multinational companies seeking to minimise their tax obligations, Deloitte Dunedin tax partner Peter Truman says. The Government this week released a report on Base Erosion and Profit… – Continue reading
Multinationals selling more than $75k into Australia asked to comply. The Australian government has released its revised exposure draft of legislation that would see GST added to all locally-bought digital products and services sold by overseas vendors by July 2017. In May this year former Treasurer Joe Hockey revealed plans… – Continue reading
It’s no conspiracy theory that mega-corporations benefit from dodging taxes and that there are a bevy of legal loopholes accountants use to ensure businesses lose as little money as possible to the government. Few of these loopholes sound as nefarious as shuffling money into offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands… – Continue reading
New Delhi, Oct 8 (KNN) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has emphasised the need to ensure that Common Reporting Standards on Automatic Exchange of Information are implemented globally on a fully reciprocal basis as this would be a key to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance. Jaitley was speaking at 49th… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Cautioning that era of tax avoidance is over, CBDT Chairperson Anita Kapur today said that action would be taken against those who try to organise businesses with a view to minimise liability. Addressing CII’s global tax summit, Kapur also said that for companies with low profits, average tax… – Continue reading
Government should look to the example set by Barbados and start charging Value Added Tax (VAT) on betting and gaming activities in Trinidad and Tobago. This was the advice coming from Tax Director of KPMG’s TT operations, Nicole Joseph, during a post-budget forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce… – Continue reading
The court overruled the order of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal issued last year suggesting that the income tax dept has jurisdiction in this dispute Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday ruled in favour of the Indian arm of Vodafone Group Plc. in a Rs.8,500 crore transfer pricing tax dispute…. – Continue reading
In brief On 18 September 2015, Treasury released exposure draft legislation in relation to the implementation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the automatic exchange of financial account information. The CRS is intended to reduce international tax evasion and represents the next… – Continue reading
Fenergo, the leading provider of Client Lifecycle Management solutions for institutional banks, has today published key findings from new research commissioned from the Aite Group which suggests that financial institutions are struggling to manage regulatory compliance and entity data management obligations across multiple jurisdictions. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150114/724322) The research finds that… – Continue reading
Spanish prosecutors have dropped all tax fraud charges against FC Barcelona’s Argentinian star Lionel Messi, but will pursue the case against his father. Jorge Horacio Messi and the footballer were accused of defrauding Spain’s tax office by not paying €4m (£2.9m, $4.5m) due in taxes between 2007-09. If convicted, the… – Continue reading
On October 5, 2015, the OECD released its final reports relating to the OECD/G20 base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project (the Final Reports). The BEPS project began in 2013 and has received unprecedented attention from governments and the private sector. The Final Reports outline the OECD’s recommendations and the… – Continue reading
Hervé Falciani, who exposed the global offshore industry with the HSBC data leak, is facing prosecution under skewed Swiss laws for data theft and espionage. This is his story. Swiss justice hounds those who breach banking secrecy even if in doing so they expose rogue banks. In the past decade,… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office will open negotiations with 80 multinational companies to encourage them to “restructure” in order to pay more tax on profits generated in Australia. The move represents a near tripling of the ATO’s multinational watch list after it embedded staff inside 30 companies to learn more about… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India has found global allies in its fight against black money. Germany, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands are among those that are providing information, or will soon start doing so, on assets held by Indians, helping the Narendra Modi government in its campaign to… – Continue reading
Patent box regimes typically apply deeply discounted tax rates to income derived from intellectual property. Recently unveiled draft legislation may pave the way for a US patent box regime and incentivize taxpayers to reevaluate their global structures. Introduction The US imposes the highest corporate income tax rate (35%) in the… – Continue reading
In 2016, hundreds of directors, managers, principal points of contact (PPCs), compliance officers, administrators, and Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) serving Cayman Islands funds, banks, trust companies and other Reporting Financial Institutions (RFIs) will start to feel the full force of ‘a great wind’: global tax transparency. If you are… – Continue reading
Federal government increases number of companies under tax office scrutiny from 30 to 80 under budget measures announced in May The federal government has widened the scope of legislation aimed at tackling multinational tax avoidance, increasing the number of large companies under the tax office’s microscope from 30 to 80…. – Continue reading
A financial adviser and a group of film producers who set up an international scheme are facing a trial for fraud. It is alleged the scheme, which took advantage of the tax relief the UK Government offers the film industry, created the appearance of huge “paper losses”, The Times reported… – Continue reading
Guidance issued by the French tax administration sets forth instructions for French “reporting financial institutions” to follow in order to comply with the Model 1 intergovernmental agreement (Model 1 IGA), signed between France and the United States, for purposes of implementing the FATCA regime. The guidance, a set of four… – Continue reading
Uber and Airbnb have revealed in submissions to a federal inquiry that they route profit through companies in the Netherlands and Ireland, where taxes are lower. Uber and Airbnb have told a Senate corporate tax avoidance inquiry that while they comply with Australian tax laws, their Australian operations merely provide… – Continue reading
The proposals are aimed at preventing aggressive tax planning by multinationals. However, experts warn that the risk of double taxation may increase. SINGAPORE: Tax experts have said that Singapore’s tax jurisdiction is broadly in line with new tax proposals announced on Monday (Oct 5) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation… – Continue reading
A Wednesday forum organized by the Urban Development Institute in Vancouver is dealing with foreign ownership in the local housing market. and there’s new concern about offshore buyers avoiding Canadian tax. Globe and Mail reporter Kathy Tomlinson investigated one case of a private equity manager in Beijing buying a $2.3… – Continue reading
While the thought of going abroad to work or retire may be exciting, the months leading up to departure are likely to be highly stressful. It is vital that you pay adequate attention to financial planning. In particular, the tax consequences of leaving the UK are quite complex, so it’s… – Continue reading
