If former Fiat Chrysler Australia boss Clyde Campbell goes down over allegations he misused tens of millions dollars of company money, he might just threaten to take the entire Australian operation of the global automaker and several executives with him. Mr Campbell on Wednesday opened the door for a tax… – Continue reading
There is an intimate relationship between art and finance. In the public sphere, the state plays a predominant role in funding and maintaining national art collections. The private sphere is dominated by private patronage. For example, artists in medieval Italy were funded by wealthy families such as the Medici, and… – Continue reading
Consultation on the ATO’s practical guide for offshore marketing hub arrangements is kicking off in August. The guide may also assist taxpayers with offshore intellectual property (IP) hubs. Here is what you need to know if you market Australian produced goods offshore or have centralised your IP offshore. Do you… – Continue reading
On 25 July 2015 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine published an order on the conclusion of advance pricing agreements (“APA”) in respect of controlled transactions for transfer pricing purposes* (“the APA Order”). The APA Order replaces the former procedure for the conclusion of APAs which became outdated due to… – Continue reading
Multinationals should pay a withholding tax before moving their profits out of EU countries to ensure they are being taxed somewhere, according to a draft report from the European Parliament. The report, seen by the Irish Examiner, deals with the fallout from the Lux Leaks and follows the European Commission’s… – Continue reading
Just as every new government fiddles around with high school history text books, it also dabbles in Mauritius and P-notes. Both actions have a sharp, short-lived impact, leaving behind a trail of conspiracy theories. Mauritius and P-notes are ghosts that New Delhi and regulators could never quite exercise. They unfailingly… – Continue reading
These proposals can be implemented individually or as part of other reforms that may be in the pipeline PKF wishes to contribute its part towards the next budget implementation and for this purpose it has researched new areas which in its opinion warrant attention by the government during the public… – Continue reading
The Indian cabinet on Wednesday approved foreign investment in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), a category of pooled-in investment vehicles for real estate, private equity and hedge funds, reports Bloomberg. The move comes after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised in his Budget speech that rules will be liberalised to channel more… – Continue reading
The international press, especially the Italian one, has been filled these past days with stories of ‘Ndrangheta criminals who have been arrested in Italy and who seem to have links with online gaming companies in Malta which they may have been using for money laundering. This is bad news for… – Continue reading
Requiring the Land Registry to publish information about foreign companies that own property in England and Wales could ultimately speed up the recovery of money from fraudsters who have “hidden” victims’ money in a variety of corporate structures, an expert has said. UK prime minister David Cameron announced new measures… – Continue reading
As U.S. expats struggle with the IRS’s punitively strict tax reporting requirements, Canadian expats are now grappling with harsh government measures of their own. Ontario’s top court has ruled that Canadian expats who have lived abroad for five years should not be allowed to vote in federal elections because it… – Continue reading
The European Union (EU) doesn’t like the special tax deals that are offered to companies to entice them to set up in Switzerland. So the Swiss government is working hard to find a replacement. One element of their new plan is to offer patent boxes. A recent study by economists… – Continue reading
The Prime Minister took small bites as he tucked into the Indonesian street food alongside a local celebrity, singer and actress Maudy Ayunda. “London is not a place to stash your dodgy cash”. Transparency worldwide says shell companies are a common way for moving corrupt money around the world. Some… – Continue reading
The Britain has commended the Zambian government for implementing the UK-Zambia double taxation agreement. British High Commissioner to Zambia James Thornton said the agreement will help promote and foster business linkages between British and Zambia companies. In a press statement issued to ZANIS in Lusaka today, Mr. Thornton said the… – Continue reading
Understanding FATCA and having a comprehensive FATCA compliance program is essential for financial firms to limit non-compliance risk and meet obligations with relevant IGA’s. The US has made inroads on the Exchange of Information front and tax havens like Switzerland have declared a willingness to meet or even exceed OECD… – Continue reading
An investor, who purchased shares of Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against Silver Wheaton Corp. in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between March 30, 2011 and July 6, 2015. Investors who purchased a significant amount of shares of Silver Wheaton… – Continue reading
The Britain has commended the Zambian government for implementing the UK-Zambia double taxation agreement. British High Commissioner to Zambia James Thornton said the agreement will help promote and foster business linkages between British and Zambia companies. In a press statement issued to ZANIS in Lusaka today, Mr. Thornton said the… – Continue reading
Over the past year, a number of legislative measures have been adopted to ensure that the Cayman Islands remains the leading jurisdiction of choice for structured finance and capital markets transactions and for secured lending transactions generally. This article focuses on two recent key legislative developments. The first is the… – Continue reading
Over the past year, a number of legislative measures have been adopted to ensure that the Cayman Islands remains the leading jurisdiction of choice for structured finance and capital markets transactions and for secured lending transactions generally. This article focuses on two recent key legislative developments. The first is the… – Continue reading
The Mauritius Revenue Authority has extended the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting deadline to 31 August 2015. The FATCA Agreement between Mauritius and the United States was signed on 27 December 2013. FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires… – Continue reading
On June 22, 2015, the finance ministry issued Circular 96/2015/TT-BTC, guiding the corporate income tax regime in Decree 12/2015/ND-CP (“Decree 12”) of the government, dated February 12, 2015. Decree 12 provides the details for the implementation of the law that amends and supplements some articles of tax laws, tax decrees… – Continue reading
There is a rising trend that many start-ups incorporate their ultimate holding companies abroad, especially in Singapore for various reasons with tax being one of the top 3 factors for such decisions. Some of them have restructured the holding structures after few months of direct Indian holding to accommodate requests… – Continue reading
OUAGADOUGOU, July 29 (Xinhua) — Burkina Faso’s Transition Parliament has questioned the country’s economy and finance minister as it opened an inquiry into tax evasion, a parliamentary source told Xinhua on Tuesday. Official sources revealed that the government had in the last five years lost approximately 40 million U.S. dollars… – Continue reading
From five-star hotels to humble tavernas, Greek tax inspectors are fixing their attention on tax evasion at summer holiday hotspots. The government served notice on Wednesday that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s promised crackdown on tax evasion is now under way, a week after sweeping increases in value-added tax were imposed…. – Continue reading
ZURICH, July 29 (Reuters) – Shares in EFG International plunged nearly 19 percent on Wednesday after the Swiss private bank sharply missed first-half profit expectations, saying market uncertainty in the euro zone, Brazil and China hit fee income. New Chief Executive Joachim Straehle described the results, which included a drop… – Continue reading
Kenya collected 1.001 trillion shillings ($10 billion) in the fiscal year to end-June, a 3.86 percent increase from the previous year, the Treasury said on Wednesday. Officials in East Africa’s biggest economy are aiming at increasing tax collections to fund several infrastructure projects, including a new railway, and pay for… – Continue reading
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO—The Democratic Republic of Congo’s biggest-ever corruption probe was called off without an official explanation, according to both a Congolese lawmaker and a government spokesman. Investigators were looking into fraud that may have cost the government more than $3 billion. It was an investigation of alleged… – Continue reading
“People have had ample opportunity to regularise their affairs”, says HMRC as it presents the next move in its “No Safe Havens” strategy. A package of measures was proposed in the Summer Budget 2015 designed to ramp up HMRC’s powers to tackle offshore tax evasion. With civil deterrents and civil… – Continue reading
There has been much recent focus on tax structures employed by multi-national corporations. This has led to an initiative, spearheaded by the OECD, to combat “base erosion and profit shifting”, or BEPS. The shipping industry is likely to be affected both directly and indirectly by the BEPS initiative – directly,… – Continue reading
Taipei, July 29 (CNA) Taiwan issued licenses Wednesday to 14 insurance companies operating here to run offshore insurance units (OIUs), and Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗) said that the license issuance will help Taiwan move closer to transforming itself into an asset management hub in the Asia-Pacific… – Continue reading
Blaming foreigners for homegrown economic woes is a tradition of sorts in Washington. In recent years, the favored scapegoat has been China and its folkloric trade indiscretions. But, lately, some have taken to demonizing foreign companies for the sins of a broken U.S. corporate tax system. Given the importance of… – Continue reading
A U.S. Senate investigative subcommittee, which has used its power for more than a decade to scrutinize corporations and financial institutions for wrongdoing, is shifting its focus to keeping tabs on the government. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is slated to hold its first hearing under new leadership… – Continue reading
Foreigners must not be able to buy UK homes with “plundered or laundered cash” as part a global effort to defeat corruption, David Cameron has said. Speaking in Singapore, the prime minister vowed to expose the use of “anonymous shell companies” to buy luxury UK properties – often in London…. – Continue reading
On July 28, 2015 the Dutch Government published the English text of the Agreement between the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in respect of Aruba, and the Czech Republic for the exchange of information on tax matters (hereafter: the TIEA), which was signed in the Hague on June 29, 2015. Although… – Continue reading
Why stop at $221 billion? Drug companies are entering another round of dealmaking, after plowing past the global record. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s $40.5 billion agreement Monday to purchase Allergan Plc’s generic-medicines business puts the mechanism in place to trigger more takeovers. For starters, the remaining Allergan company — with… – Continue reading
In the first 100% Conservative Budget in nearly two decades, chancellor George Osborne has introduced a raft of changes, including significant revisions to UK non-dom status. On 8 July, chancellor George Osborne delivered the first Conservative Government Budget for 19 years. Many headlines had already been flagged up in advance,… – Continue reading
None of the pharmaceutical companies that are accused of profit shifting have been taken to court, the Australian Taxation Office has said in written responses to the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance. Earlier in July executives from the largest global pharmaceutical companies operating in Australia were hauled before the… – Continue reading
A litigation suit has been filed against the US federal government arguing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is “unconstitutional” and violates privacy rights, with implications for Australian financial institutions. The controversial FATCA tax legislation – which was introduced by the Obama Administration in 2010 – requires foreign financial… – Continue reading
A Huddersfield tycoon, accused of masterminding one of Europe’s biggest tax frauds, is expected to be extradited from the USA to Germany. Mohammad Safdar Gohir has been in a Las Vegas jail for more than a year and is now awaiting deportation to Germany following a US court’s decision. Gohir,… – Continue reading
The Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) will host a public seminar this week entitled “Implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act: Where Are We Now?” The event will provide representatives and employees of financial institutions who do business with US persons with an update on the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance… – Continue reading
The July 21 edition of the Brazilian Official Gazette contained provisional measure 685 (PM 685), which creates an obligation on taxpayers to formally report to tax authorities certain transactions that result in tax benefits. The requirement is supposedly in line with the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project… – Continue reading
FEW tax hikes have been timed so badly – and retracted so fast – as that imposed on mineral royalties by Zambia’s President Edward Lungu in January. After threats of divestment from major mining houses and an outcry from the country’s Chamber of Mines, the massive hike in royalty taxes… – Continue reading
Billionaire offshore tax cheat Igor Olenicoff has won a big one in his long running court battle with his former Swiss bank, UBS AG, and his former UBS banker turned whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld. In a ruling from the bench Thursday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim G. Dunning shot down… – Continue reading
REPRESENTATIVES AND EMPLOYEES of various financial institutions on the island who do business with US persons will soon get an update on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) will host a public consultation entitled Implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act: Where Are We… – Continue reading
Tax season is daunting enough at home – let alone in a foreign country. That’s why expats David and Carrie McKeegan started Greenback, the tax company designed specifically for American expats. The Local talked to the couple about how to handle taxes in Switzerland. Taxes are complicated enough in your… – Continue reading
The Revenue Agency has confirmed that it has finalized its instructions for Italian financial institutions (FIs) to transmit their data to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) inter-governmental agreement (IGA) between Italy and the United States. FATCA, enacted by the US Congress in 2010, is intended to… – Continue reading
Where a foreign company renders professional services to a South African company in South Africa, it is important that the foreign entity considers whether, as a result of rendering such services, the foreign company will create a permanent establishment in South Africa. The reason why this becomes important is that… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Power politics within the ruling party may ruin the move to control tax evasion, as traders supported by Punjab government have backed out from the agreement they signed earlier this month that would bring them under the tax net in return of seeking major concessions. Daylong talks between representatives… – Continue reading
White-collar criminals who launder billions by buying luxury UK properties must be tackled, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday. Experts warn these fraudsters are distorting the UK property market and pushing up house prices in the process. Cameron’s criticism of money laundering formed part of a broader speech on… – Continue reading
Fraudsters behind the latest phone scam making the rounds appear to believe that Canadians pay taxes to the American Internal Revenue Service. “Notice against your name for tax fraud, for tax evasion,” the recorded message begins and continues with its threatening tone. “So before this matter goes to complaint goes… – Continue reading
