Researchers and campaigners from around the world have been presenting radical solutions on tackling tax abuse and financial crime at the Tax Justice Network’s annual conference held in the heart of London’s finance centre, on 2 – 3 July 2019. With over 200 attendees including prominent politicians, whistleblowers and economists,… – Continue reading
Several multi-national corporations have moved their European headquarters outside of the UK ahead of Brexit, and many others are expected to follow suit, especially as the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit rises further. Japanese tech giant Panasonic will be transferring its European HQ away from London to Amsterdam in October… – Continue reading
London and Cyprus have tightened the regulations for banking operations, and the accounts belonging to Russians face blocking. Last weekend, Britain said it could block the bank accounts of about 100 foreigners. The assets will be frozen unless their owners provide information on the source of the money. At the… – Continue reading
PROPERTY in the UK, particularly London, has always been popular with GCC investors for many years. It has remained a safe haven and an attractive destination for investors and their families from the GCC region perhaps more than any other major city. Depending on the level of investment, well… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD/LONDON: The thirty-eight-page trust deed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Khan Tareen’s offshore trust was signed and formalised in Geneva, Switzerland, and facilitated by HSBC Guyerzeller Trust Company Geneva – raising questions about Swiss bank accounts. During the hearing before Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Tareen was asked no questions about… – Continue reading
People earning more than £70,000-a-year could be forced to pay more tax if Labour wins power, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell hinted today. He stressed Labour wanted a “fair taxation system” which would see corporations and the rich “pay their way more”. Asked to define rich, Mr McDonnell said they would… – Continue reading
Deutsche Bank will pay a $425 million fine in relation to a money-laundering scheme that regulators say moved $10 billion out of Russia, the New York State Department of Financial Services said Monday. The department said Deutsche was moving money out of Russia by using a stock “mirror trading” strategy,… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office has its sights on a $30 billion-a-year natural gas export bonanza expected over the next few years, warning oil and gas giants not to follow the lead of the big miners and “inappropriately shift profits” by selling through tax haven Singapore. At the same time, it… – Continue reading
Bloggers and celebrities who receive undisclosed gifts or payment to flog products and services under the guise of celebrity endorsement could ultimately wind up in jail for tax evasion. The rise of ‘Instagram celebrities’ and ‘Influencers’ who post endorsements of everything from their clothes and make-up to where they spent… – Continue reading
British chancellor Philip Hammond has infuriated German politicians for implying a “hard” Brexit would see London adopt a new role as a tax haven before the gates of the EU. Driving speculation ahead of Tuesday’s Brexit address by prime minister Teresa May, Mr Hammond said he preferred seeing Britain remain… – Continue reading
The UK – which is Friday (December 9) hosting a global tax transparency summit – has been accused of erecting a “brick wall” over hundreds of thousands of companies that use British Oversea Territories as tax havens allowing “corrupt” owners to “enjoy their ill-gotten gains with impunity.” The UK Parliament… – Continue reading
Jérôme Cahuzac, appointed by Hollande to lead clampdown on wealthy avoiders, hid cash in a secret Swiss account for 20 years Jérôme Cahuzac, the minister who led François Hollande’s drive for a more honest tax system, has been sentenced to three years in prison for tax fraud and secretly stashing… – Continue reading
Indonesia is widening its tax net to target global technology giants like Google and Facebook Inc., a strategy that’s raising red flags for fear it may deter foreign investment. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is seeking to squeeze more revenue out of an economy that’s been hit by weak commodity… – Continue reading
The Australian government is one of the most aggressive in highlighting the issue of multinational corporations avoiding taxes through extensive use of tax havens. Microsoft’s Australian subsidiary will start disclosing the amount of tax it pays in Australia, opting in to a government-transparency program aimed at shedding light on the… – Continue reading
Following British Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to India last week, Patricia Hewitt, chair of the UK-India Business Council, said that Britain is looking to re-balance its commercial links with countries like India post-Brexit. She suggested that the two governments should look at a bilateral tax treaty to boost trade…. – Continue reading
Ninety-eight countries are poised to formally adopt the OECD’s innovative multilateral tax treaty, which will place recommendations from the BEPS project into more than 3,000 bilateral accords, when the ad-hoc group meets later this month. The “Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty-Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting”… – Continue reading
Britain could slash corporation tax to 10 percent if the European Union refuses to agree a post-Brexit free trade deal or blocks UK-based banks from accessing its market, the Sunday Times reported, citing an unidentified source. The newspaper said the idea of halving the headline rate from 20 percent had… – Continue reading
With the exception of British Antarctica, the U.K.’s overseas territories and offshore dependencies are all surrounded by sun-winking ocean water. But that’s not their only common feature—they are all under increasing political pressure to become more transparent with their financial information. In a parliamentary report on tackling overseas corruption, the… – Continue reading
Britain could slash corporation tax to 10 percent if the European Union refuses to agree a post-Brexit free trade deal or blocks UK-based banks from accessing its market, the Sunday Times reported, citing an unidentified source. The newspaper said the idea of halving the headline rate from 20 percent had… – Continue reading
European Union plans to regulate tax advisers in an effort to clamp down on aggressive tax planning and tax avoidance could prove excessive, ineffective and trigger unfair competition, accountants and lawyers warn. The caution comes after EU finance ministers moved Oct. 11 to authorize the European Commission to draw up… – Continue reading
The Australian government shouldn’t rely on leaks like that of the Panama Papers to pick up on tax evasion, it should consider stronger action. The federal government showed some leadership earlier this year by announcing the establishment of a public register of beneficial ownership of companies, with the aim of… – Continue reading
Current rules allow over 100,000 wealthy residents to pay a lower rate of tax, even if they have lived in UK for many years. The Government is risking more than £6bn of tax revenue by changing rules governing non-domiciled taxpayers, an international law firm has warned. Pinsent Masons said that… – Continue reading
CRUNCHERS SOUTH LONDON, a licensee of Crunchers Accountants, has become the first accounting service in the UK to receive the Fair Tax Mark award for reporting and paying fair corporation tax. The Fair Tax Mark, established in 2014, is an independent accreditation process that assesses companies’ corporation tax practices and… – Continue reading
You might think the Panama Papers leak would cause the ultrarich to seek more transparent tax havens. Not so, according to Jordan Greenaway, a consultant based in London who caters to the ultrawealthy. Instead, they are going further underground, seeking walled-up havens such as the Marshall Islands, Lebanon, and Antigua,… – Continue reading
Countries pursuing billions in unpaid taxes push region’s wealthy to pull cash from accounts LONDON — Switzerland’s private bankers fear cash-strapped Latin American countries pursuing billions of dollars in unpaid taxes will push the region’s wealthy to pull cash from their Swiss bank accounts. For these banks, still recovering from… – Continue reading
The Malaysian government won’t protect its citizens from legal action taken outside the country stemming from the scandal surrounding the state investment fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, a senior official said this week. Johari Abdul Ghani, who is second in command in the Finance Ministry under Prime Minister Najib Razak,… – Continue reading
BRITAIN will thrive outside the European Union by using its influence to secure a strong trade deal, according to a senior economist. Dr Michael Ivanovitch said the Government has “huge leverage” in its trade negotiations after it triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and leaves the union. He insisted… – Continue reading
But Brexit May Upend Data Protection and Notification Rules Lawmakers and legal analysts are still struggling to analyze the impact of the June 23 referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union (see Brexit: What’s Next for Privacy, Policing, Surveillance?). In the wake of a majority of U.K. voters opting… – Continue reading
British multinational companies face new withholding taxes that may cost hundreds of billions of euros a year if U.K. voters decide to leave the European Union, international tax specialists say. A so-called Brexit “would have a major impact” on British corporations that have subsidiaries in the EU, said Daniel Gutmann,… – Continue reading
Turkmenistan and the UK signed an intergovernmental convention in Ashgabat on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion from taxes on income and capital gains, said the Turkmen foreign ministry in a message June 10. According to the ministry, the signing ceremony took place as part of a… – Continue reading
Asia Pacific The January – March edition of tax highlights for the Asia Pacific region highlights industry developments from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore including: Australia’s new tax system for Managed Investment Trusts The final stage of China’s B2V reform to be rolled out from… – Continue reading
An Algerian-UK treaty to end double taxation has been announced to come into effect by next year, according to a British Treasury Minister. Speaking in Algiers last week, Greg Hands announced that the Double Taxation Treaty, which will ensure that tax isn’t charged on the same income in both countries,… – Continue reading
The recent EMEA Conference of Alliott Group, one of the world’s most established international associations of independent accounting and law firms, brought together tax professionals from 28 countries across the world to discuss Base Erosion & Profit Shifting (BEPS), a project led by the OECD and G20 whose Action Plan… – Continue reading
Dubai: UAE-based multinationals will start to feel the impact of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) proposals that come into effect this year, a KPMG seminar on international tax developments has revealed. The BEPS proposals are focused on mitigating tax planning strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in… – Continue reading
A group of tax havens have accused larger countries like the United States of “hypocrisy” when it comes to cracking down on tax avoidance. With the issue of offshore finance high on the agenda in light of the fall out from the so-called Panama Papers scandal, world leaders convened in… – Continue reading
Irish economists among 300 to sign letter co-ordinated by Oxfam ahead of summit Thirteen Irish economists have signed a letter to world leaders warning there is no economic justification for allowing tax havens to continue, and urging them to end offshore financial secrecy. They are among 300 economists from 30… – Continue reading
Only a week after the so-called Panama Papers burst into the media spotlight early last month, the Canadian government issued a news release vowing to “crack down on tax evasion and tax avoidance.” The leak of a staggering 11.5 million documents from a Panama City law firm promised to reveal… – Continue reading
Nearly half of people say the Prime Minister’s handling of his finances was ‘morally repugnant’, according to our opinion poll, and they support public tax returns for all As the fallout from the fallout from the Panama Papers leak begins to settle, the Prime Minister is left contemplating the damage… – Continue reading
The Swiss-run humanitarian organisation International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has allegedly been used without its knowledge to mask the true beneficiaries of offshore accounts whose details were leaked in the Panama Papers. According to revelations by the Swiss papers Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung on Sunday, the ICRC… – Continue reading
Despite best intentions of the government, there have been little or no takers for India-based fund managers In 2015, the Indian government took a commendable step by introducing a new provision in the Income-tax Act, 1961 (i.e. section 9A), to promote India as a fund manager jurisdiction, and to encourage… – Continue reading
HMRC complicite in tax avoidance scheme after it emerged it rents its own office from tax haven based company A day on, the world is still reeling from the revelations of the Panama Papers leak, the full repercussions of which are yet to be felt. Eleven million documents leaked from… – Continue reading
Is there a serious risk that Scotland’s tax revenues would be hit hard by people fleeing south to avoid the new top rates of tax advocated by Labour or the Scottish Greens? HM Revenue & Customs is not convinced that there is. With a new Scottish rate of income tax… – Continue reading
Bulgaria has definitively removed Gibraltar from its ‘tax haven’ list following intensive lobbying by Albert Isola, Minister for Financial Services, and the Gibraltar Finance Bulgaria team. This change has been reflected in the updated lists published on the European Commission website under ‘Tax good governance in the world as seen… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) also known as the common reporting standard (CRS) – a globally co-ordinated approach to disclosure of account information between tax authorities. It follows on from several country’s successful implementation of the US Fatca regulations… – Continue reading
LONDON & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Markit (Nasdaq:MRKT), a leading global provider of financial information services, today announced the launch of a tax utility. The initial offering supports compliance with US Treasury FATCA obligations. Designed in partnership with Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Morgan Stanley, the service provides tax form validation and secure… – Continue reading
The Isle of Man Government has struck a new VAT deal with the UK. Treasury Minister Eddie Teare MHK has this morning informed Tynwald that a new agreement has been reached involving a revision of the formula that governs the sharing of joint indirect tax revenues under the 1979 Customs… – Continue reading
Mauritius plans to sell itself as a world class financial-services hub to investment companies in Asia and the Far East to win new business, an official said. The island-nation’s Financial Services Promotional Agency plans to market the country as an international financial center, or IFC, and is already collaborating with… – 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
For several years now Google has been facing what appears to be a case of tax avoidance in the UK, at some point in time, the company went as far saying it did not make any money from business in the UK all in a desperate attempt to pay less… – Continue reading
“It is tantamount to an economic blockade”. That’s how Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, described the current withdrawal from Caribbean indigenous and offshore banks of correspondent relationships by US banks. His sentiments were echoed by Dean Barrow and Freundel Stuart, the prime ministers of Belize and Barbados respectively…. – Continue reading
