AMP chief executive Craig Meller has launched an aggressive defence of the company’s international taxation arrangements after the financial services giant was named among some of the world’s biggest multinationals that allegedly channelled funds through Luxembourg to minimise their tax bills. The recent meeting of the G20 leaders in Brisbane… – Continue reading
December 1: The Inland Revenue last week released its annual compliance guide for taxpayers and reports on progress with respect to the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) work and time frames, for New Zealand consultation on possible domestic law changes to address BEPS concerns. The 2014/15 compliance guide… – Continue reading
The numbers don’t lie, but when it comes to business tax avoidance they might be hiding the truth. Auckland University tax expert Craig Elliffe says IRD is reporting record high dollar figures of tax avoidance by Kiwi firms. But he doesn’t think it’s an issue of increasing crime. “I think… – Continue reading
The tax office said that Australia’s commitment to the automatic global exchange of information will mean accessing overseas banking information will become easier and hiding income and assets offshore will become harder. “Recent developments in exchange of information between countries and improved data matching capability mean there’s nowhere left to… – Continue reading
Progress reports released on tax avoidance Revenue Minister Todd McClay today released two reports from officials relating to tax avoidance by large multinational companies. The reports provide an update on policy work being undertaken in line with the OECD Action Plan and also outline the expected timeline for related policy… – Continue reading
The concept of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) has been debated at various international forums following discussions at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting and the G20 Heads of State summit in Russia last year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) BEPS Action Plan… – Continue reading
New Zealand is rated 22nd out of 189 economies in its ease of paying taxes, according to Paying Taxes 2015, now in its ninth edition. The unique study by PwC and the World Bank Group is the only piece of research which measures the ease of paying taxes by assessing… – Continue reading
Westpac will shut down the accounts of money transfer operators on November 24, due to growing fears about breaching strict terrorism financing and anti-money laundering laws, leaving hundreds of legitimate remitters to developing countries in the lurch. Westpac is the last of the four major banks to withdraw from servicing… – Continue reading
New Zealand is planning to crackdown on tax evaders and combat the menace of avoidance by international firms. As part of the exercise, New Zealand will work with an international action plan being spearheaded by the OECD. This was stated by Finance Minister Mr. Bill English. He told media persons… – Continue reading
Australia risks losing billions in tax revenues from resources sales to Asia if global efforts to stop multinational tax avoidance backfire, Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder said. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development proposes to change the basis on which profits are taxed, as part of its global anti-avoidance… – Continue reading
G20 leaders are under pressure to go further in their efforts to crack down on tax avoidance after the revelation that thousands of companies, including several major Australian firms and multinationals operating in Australia, have legally avoided tax with complicated deals negotiated through Luxembourg. The chairman of a Senate inquiry… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance, or the use of legal arrangements to reduce tax, is rife. According to the Australian Tax Office (ATO), Australian companies in 2012 sent almost A$60 billion to related parties in tax havens. Singapore and Ireland topped the list of countries where businesses send their money. A recent report… – Continue reading
The Government continues to move slowly on global tax evasion and no action is likely for four to five years, according to a statement by Revenue Minister Todd McClay. Companies like Facebook and Google have been under fire around the world for shifting revenue and profits to different jurisdictions to… – Continue reading
SYDNEY (World Bank) — Palau, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu are the Pacific economies that have implemented reforms to encourage business growth over the past year, according to a World Bank Group report measuring the ease of doing business in 189 economies across the globe. “Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond… – Continue reading
Revenue Minister Todd McClay today announced New Zealand’s timetable for participation in a global automatic exchange of information aimed at cracking down on tax evasion. G20 leaders announced the initiative in September 2013 – and in May 2014, New Zealand, along with all OECD countries, joined in the general declaration… – Continue reading
WELLINGTON, Oct. 29 — New Zealand is to join a global scheme to fight tax evasion by multi-national companies in 2019, Revenue Minister Todd McClay said Wednesday, prompting criticism that he was offering a five-year “tax holiday” for foreign firms. G20 leaders announced the initiative for an automatic exchange of… – Continue reading
Nearly 1,500 individuals have disclosed more than AUD180m (USD157.8m) in previously unreported offshore income and over AUD1bn in assets since the Project DO IT amnesty was launched, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has revealed. The scheme began in April and is scheduled to end on December 19, 2014. The foreign… – Continue reading
Australians gamble more per capita than any other country in the world – and lose more too – so it’s no surprise that our gaming industry is getting flustered about the rivers of money flowing to the online black market. Tabcorp’s Paula Dwyer today called on the federal government to… – Continue reading
Brisbane summit an opportunity for change and Australia welcomes its neighbour’s help, says Michael Potts. In a few weeks, Australia will welcome leaders of the world’s major economies to Brisbane for the G20 Summit. Australia invited New Zealand to take part in the G20 during our 2014 presidency. Over this… – Continue reading
Hopes are rising that multinational companies operating in New Zealand may soon be paying a fairer share of tax. The French official leading the global clampdown on multinational tax rorts says the scrapping of the notorious “double Irish” tax loophole shows aggressive tax planning is on the way out. Organisation… – Continue reading
Reports from Vanuatu say an entertainment company with interests in China is to offer a new style of gambling to Vanuatu. The Daily Post Newspaper reports Amax International Holdings plans to offer live-dealer online gambling to high-rollers in the country. Amax is an investment holding company engaged in gambling and… – Continue reading
New Zealand is losing $9.4 billion a year to economic crime. According to a draft report by the Serious Fraud Office, government ministers had been working on the cost of economic crime for two years. The report was expected to be presented before the Cabinet. A copy of the report… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s attempt to prevent companies from seeking a tax address outside the country hasn’t stopped Steris Corp. (STE) The Mentor, Ohio-based provider of hospital sterilization products and services announced today that it will buy the smaller Synergy Health Plc (SYR) and establish the combined company’s tax address to… – Continue reading
Undeclared offshore income and assets must be disclosed by 19 December 2014 The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is reassuring taxpayers that disclosing under Project DO IT will not give them a “red flag”. Project DO IT, the ATO’s offshore voluntary disclosure initiative, offers considerable benefits to taxpayers who bring their… – Continue reading
Findings that New Zealand’s tax system is the second most competitive of all 34 OECD countries reflect changes that should be promoted more internationally, says Greg Thompson, Partner and National Director, Tax at Grant Thornton New Zealand. The Tax Foundation’s International Tax Competitiveness Index ranks tax systems on the basis… – Continue reading
OPINION: How often do you hear governments say ‘we’re not sure if it will work, but we’ll give it a shot’? Not a lot, Chalkie would say. Lack of evidence that a policy will produce the desired effect is generally its death knell, particularly if said government was not keen… – Continue reading
SOUTH African property punters are still making more money offshore than in their own backyards — in both rand and dollar terms. Latest figures from Cape-based Catalyst Fund Managers and UBS show that global property stocks, or real estate investment trusts (Reits) as they are commonly known, delivered a total… – Continue reading
Eight of the top 200 companies publicly listed on the Australian stock exchange (ASX200) paid no taxes on profits averaging $50 million to more than half a billion dollars over the decade to 2013! More than 20 (10 percent) corporations paid an average tax rate of five percent or less…. – Continue reading
Telstra’s billion dollar share buy back, which only made financial sense for zero-tax shareholders, has been a roaring success. So much so, a scale-back by almost 70 per cent of tenders was required and the firm paid out at the bottom of the agreed range — just $4.60 a share,… – Continue reading
OHN KEHOE The global tax plan being pursued by Australia as G20 president, to compel low-tax paying multinationals such as Google and Apple to contribute more revenue to government coffers, could be derailed by political resistance in the United States. A prominent US senator in congress who would likely become… – Continue reading
We pay our taxes. Why won’t they? It’s the topic every tax official and finance minister in the developed world is talking about and acting on, yet we hear little about it in New Zealand. Cracking down on tax avoidance by the world’s biggest technology companies – among them Google,… – Continue reading
Tax attack Bill Shorten accuses the government during Tuesday’s question time of going soft on corporate tax avoidance; Tony Abbott says Labor did nothing in government. Autoplay ONOFFVideo feedbackVideo settings Bill Shorten: Corporate tax avoidance costs Australian business The Pulse Live: Judith Ireland blogs live from Parliament The Abbott government… – Continue reading
Almost a third of Australia’s largest companies are paying less than 10¢ in the dollar in corporate tax, a report that exposes a gaping hole in government revenues over the past decade shows. As Australia prepares to host world leaders at the G20 summit in Brisbane in November, where a… – Continue reading
Inland Revenue has gone shopping for a database to help it fight erosion of the tax base and “profit stripping” by multinational corporations. The database will help the taxman to independently assess the level of profitability companies should be returning for tax purposes by benchmarking the prices multinationals charge their… – Continue reading
The Government of Canada has been moving ahead with its plans to solve the deficit by cutting services to Canadians and yet, there are billions of dollars in taxable assets illegally hidden by some Canadians in overseas tax havens. Overseas tax evasion is a serious problem requiring assertive action. Eight… – Continue reading
The Government of Canada has been moving ahead with its plans to solve the deficit by cutting services to Canadians and yet, there are billions of dollars in taxable assets illegally hidden by some Canadians in overseas tax havens. Overseas tax evasion is a serious problem requiring assertive action not… – Continue reading
All is likely to be revealed on whether New Zealand will be an early adopter of the multilateral follow up to the controversial United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in November, with late adoption something that would please the local banking sector. Either way it’s a question of… – Continue reading
Australia’s dividend imputation system promises to remove ‘double taxation’ but, in doing so, it has created problems of its own that are now more damaging than the concern they were supposed to solve. When a business pays a dividend it comes from income that has already been taxed by the… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released its first set of recommendations for a coordinated international approach to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises, under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project. The OECD and the Group of 20 finance ministers hope to create a single set… – Continue reading
Remember the study last year that ranked our tax code right below Zimbabwe? Now, a new study by the Tax Foundation still ranks us near last. Zimbabwe wasn’t a part of this contest, since the new study looked only at the 34 countries making up the OECD. Still, we have… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3fbed922-3d51-11e4-871d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3Eo63WbfR The British Virgin Islands has long attracted Chinese companies looking to… – Continue reading
Banks in the British Virgin Islands are making it more difficulty for new accounts to be opened after a rise in reports of suspicious transactions relating to the Caribbean tax haven. Difficulties in opening bank accounts are seen to have helped business, including an increase in new incorporations, in the… – Continue reading
Australians are increasingly concerned about corporate tax avoidance and support greater measures to tackle profit shifting, a survey shows. Voters are also more likely to view companies such as Apple negatively because of their use of offshore tax havens, and want companies to be required to report their profits and… – Continue reading
Labor has accused the government of procrastinating on a key measure to stop multinational companies shifting profits offshore. It comes as the government prepares to chair the G20 finance ministers meeting in Cairns next week. The information-sharing deal, part of the global push to tackle tax avoidance, has been signed… – Continue reading
Racing authorities have launched an investigation into allegations offshore bookmaker Betjack is failing to pay punters their winnings. The move comes as Betjack, based in tropical tax haven Vanuatu, gears up ahead of the spring racing carnival by hiring more sales staff for its Australian call centre, located on the… – Continue reading
A political advisor for the government of the former Vanuatu Prime Minister Moana Carcasses, French national Gilles Daniel, has had his Vanuatu citizenship revoked. Mr Daniel has already been deported from Vanuatu in 2005, but challenged his deportation, with the court ruling in his favour. The secretary of the Vanuatu… – Continue reading
A contingent of so-called “corrupt clients” from Canada have been caught in the net of a massive fraud investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney, a source close to the investigation told CBC. CBC News reported Wednesday that two Canadians, along with four others, were indicted in the U.S…. – Continue reading
Several residents of American Samoa have argued in federal court that those born in the territory should automatically be granted U.S. citizenship, but the American Samoa government and its congressional delegate disagree. Tradition, land ownership Giving birthright citizenship to American Samoa would jeopardize the traditional way of life in the… – Continue reading
The Federal Court has handed down its decision in the case of Task Technology v Commissioner of Taxation in relation to the tax treatment of specific software payments. The case related to payments made by Task to CaseWare International Inc (CWI) for the right to market and distribute CWI software to end users… – Continue reading
Airbnb has joined other multinational tech companies by booking its Australian profits offshore through an Irish subsidiary. The move raises questions about how much local tax it pays and whether its rent-sharing model will run into trouble with regulators here. The private company, estimated to be worth $10 billion, has sought immunity from corporate… – Continue reading
