Category: Bahamas
OECD tax overhaul to disrupt Bahamas’ economy
More jurisdictions worried about their economy following OECD's new corporate tax laws ... - Continue reading
Bahamas’ Corporate Tax World’s Most ‘Corrosive’
The Bahamas yesterday received no credit for laws said to have raised compliance costs by 75-80 percent after its corporate tax policies were rated as the world’s most “corrosive”. This nation achieved a “perfect” 100 out of 100, a score matched only by the Isle of Man, Turks & Caicos… – Continue reading
Government Breaking Down ‘Offshore’ Banking Divide
The Government yesterday broke down the divide between Bahamian domestic and international financial institutions to meet European Union (EU) demands. KP Turnquest, the Deputy Prime Minister, in unveiling a radical regulatory shift said the Government will “make the playing field level for all financial institutions in The Bahamas” by enabling… – Continue reading
Corporate America flees zero-tax Caribbean havens after crackdown
Many U.S. multinational corporations have packed up or are choosing to open subsidiaries in low-tax, rather than no-tax, countries that are seen as more legitimate than the formerly popular island destinations of the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. They’re fleeing in response to regulations from the European Union that require… – Continue reading
Bahamas Meets Tax Exchange Deadlines
The ministry of finance last night said The Bahamas had met the September 30 deadline to begin automatic tax information exchange (AEOI) with some 35 partner jurisdictions. Revealing that the first such exchange with another country had already occurred, the ministry said this further demonstrated The Bahamas’ commitment to meet… – Continue reading
Euro Blacklisting To End This Week?
The Bahamas could be removed from the European Union’s (EU) ‘blacklist’ as early as this Thursday, with the Government hoping to at least get “an indication” of delisting progress. K P Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister, told Tribune Business that the Government was yesterday “following up” with EU officials on the… – Continue reading
Ibcs Face ‘Much Damage’ Through Blacklisting Bill
THE Bahamas’ ‘blacklisting’ response threatens to “cause a lot of damage” to its IBC business and create “much less certainty” for the financial services industry, a top attorney is warning. Michael Paton, a former Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) chairman, told Tribune Business that the proposed Multinational Entities Reporting Bill… – Continue reading
Bahamas Must ‘Get Across Line’ On Tax Automatic Exchange
THE Government has been urged to “get across the line before year-end” on global tax information exchange standards, amid hope the relevant legislation will reach Parliament tomorrow. Michael Paton, a former Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) chairman, told Tribune Business that the Bahamas needed to upgrade its existing legislation to… – Continue reading
Bahamas Converts Finland Taxation Deal To Automatic
THE Bahamas yesterday upgraded its tax information exchange agreement with Finland to the automatic variety, as it bids to meet global standards by September 2018. K P Turnquest, deputy prime minister, signed the Protocol to Amend the Tax Information Exchange Agreement between the Bahamas and Finland, with the latter’s ambassador… – Continue reading
Bahamas Moves To Stop ‘Devastating’ Blacklisting
The Government yesterday moved to prevent the “devastating” consequences of a financial services ‘blacklisting’ by confirming its readiness to alter the Bahamas’ automatic tax information exchange approach. A Ministry of Finance statement, issued yesterday evening, said the Minnis administration had “formally indicated its interest” to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation… – Continue reading
‘Ball In Bahamas Court’ Over Tax Exchange Pledges
“The ball is in the Bahamas’ court” to meet its automatic tax information exchange commitments, a senior industry executive yesterday saying there is “no alarm” about this nation having to alter its approach. #Tanya McCartney, the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) chief executive, told Tribune Business that the private sector… – Continue reading
Oxfam: Luxembourg, Ireland, Netherlands among worst tax havens
The NGO’s report exposes the worst offenders in the ‘race to the bottom on corporate tax.’ Luxembourg, Ireland, Cyprus, and the Netherlands are among the world’s 10 worst tax havens, despite an ongoing EU crackdown on tax avoidance and profit shifting across the bloc. The findings come in a report… – Continue reading
Being Named In The Panama Papers Doesn’t Mean You Broke the Law
The Panama Papers have recently drawn a great deal of investigation and public attention. Over 230,000 organizations and individuals were named as having set up offshore companies in tax haven like the British Virgin Islands, Panama, the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas. The public’s initial reaction was suspicion and anger toward… – Continue reading
Banksters making the U.S. a tax shelter?
Just when you thought the banksters had done all they could to rig the game against people that bail them out, you hear another tale of industrial-strength greed. This time, the scam is so ironic it’s almost absurd. For almost a decade the U.S. government has been going around the… – Continue reading
The hidden wealth of nations
India’s biggest source of FDI is India itself, money departing on a short holiday to a tax haven and then routed back as FDI. Will the government muster up the political will to clamp down on the tax-allergic business elite? This could be a bumper year for the ever-lucrative tax… – Continue reading
Bermuda On “Best Tax Havens In World” List
Bermuda has “long been a popular tax haven” according to a story by gobankingrates.com, which ranked the island as one of the “top 10 best tax havens in the world.” The story said “Bermuda has long been a popular tax haven, said Ravi Ramnarain, an independent certified public accountant. “Wealthy… – Continue reading
Italy to Get $4.4 Billion in Proceeds From Tax Amnesty
ROME—The Italian government will pocket over €4 billion ($4.4 billion) in proceeds from a tax amnesty it launched as part of a broad crack down on Italian money stashed abroad. The additional money will be a boon for the government, as it seeks to meet its budget targets amid a… – Continue reading
GLOBAL TAXPAYERS CAN EXPECT TO PAY MORE TAX IN THE YEARS AHEAD
Global taxpayers can expect to pay more tax in the years ahead. Many governments worldwide continue to update their tax legislation and expand their tax systems to repay debt and pay for increased social welfare, even as the memory of the last global financial crisis lingers. These are the conclusions… – Continue reading
Billionaire Dart Reinvents Himself as Cayman Islands Land Baron
Two decades after Ken Dart renounced his U.S. citizenship and took his tax attorney with him to the Caribbean, the billionaire bond investor and local kingpin is reinventing himself as the Cayman Islands’ biggest real estate owner. In a rare glimpse into Dart’s holdings, Mark VanDevelde, chief executive of the… – Continue reading
EY: Four out of 10 Czech businessmen asked for bribe; Czech police reveal corruption in driving licenses for Germans; No. of Czech firms with owners in tax havens up in Q3
EY: Four out of 10 Czech businessmen asked for bribe Four out of 10 Czech entrepreneurs have been explicitly asked for a bribe and up to six out of 10 have encountered the possibility of gaining an advantage in their business in exchange for a bribe, according to a survey… – Continue reading
Caribbean countries under attack
Once again, Commonwealth Caribbean countries are under attack as “tax havens”, even though they are nothing of the sort. This time it is not only the usual countries which have been listed. Trinidad and Tobago has been included, and we can bet that Jamaica and Guyana will be added unless… – Continue reading
Chief Minister rejects Washington DC’s tax haven slur
Chief Minister Allan Bell has written to the District of Columbia Council to outline his concerns at the island’s inclusion in a blacklist of tax havens. Washington DC released the list of 39 ‘tax havens’ as part of its Budget Support Act, which was signed by the Mayor in August…. – Continue reading
“Tax haven” list could damage reputation of Caribbean countries
BY DAVID JESSOP— The Caribbean has just 18 congressional working days from Sunday, September 20 to try to have the U.S. Congress address an act naming 17 Caribbean nations as “tax havens”. If passed without amendment, it could have the effect of reputationally damaging the countries concerned with unpredictable trade,… – Continue reading
D.C.’S Bahamas Blacklist Branded ‘Inconsequential’
A former financial services minister yesterday branded as “inconsequential” concerns over the District of Columbia’s (DC) pending ‘tax haven’ blacklisting of the Bahamas and 16 other Caribbean nations. Ryan Pinder, now a senior executive at Deltec Bank & Trust, was responding to concerns raised by Opposition finance spokesman, K Peter… – Continue reading
Commentary: The View from Europe: Little time left to act on US tax bill
The Caribbean has just 18 congressional working days from Sunday September 20 to try to have the US Congress or the District of Colombia address an act naming 17 Caribbean nations as “tax havens”. If passed without amendment it could have the effect of reputationally damaging the countries concerned with… – Continue reading
EU blacklists Hong Kong as ‘non-cooperative tax jurisdiction’
Kenneth Leung (PC,F-Accountancy) explains what he – and the government – are doing to get Hong Kong off the EU’s undeserved blacklisting as a “non-cooperative tax jurisdiction”. Why has Hong Kong been placed on this list? There are ten European countries that have named Hong Kong as a tax haven…. – Continue reading
Antigua-Barbuda takes protest over tax haven listing to Capitol Hill
Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, has written to the mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Brower, and several members of the US congress calling for the removal of Antigua and Barbuda from a list of alleged “tax havens”, reports Caribbean News Now. Antigua… – Continue reading
Bahamas “largely compliant” says OECD Tax Policy Director
The director of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Pascal Saint-Amans, has praised The Bahamas for its “tremendous progress” in adopting Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) standards and paving the way for automatic exchange of information between the US and The… – Continue reading
Bahamas: Fatca compliance ‘will strengthen financial services industry’
Financial Services Minister Hope Strachan said yesterday that the landscape of the country’s financial services industry would be strengthened as a result of the nation’s compliance with the tax information exchange agreements such as the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), saying that she was fairly satisfied that The… – Continue reading
US TAX DODGERS BEWARE
Americans who believe the region is a safe tax haven to hide money and investments overseas should think twice as Caribbean trade bloc countries are moving to full comply with a new U.S. law designed to catch tax dodgers who stash assets in foreign destinations. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance… – Continue reading
United States: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”)
FATCA refers to provisions contained in the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (the ‘HIRE’ Act) signed into law on 18 March 2010 in the United States. The main purpose of FATCA is to identify and gather information on US persons who may be evading tax through the use of… – Continue reading
St. Kitts-Nevis Among 30 Countries On EU’s Tax Evasion Blacklist
St. Kitts and Nevis is one of 30 countries placed on the European Union’s black list for not doing enough to fight tax evasion. The EU’s executive Commission published the list Wednesday (June 17). The blacklisted countries figure on at least ten of the EU’s 28 member nations’ lists of… – Continue reading
Bahamas: Financial services keeping up with international best practices claims Strachan
Minister of Financial Services the Hon. Hope Strachan said international best practices are evolving at a rapid pace, particularly as it relates to automatic tax exchange initiatives, tax transparency, anti-money laundering and financial crime, and e-commerce, reports the Bahamas Weekly. Making her contribution to the 2015 Budget Debate in the… – Continue reading
The Bahamas Chooses the Path of Innovation, Compliance
The past decade or more has not been an easy road to manoeuvre for IFCs. The Bahamas like other IFCs has faced the combined challenges of international initiatives, increased competition, industry consolidation, changing client demographics, emerging market requirements; legacy market stagnation and of course the financial crisis just a few… – Continue reading
Global Tax Transparency Goes Live in 2016
Cross border tax fraud and tax evasion by High Net Wealth Individuals (HNWI) are serious problems for many jurisdictions. For many years exchange of information between countries has been solely upon request. In practise this procedure is not efficiently working as it requires foreseeable relevance, thus ‘fishing’ for information is… – Continue reading
British Virgin Islands: Sea Change
The ongoing global initiatives around exchange of tax information and publication of beneficial ownership information, while ostensibly in pursuit of transparency, have their origins in the need for the larger, richer countries to increase tax revenues, and the perception that taxpayers are hiding assets abroad and out of the tax… – Continue reading
RBC exits wealth management in Cayman Islands, Caribbean
RBC Wealth Management has announced plans to discontinue its private wealth management business in the Caribbean. The strategy to “realign certain businesses within [its] international operations” was presented to staff in an internal memorandum last Thursday. It is not clear whether the business will be closed or sold. Paul French,… – Continue reading
Dirty money: 19 UK firms alleged ‘complicit’ in $20bn laundering scam
Some 19 British firms are at the center of an investigation into in a mammoth global money-laundering operation. The scheme was allegedly contrived to make $20bn (£12.5bn) worth of ill-gotten gains appear legitimate. The illicit funds are thought to have originated from criminal gangs and corrupt officials across the globe,… – Continue reading
Bahamas FATCA Agreement Reached
The Ministry of Financial Services is pleased to advise that the Cabinet of The Bahamas approved, in principle, the Model 1 Agreement between the Government of The Bahamas and the Government of the United States to implement Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) following a productive round of negotiations with… – Continue reading
Bahamas Suffers 40% Uk Visitor Fall
The Bahamas suffered a 40.6 per cent fall in UK stopover arrivals in the six years to 2013, with a senior hotel executive expressing hope that London’s aviation tax cuts will have an “overarching positive impact” in reversing this trend. #Stuart Bowe, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president,… – Continue reading
CFATF Public Statement
On 20 November, 2013 the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) issued a public statement identifying jurisdictions in the Caribbean Basin region with strategic anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies that have not made sufficient progress in addressing such deficiencies. Those jurisdictions are identified as Belize… – Continue reading
