BRUSSELS – EU state aid regulators aim to rule on Amazon’s (AMZN.O) tax deal with Luxembourg by July, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, and it may order the country’s tax authorities to recover about 400 million euros ($448 million) in back taxes. The European Commission’s decision… – Continue reading
Hot off the heels of the Panamanian documents leak, 5 EU countries announced last month that they have agreed to exchange beneficial ownership information. France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK will now automatically exchange information on the ultimate beneficial owners of companies and trusts. These 5 EU countries are… – Continue reading
Greek banks and the state are in the process of creating a national register for offshore company owners, in compliance with a European Union directive to that effect. The register will be created on the Teiresias databank, known from its list of insolvent borrowers. Access will be granted to the… – Continue reading
BERLIN – A European Union official threatened Thursday to sanction Panama and other nations if they don’t cooperate fully to fight money laundering and tax evasion, after a leak of data showed the small country remains a key destination for people wanting to hide money. The 11.5 million documents from… – Continue reading
Panama and the U.S. have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money. Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists, regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape… – Continue reading
The Panama Papers–the biggest leak of financial data in history–has blown the lid off offshore tax havens, again. This time, those in the limelight include twelve current or former world leaders, many celebrities, and wealthy persons who are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth. In scope, this is… – Continue reading
The amount of tax multinational companies pay – and the amount they don’t pay – has become highly controversial, writes RTÉ’s Economics Correspondent Sean Whelan. This is mainly as a result of public outrage over legal tax avoidance schemes that big companies can use to shelter vast amounts of money… – Continue reading
Offshore schemes operated by Swiss bank UBS and Germany’s Deutsche Bank in a bid to avoid paying income tax on bankers’ bonuses are not exempt from tax, the Supreme Court in London ruled Wednesday. British tax authorities, who brought the court action, said the schemes set up by the Swiss… – Continue reading
EU countries will exchange information on the tax affairs of multinational companies under new rules backed by EU finance ministers aimed at stopping big companies avoiding paying their fair share into government coffers. The rules, that should take effect later this year, are a response to growing concerns about corporate… – Continue reading
In Shanghai, Wolfgang Schäuble is urging his fellow G20 countries to put new rules to tackle tax avoidance into law. Back home, business leaders worry that German companies could be left exposed by the new rules if they are introduced unilaterally or go too far. The finance ministers of the… – Continue reading
1. New double tax treaty between Germany and the Netherlands: tax authorities now bear burden of proof regarding tax- evading or tax-avoiding arrangements A new Double Tax Treaty (DTT) has been in place between Germany and the Netherlands since 01 January 2016. Art. 23 of the DTT introduces an important… – Continue reading
A new report from ActionAid titled ‘Mistreated’ released this week has revealed that Zambia has 13 restrictive tax treaties that dramatically restrict the government’s power to tax global companies doing business on our soil and therefore unfairly limit our country’s potential to collect tax revenue. The report also found that… – 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
EU finance ministers will attempt to reach agreement by March on a directive requiring EU-wide country-by-country reporting for large multinationals and by July on a directive requiring EU states to adopt six anti-tax avoidance measures for corporations, Jeroen Dijsselbloem Dutch finance minister and president of the Eurogroup announced at an… – Continue reading
Taipei, Feb. 15 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that Taiwan and Italy have completed an agreement to avoid double taxation and tax evasion. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that Taiwan and Italy have completed an agreement to avoid double taxation and tax evasion. The ministry… – Continue reading
A while back in Germany, I was driving on the straight as an arrow B-1. That is Bundesstrasse, the equivalent of a U.S. highway, a notch below the Autobahn. Roads tend to curve around farmers’ fields, having been there first. The B-1 from Cologne on the Rhine toward Berlin was… – Continue reading
Taxing decisions With highly efficient labour markets, a solid institutional environment and a strong banking system, Canada has long been considered one of the most competitive nations in the world. In fact, in its most recent rankings in 2014, Bloomberg declared Canada the second best country in the world for… – Continue reading
At least this is the goal – member states safeguarding their social models by preventing trans-border operating multinational companies from avoiding “their fair share” of the tax burden. According to the European Commission, small and medium-sized enterprises in the EU pay 30% higher tax burden than large multinational companies. With… – Continue reading
The brands are known worldwide, and even though global companies like Google, Amazon, and Starbucks make billions — they pay little or no taxes at all in the UK and other markets where the firms make a majority of revenue and profits. Companies like Microsoft, Twitter, and Apple don’t set… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS (Alliance News) – The EU stepped up the fight against corporate tax avoidance Thursday, unveiling proposals including an EU-wide blacklist of international tax havens, as part of a wider clampdown on firms using loopholes to reduce their tax bills. The EU’s executive estimates that member states are deprived of… – Continue reading
Moving money out of the usual offshore secrecy havens and into the U.S. is a brisk new business. Last September, at a law firm overlooking San Francisco Bay, Andrew Penney, a managing director at Rothschild & Co., gave a talk on how the world’s wealthy elite can avoid paying taxes…. – Continue reading
In an effort to provide their tax administrations with more tools to combat corporate tax avoidance through transfer pricing, officials from 31 countries today signed an agreement setting out the parameters for automatic exchange of country-by-country reports on large multinational corporations. The agreement — the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on… – Continue reading
Ireland will be forced to ban many of the tax advantages it offers multinationals under proposals to be published by the European Commission tomorrow. This is the first step in an effort to have all EU countries introduce similar tax rules to prevent companies in the 28 member states avoiding… – Continue reading
DAVOS, Switzerland—Google said Friday that it has struck a deal with U.K. authorities that will settle a tax dispute and boost its corporate taxes in Britain, part of a broader effort by European governments to wring more out of big firms in the tech sector. As part of the settlement,… – Continue reading
Ireland’s insistence that it is not a tax haven and that in fact other EU countries have tax regimes that facilitate tax dodging by multinationals will be borne out by a study to be released next week. But while this will be good news to Finance Minister Michael Noonan a… – Continue reading
Plans to restrict the generous tax treatment of interest costs — a key aspect of Britain’s business-friendly taxation regime — are unnecessary and potentially damaging, companies have told the Treasury. Professional bodies and business groups are voicing fears about the restrictions that are set to be introduced as part of… – Continue reading
ATHENS, Greece – Greece has turned to a German state government to seek help in combating tax evasion. Greek tax officials, initially numbering about 50, will be trained by the tax authorities of North Rhine-Westphalia, a state noted for its success in persuading German citizens to repatriate capital they had… – Continue reading
UK property companies are seeking changes to the proposed implementation of a global agreement to fight tax avoidance that is set to add £660m to their annual tax bill. Private equity and infrastructure companies are also among those groups facing additional payments under OECD rules on base erosion and profit… – Continue reading
Tax evasion by online retailers is emerging as a serious and growing risk, Lin Homer, the outgoing chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs, warned on Wednesday. The illegal sales of tax-free goods over the internet was “a very big issue”, Ms Homer told members of the Commons public accounts… – Continue reading
Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland denies treaty benefits in case of dividend paid on shares acquired for hedging derivative contracts. Court stated that due to the fully hedged nature of ownership, there was economic nexus and interdependency between two independent transactions and therefore, the “intermediary” bank did not have beneficial… – Continue reading
If taxed on the nearly $100 billion dollars they keep offshore, the largest U.S. financial institutions could cover the U.S.’s entire poverty-focused foreign assistance budget for 2014. Tax havens are a scourge. They allow individuals and institutions to cloak their financial activity in secrecy to escape and undermine other jurisdictions’… – Continue reading
January 2016 You will find below a summary of some of the most important tax developments that have happened since the release of our last newsletter, at OECD, EU or country level, in the area of tax transparency and the fight against tax avoidance. EU – Tax transparency and anti-BEPS… – Continue reading
On 13 November 2015 the Treasurer and Minister of Finance jointly announced that a new double tax treaty had been negotiated with Germany, replacing the 1972 agreement. The new treaty has not yet been formally adopted as part of Australian law, as a change to the International Tax Agreements Act… – Continue reading
Changes to patent box rukes will mean that businesses must now track and trace all of their research and development (R&D) expenditure AFTER the recent government consultation on the UK’s Patent Box scheme, businesses will find it a challenge to comply with the proposed new rules. The changes will mean… – Continue reading
A striking example of the EU’s efforts to accelerate the implementation of anti-base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) measures is the amended Parent Subsidiary Directive (PSD). Originally designed to prevent economic double taxation of profits distributed within an EU corporate, the PSD is now also being deployed to counter undesired… – Continue reading
Bahrain, Sudan also sever diplomatic ties with Iran; two mosques attacked in Iraq UNITED NATIONS/ WASHINGTON: The world community on Monday urged Saudi Arabia and Iran to observe restraint after tension over the execution of a prominent cleric Nimr Al-Nimr along with 46 others by the Saudi government. The UN… – Continue reading
Although the British Virgin Islands is often seen as an offshore tax haven, a closer look shows such opinions may be overstated There is a stereotypical image of the so-called ‘tax haven’ for ‘shady people to put their money’. While it is true that BVI Finance enjoys warm, sunny weather… – Continue reading
SEATTLE — When someone in Seattle buys a copy of Office at a Microsoft Store, that cash doesn’t take the short route to the company’s area headquarters. Instead, after accounting for state taxes, the profit goes to a Microsoft sales subsidiary in Nevada. From there, much of that money begins… – Continue reading
It’s been a long time coming. Members of the Wildenstein art dynasty will go to trial on charges of tax evasion and money laundering next month in Paris, according to the New York Times. Guy Wildenstein took over the family business when his father, Daniel, died in 2001. The family… – Continue reading
Germany and Philippines have completed the necessary domestic ratification procedures to bring their new double tax agreement into force. The two nations exchanged instruments of ratification on December 20 to replace their existing treaty, which was concluded in 1983. Negotiations on the upgraded treaty were concluded on July 20, 2012,… – Continue reading
LONDON (Reuters) – Seven of the biggest investment banks operating in London paid little or no tax in Britain last year, despite reporting billions of dollars in profits, a Reuters analysis of corporate filings shows. In recent months, the seven investment and corporate banks operating in London reported figures showing… – Continue reading
A BALANCING ACT in London, folly and redemption in America’s District of Columbia and sheer hypocrisy in Brussels. And in every case, Barbados and many of its Caribbean neighbours were placed in the negative international spotlight at a time when some of the world’s major financial centres are casting about… – Continue reading
The organization’s new ambassador in the Brazilian capital Brasília claims trade and mutual investment between Arab countries and Brazil can be worked on. São Paulo – Newly appointed to represent the Middle East and North Africa countries in Brazil, the ambassador of the League of Arab States in the national… – Continue reading
The Bundesrat (upper house of the German parliament) approved the Law on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (Finanzkonten-Informationsaustauschgesetz) on 18 December 2015. Financial institutions face new reporting obligations and duties of care under this law. The new legislation requires financial institutions to provide the German Federal Central Tax… – Continue reading
Action on tax avoidance could see €600m go from the pharma sector, says report International moves on multinational tax could threaten Ireland, with a potential annual loss of corporate tax revenue of €600 million or more from the pharma sector alone, according to a new report from Chartered Accountants Ireland…. – Continue reading
On 22 December 2014, the Italian Parliament approved the Budget for 2015.40 Among other measures, the Law introduces the possibility of an exemption from corporate income tax (IRES, generally levied at 27,5%) and local tax (IRAP, generally levied at 3,9%) on income derived from qualifying intangible assets (such as patents,… – Continue reading
Stricter Tax and documentation requirements for foreign transactions “Amazon, Facebook, Google and Starbucks pay little taxes …” or “Luxembourg attracts international corporations” – headlines like these have 62 states and the OECD called into action. The result was “base erosion and profit shifting” BEPS shortly. Even the German SME sector… – Continue reading
The Senate concurred, after hearing, the ratification of tax treaties between the Philippines and the governments of Italy, Germany and Turkey that will prevent double taxation. Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said the approval on third and final reading of Senate resolutions 1540, 1541, 1542 on the double taxation avoidance… – Continue reading
Total is evidence of country’s transition to a stronger economy For the first time in the 50-year history of the National Tax Service (NTS), the nation’s tax revenue has surpassed 200 trillion won ($170 billion). This year’s record makes Korea the 12th country to be part of the “200 trillion… – Continue reading
Cash doesn’t flow directly from buyers’ pockets to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Instead, the company operates through three regional sales units, centered in Ireland, Singapore and Puerto Rico. These groups control the rights to profit from Microsoft products around the world. By conducting sales from places with small populations… – Continue reading
