The unequivocal mandate given to the Modi led NDA government will allow them to take a long term perspective while making policy decisions. The finance ministry led by Arun Jaitley has close to 15 days left to put together the dream budget and at the same time address ‘inclusive growth’… – Continue reading
Tax attorney Rob Wood discusses his Forbes article “If An Individual Pulled The Tax Gimmicks Of Apple And Other Big Companies, They’d Go To Jail” that points out the tax breaks given to corporations by America’s tax code. Using tax breaks available to corporations, a mere 30 companies have $1.2… – Continue reading
Most of the 2,110 enterprises inspected in 2013 had to admit to losses lower than initially declared and accepted to pay tax sums set by the taxation bodies after the inspection. Regarding foreign invested enterprises (FIEs), Nam said taxation bodies have completed the inspection of over 20 enterprises in 17… – Continue reading
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Our campaign against corporate tax avoidance marches on, with further important advances today. I am delighted that Finance Ministers have agreed on a crucial revision to the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, which will block a prevalent form of aggressive tax planning, known as hybrid loan arrangements. No longer will… – Continue reading
Shiseido Co., Japan’s top cosmetics brand, was alleged by tax authorities to have failed to report 3.8 billion yen in income in Japan for five years through March 2012 by pooling profits at a U.S. subsidiary, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday. The company is planning to dispute the… – Continue reading
Irish and shareholder eyes may be smiling at the prospect of medtech giant Medtronic acquiring Covidien and moving its headquarters to Ireland, where Covidien is based, but the $42.9 billion deal is causing at least a few frowns, as well. Minneapolis-based Medtronic is the largest U.S. company to try to… – Continue reading
NEW YORK • What’s greasing the wheels for the rise in mergers by U.S. companies? The tax man. Two tax-code quirks — one that charges U.S. companies when they repatriate overseas earnings, the other that allows them to claim a foriegn domicile without moving their senior leadership abroad — are… – Continue reading
Going offshore means registering any intellectual property (IP) in an offshore company and delegating R&D and marketing to onshore companies. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and taking your business international is no picnic. On June 12, the International Business Structuring Association (IBSA) held a seminar to discuss ways of growing… – Continue reading
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to introduce transfer pricing regulations from July 1, 2014 in a bid to check tax avoidance by multinational companies. The Transfer Pricing Law, approved through the Finance Bill-2012, remained in process of preparing ground work for its successful implementation. It will help… – Continue reading
Here in Ireland we can puff up our breasts and deny that there is anything tax haven-like about this country but the rest of the world believes otherwise. Poor Enda Kenny, who is chief theologian on the not-a-tax-haven side needs the Medtronic announcement like a hole in the head. There… – Continue reading
Just as water flows downhill, so do the profits of multinational corporations travel toward the countries with the lowest tax rates. That’s a fact of life in an era of global markets and businesses; there will always be countries that set unusually low corporate tax rates in the hope of… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc. (MDT), the globe-spanning medical device maker founded in a Minneapolis garage in 1949, is poised to become the biggest company yet to escape the U.S. tax system by shifting its incorporation abroad. Medtronic said yesterday it plans to take a legal address in tax-friendly Ireland as part of… – Continue reading
AS NAMIBIAN political activists, we are writing to you because we are greatly concerned about your transfer-pricing methods. We know that transfer-pricing occurs when two companies from the same multinational corporation trade with each other. This is probably the most important issue as far as international taxation is concerned, since… – Continue reading
Competition takes many forms in capitalism. Financial engineering by corporations to avoid paying taxes is one aspect of this competition — under the rigors of market competition, evading responsibility is an innovation to be emulated. The magnitude of tax evasion on the part of multi-national corporations through one channel —… – Continue reading
The fight against aggressive tax planning by multinationals will be one of the “key issues” for the European Parliament over the next five years, EU economics and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has said. Speaking at an event hosted by European Movement Ireland and BDO in Brussels yesterday, Mr Rehn,… – Continue reading
The Financial Times says today that 14 US tech & pharma groups, including Microsoft, Google and Johnson & Johnson, have cut their average tax rate by a quarter over the past eight years as they parked more cash offshore than all other US companies combined. Almost a half trillion dollars… – Continue reading
One of America’s best-known stores may soon decide that it’s no longer American. If it does, you will pay the price and feel real sick about it. Walgreens pharmacy is in every way an American company. It was founded in Chicago in 1901 and maintains its headquarters in Illinois. It… – Continue reading
Like a bad penny, this tax repatriation idea just keeps coming back. You know, the one where you offer a bribe to multinational corporations in the form of a big tax cut to “repatriate” their foreign earnings. In this case, members on both sides of the aisle are conspiring to… – Continue reading
ZIMBABWE lost about $770 million in potential revenue between 2008 and 2012 through undervaluation and transfer pricing of its gems from the Marange diamond fields. VENERANDA LANGA SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER A report by Partnership Africa Canada on illicit financial flows in the diamonds industry said the gems were being exported… – Continue reading
Last week, the TexPIRG Education Fund and the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice released a new report examining in detail how Fortune 500 companies in the United States are using offshore havens to avoid paying the taxes they owe the federal government. According to the report, an astounding 72% of American Fortune… – Continue reading
Apple Operations International, the principal Irish holding company for foreign subsidiaries, was not always stateless for tax purposes based on the last filed accounts in Ireland. It stopped paying tax in Ireland from 2006, based on US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations evidence. The most explosive revelation in the May… – Continue reading
India is said to be seeking a revision to its 1994 double tax agreement with Cyprus before the territory can be declassified as a notified jurisdictional area. In November of last year, the Indian Government invoked powers under Section 94A of the Indian Income Tax Act (ITA) 1961 to levy… – Continue reading
One of America’s best known stores may soon decide that it’s no longer American. If it does, you will pay the price and feel real sick about it. Walgreens pharmacy is in every way an American company. It was founded in Chicago in 1901 and maintains its headquarters in Illinois…. – Continue reading
The European Commission is set to open formal investigations into Apple’s tax arrangements with Ireland. Last year, the US Senate accused the country of functioning as a “tax haven for Apple.” By funnelling profits into Irish subsidiaries that had no declared tax residency, the company was able to pay just… – Continue reading
A temporary tax holiday for US companies to repatriate offshore profits would cost the government $95.8 billion in revenue over a decade, said the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper. Lawmakers occasionally talk about a repatriation tax break as a way to pay for spending such as replenishing the… – Continue reading
Tax breaks for Apple Inc. (AAPL:US), Starbucks Corp. (SBUX:US) and Fiat Finance & Trade SA in three European Union countries are under investigation by EU competition regulators in a clampdown on special treatment for companies. The EU is checking whether the tax deals in Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are illegal state aid, according to… – Continue reading
Walgreen, the biggest U.S. retail drugstore chain, is considering decamping to Switzerland in a quest for bigger tax breaks, just two years after reaping a hefty package of Illinois tax credits in exchange for keeping corporate jobs in the state. Such a move, through a maneuver called an inversion, would… – Continue reading
More South Korean conglomerates have been registering subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, according to corporate researcher Chaebul.com. The number of South Korean companies established in the top 10 offshore tax havens last year jumped nearly 60 percent on-year from 54 to 86, indicating more conglomerates taking advantage of lower tax… – Continue reading
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service and manufacturer Illinois Tool Works Inc. are battling in U.S. Tax Court over a $356.8 million dispute that highlights a type of cross-border tax avoidance strategy facing increased scrutiny worldwide. As governments crack down on tax-driven profit-shifting, the IRS is asserting that a loan used… – Continue reading
While Perrigo Co. plc has already cut its tax burden by moving offshore in the $8.6 billion blockbuster deal with Irish pharmaceutical maker Elan Corp. that it says will allow it to expand globally, other U.S. corporations could have a hard time pulling off similar deals. New federal legislation aims to change… – Continue reading
In an article published by The Mirror on May 20th, it was claimed that an untaxed shadow economy now accounts for a tenth of all the money spent here in the UK. Undisclosed corporate takings annually equate to £100bn, meaning that HMRC annually fail to collect around £47bn in tax revenue. Tax… – Continue reading
US firms are using the UK as a haven in which they can symbolically shift their companies to benefit from the country’s relatively low corporation tax regime. Several American companies have already sailed parts across the Atlantic and set up in the UK by moving a handful of executives over… – Continue reading
Nothing about the narrow cream-colored lobby at 160 Aldersgate Street in the City of London financial district gives a hint of its role at the center of the offshore oil industry. That’s because the building is occupied by a law firm. Yet, on paper at least, it is also home to… – Continue reading
Most Fortune 500 corporations have units in offshore tax havens that they use to avoid paying U.S. taxes through “accounting tricks,” two left-leaning tax activist groups said on Thursday. In a report that comes amid increased attention to corporate tax avoidance worldwide, the groups said U.S. multinationals each year avoid… – Continue reading
With all the U.S. corporate cash piling up on tiny Caribbean islands, it’s a wonder the beaches can still accommodate sunbathers. Apple, Nike, Citigroup and a few hundred other Fortune 500 companies have created a whopping 7,827 offshore shell companies to stash nearly $2 trillion in places like Bermuda and… – Continue reading
Seventy two percent of Fortune 500 companies avoid approximately $90 billion in taxes by booking profits to subsidiaries registered in offshore tax havens, according to a report from the ConnPIRG Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice. Each year, offshore tax loopholes used by U.S. multinational corporations cost Connecticut $600 million in… – Continue reading
U.S. corporations have reported to the Internal Revenue Service that 54 percent of their offshore profits are earned in 12 tax haven countries that, combined, only account for 4 percent of economic output among all countries where U.S. corporations do business. A new report by the advocacy group, Citizens for… – Continue reading
How come different attempts to measure wealth inequality come up with different answers? + That’s a question raised by the Financial Times’ analysis of Thomas Piketty’s work on inequality, which compared his data set to others and identified discrepancies, particularly when using one experimental survey in the United Kingdom. +… – Continue reading
It is a figure which Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), the US group which authored the report, says highlights Ireland’s popular use as a tax haven among US companies. Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Policy in Washington DC, tells IBTimes UK: “It’s a clear indicator… – Continue reading
U.S. companies are increasingly viewing the U.K. as a place to relocate to pare their tax bills. Why? Relatively low tax rates and a business-friendly environment. Pfizer (PFE) was the latest high-profile example; it tried to take over the British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca (AZN). American and French media giants Omnicom… – Continue reading
If any U.S. company seems ripe for moving to an island tax haven, it’s Chiquita. Based in Charlotte, the company’s sale of bananas, grown largely in Central America, accounts for two-thirds of its profits. But Chiquita isn’t bound for the tropics. It’s headed to Ireland, where the climate may be… – Continue reading
The internet retail giant Amazon is facing fresh claims of tax avoidance after its latest accounts showed it routed more than £11 billion through its Luxembourg-based subsidiary in 2013 – yet paid only £4 million in UK corporation tax last year. Amazon trades through the Luxembourg subsidiary, Amazon EU SARL,… – Continue reading
NEW YORK – According to a report from Bloomberg, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is keeping an ever growing share of its cash reserves outside of the U.S. to use for acquisitions. In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Google revealed that it currently has more than $ 30 billion… – Continue reading
When it comes to being an expat, as far as the UK taxman is concerned, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. A tax specialist gives tips on avoiding problems. There is no avoiding the fact that moving overseas or returning to the UK creates some tax issues, and… – Continue reading
About two dozen U.S. companies ranging from Liberty Media to Sara Lee have quietly moved their headquarters out of the United States to places like Ireland and Canada and England since 2008 in search of lower corporate income taxes. Few people other than tax techies noticed. But now, thanks to… – Continue reading
US corporations are making record profits in tax havens like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Some of the profits exceed the GDP of the host country, with Bermuda’s offshore profits 1643% of total economic output. As a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), profits from… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Taking aim against corporate tax avoidance, Democrats in the U.S. Congress called on Tuesday for curbs on U.S. multinationals that shift tax domiciles abroad in deals known as “inversions.” While still rare, these deals are becoming more common, with two recently attempted transactions by Pfizer Inc and… – Continue reading
A new report from the advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice finds that 301 Fortune 500 companies hold a combined $2 trillion offshore, collectively avoiding $550 billion in U.S. corporate income taxes, while a contrasting report from the Tax Foundation found that U.S. multinational corporations reported paying more than $128… – Continue reading
In an effort to tighten rules on corporate tax avoidance through “inversions,” U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined a group of 13 Senators today to introduce The Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2014, legislation to address the practice of reincorporating offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The bill is designed to prevent… – Continue reading
MILAN — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ new London headquarters will have a staff of about 50 people, most of whom will have a finance background, said two people familiar with the details of the automaker’s plan to shift its tax residency to the UK. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne and Fiat… – Continue reading
