The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has extended its Third Party Business Requirement Specification (BRS) for data submissions via Direct Data Flow (DDF) to include withholding tax on interest and tax-free savings and investments. The extension will be available for year-end data submissions due on May 31, 2016 (for the… – Continue reading
(Newsroom America) — Gregg R. Mulholland, a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen, has been arrested at Phoenix International Airport during a layover of his flight from Canada to Mexico on charges of securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for fraudulently manipulating the stocks of numerous U.S. publicly-traded companies and… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said India will sign an agreement with the US under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) that would facilitate automatic transmission of information and would help counter the scourge of black money. Wrapping up his nine-day US visit, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said India will… – Continue reading
U.S. lawmakers are exploring a new corporate tax break that would benefit companies already adept at avoiding taxes. The idea — known as a patent box or innovation box — would impose a lower tax rate on income generated from patents and other intellectual property housed in the U.S. This… – Continue reading
The banks which attracted tax evaders can no longer continue in this pattern because the era of banking secrecy is over and an era of transparency has begun.” Jacque de Saussure, Chairman of Banque Pictet & Cie An increasingly complex regulatory environment combined with growing clients demands for transparency and… – Continue reading
Anti-graft organisation Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) has urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct a thorough investigation into Majlis Amanah Rakyat’s (Mara) purchase of a Melbourne property that was alleged to have been bought in a scam. TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar said there were enough provisions in the MACC… – Continue reading
When Indian President Pranab Mukherjee gave Finance Bill 2015 his assent on May 14, most provisions were largely hailed as improvements to the business environment in India. Others, while seen as primarily positive, have been the cause of some concern. One such provision changes the residency test for companies doing… – Continue reading
Rand Paul is poised to become the first major presidential candidate in memory to sue the government he seeks to lead as president. The Kentucky senator will take legal action against the U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service for what he says is the denial of his constitutional right… – Continue reading
Government data suggests there may be tax shenanigans going on in the city of Richmond, a situation that clearly is intolerable. Questions have been raised by a recent Vancouver Sun report by Douglas Todd about residents in the upscale neighbourhood of Thompson, located in northwest Richmond. Former Richmond mayor Greg… – Continue reading
A man accused of helping orchestrate a stock-fraud scheme involving Belize-based Cynk Technology Corp., which surged briefly to a market value of $6 billion last year, was charged by U.S. officials with conspiracy. Gregg Mulholland, also known as “Stamps,” and “Charlie Wolf,” was arrested Tuesday as part of a probe… – Continue reading
The governments of Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines have complained about the European Union’s decision to include them on a list of 30 international tax havens, reports the Latin American Herald. “Grenada’s inclusion implies that Grenada is not doing sufficient to guard against harmful tax practices,” Prime Minister… – Continue reading
“It seems to be realistic to finalize the file on the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings within this year,” Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President of the European Commission, has said, reports Tax News. Dombrovskis made the comment during a press conference after a meeting of the Economic and Financial… – Continue reading
Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of the agency, said at a press conference in mid-May that there were signs of dairy manufacturers and distributors committing transfer pricing. The majority of materials and finished dairy products are imported from overseas for domestic production and distribution as directed by the foreign partners. Therefore,… – Continue reading
Online retailer’s Luxembourg unit took £5.3bn sales from British internet shoppers, a rise of 14%, but Amazon.co.uk Limited recorded profit of just £34.4m Amazon’s booming UK business paid just £11.9m of tax last year, while the online retailer’s Luxembourg unit took £5.3bn of sales from British internet shoppers without being… – Continue reading
Last year at this time, more than a dozen U.S.-based corporations were threatening to move their legal residence to foreign tax havens in a paper transaction known as an inversion. Facing a wave of public opposition, some corporations abandoned these inversion attempts—notably, drugstore chain Walgreens put its plans on ice,… – Continue reading
A penny-stock firm’s mysterious surge last year to a $6 billion market cap that stunned Wall Street was allegedly the work of a California stock promoter who conspired with a network of corrupt offshore brokers. Gregg R. Mulholland, also known as “Stamps” and “Charlie Wolf” according to the government, was… – Continue reading
Indonesia hopes to bring billions of dollars in financial assets parked overseas back home – by pardoning past financial crimes. A Bill on tax amnesty is expected to be discussed in Parliament this year, said Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro. “A tax amnesty should not be seen simply as pardoning those… – Continue reading
[BEIJING] Bank of China Ltd, the Chinese lender with the most overseas assets, aims to raise US$3 billion from foreign investors on Wednesday to help finance the nation’s new Silk Road project, a person familiar with the matter said. The lender is offering notes denominated in US dollars, euros, Singapore… – Continue reading
Julius Baer Group Ltd. rose the most in four months in Zurich trading on speculation a U.S. fine for helping Americans avoid taxes will be lower than analysts had estimated. Switzerland’s third-largest wealth manager said on Tuesday it will take a provision of $350 million this month to settle the… – Continue reading
The Government of Netherlands has successfully negotiated the inclusion of anti-abuse provisions, aimed at combating cross-border tax avoidance, in tax treaties with Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. At present, talks are being held with another seven countries and new agreements with several other countries are expected to be concluded… – Continue reading
It’s taken some time, but it’s harder for U.S. citizens to hold foreign accounts away from the eyes of the IRS. FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, was signed into law in 2010 with the goal of ferreting out accounts hidden by U.S. taxpayers in foreign lands. While FATCA… – Continue reading
ST. JOHN’S –– Antigua and Barbuda has written to the European Union’s representative in the Caribbean, strongly objecting to the twin-island nation being named a tax haven and calling on the EU to apologize and withdraw the list. In a strongly worded letter to Head of the Delegation of the… – Continue reading
The TAXE committee, set up in the wake of the damaging ‘Luxleaks’ revelations to examine practice in the application of EU state aid and taxation law, has conducted on-site visits to the five EU member states and Switzerland. Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats spokesperson on the TAXE committee Peter… – Continue reading
Newcomers to the United States on temporary visas may be unpleasantly surprised at the income tax consequences. A little advance planning with tax and immigration professionals can go a long way towards mitigating income taxes due. Many countries imposes taxes on income earned in that country (i.e., a territorial tax… – Continue reading
THE publication by Parliament of the Land Reform Bill represents an important moment in the land reform debate. It is over a decade since the last one and in that time many long-standing issues have been neglected. The Scottish Government’s Land Reform Review Group, however, put land back on the… – Continue reading
The Isle of Man’s Agreement for the Exchange of Information Relating to Tax Matters with the Government of the Italian Republic entered into force on 10 June 2015. The agreement was signed on 16 September 2013 in London between Eddie Teare, the Isle of Man’s Treasury Minister, and His Excellency… – Continue reading
A recent report by Americans For Tax Fairness looks at how Walmart, the world’s largest corporation, uses a vast network of subsidiaries and branches in overseas tax havens with two purposes: 1.) to minimize taxes owed on its foreign operations. 2.) most importantly, to avoid United States taxes on those… – Continue reading
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has taken a swipe at Switzerland for providing only limited information about wealthy tax evaders from cash-strapped Greece who are believed to have stashed billions of euros in Swiss banks. In an interview on Wednesday with Rundschau, a current affairs programme from state broadcaster SRF,… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands Government, along with its fellow 126 members of the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, today received an email signed jointly by the Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA), and the Head of the Global Forum… – Continue reading
While the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) became law in 2010, it has been slowly transitioning to implementation, with 2015 being the first year of required reportings. For anyone not familiar with the Act, FATCA aims to prevent tax non-compliance among U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts by requiring U.S…. – Continue reading
Offshore reporting carries many special rules, all of them with a raft of potential penalties. By now, most U.S. persons are familiar with the requirement to report their offshore accounts and assets. For those who are not, you must report all income and disclose the existence of accounts on tax… – Continue reading
The bill was tabled before lawmakers at the legislative chambers in Banjul on Tuesday, by the Finance and Economic Affairs Minister, Abdou Kolley. The agreement being unanimously ratified by parliamentarians according to Minister Kolley, is aimed at promoting business and investment deals between the three nations in a bid to… – Continue reading
Thailand’s Council of State is deliberating the country’s first law on transfer pricing. If passed the bill w ould allow Thailand Revenue Department (TRD) officials to enquire into profits from crossborder transactions of multinational companies. The final draft of the law w as approved by the Cabinet in May this… – Continue reading
Romania loses EUR 502 every second, EUR 30,000 every minute, and some EUR 16 billion every year because of tax evasion, said Mihai Daraban, President of Romania’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “This represents about 70% of the tax evasion which state institutions, NGOs or the Fiscal Council calculated. In… – Continue reading
Glencore will make good on its promise to close down their Singapore marketing hub, but instead will pay a new entity within its global chain to market and distribute coal. Glencore regional finance chief Nick Talintyre told a senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that Glencore would begin selling its… – Continue reading
The number of raids on premises carried out by HM Revenue & Customs during investigations into tax evasion has increased by nearly 20% from 500 in 2013/14 to 593 last year. According to international law firm Pinsent Masons, the number of such raids has trebled in the last four years,… – Continue reading
In late May, Amazon announced it had started to pay tax on its sales in the UK rather than in Luxembourg. This came about after Amazon restructured its tax structure in Europe in response, at least in part, to the UK’s diverted profits tax (commonly known as the Google Tax)… – Continue reading
It’s the $2 trillion question. That’s roughly how much U.S. multinational corporations have stashed offshore — money that both Republicans and Democrats would like to tap for revenue and cash that even some companies wouldn’t mind paying a reduced tax rate on. Democrats and some Republicans are interested in using… – Continue reading
Tax havens are used for more than just saving money. When companies take advantage of their lack of transparency for more sinister activities, shareholders can lose out. When Enron collapsed in 2002 investigators were faced with a convoluted network of subsidiaries and offshore partnerships stretching from the Cayman Islands to… – Continue reading
Offshore investors in UK real estate face a range of tax obligations and charges to be managed. This briefing introduces some of the key tax aspects for investors using various offshore structures. UK tax on gains Gains realised by non-residents on the disposal of commercial (non-residential) UK real estate are… – Continue reading
Conor Hynes and Ronan Connaughton of Deloitte Ireland explore the impending changes arising from BEPS Action 7 and the Skandia case and provide insight on the potential tax impact for the insurance industry. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with the saying, “the only thing that is constant is change”…. – Continue reading
Before going after multinationals that channel profits through tax havens and low-tax nations, you must define what one is, business lobbies have told the Abbott government. Treasurer Joe Hockey announced in the May budget that the government would be strengthening anti-avoidance laws to go after 30 companies with over $1… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: A month after Parliament passed the black money bill – which targets those curb the stashing of illegal wealth abroad — a new law is in the pipeline to control tax evasion, sources said. The Special Investigation Team, which is handling the investigation into black money stashed abroad,… – Continue reading
Two more Swiss banks, Bank Linth LLB AG and Bank Sparhafen Zurich AG, have entered deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. government. The subject is tax evasion involving American account holders. Today, banks everywhere want to know if you are compliant with the IRS. Under FATCA, the entire world is… – Continue reading
On Wednesday 17th June, the European Union published a blacklist of international tax havens which are considered to be “non-cooperative”. Thirty jurisdictions have been blacklisted, but Guernsey, one of the thirty, has been blacklisted in error. The States of Guernsey, Guernsey’s legislative body, is currently in communication with the EU… – Continue reading
The Leeds United owner, Massimo Cellino, has been found guilty of tax evasion and fined €40,000 (£28,400) in an Italian court, according to reports in Sardinia. Cellino has been convicted for failing to pay VAT on an imported Range Rover in a court in Cagliari, according to Italian news website… – Continue reading
A “captive” insurance company is an insurer formed for the limited purpose of insuring the risks of its non-insurer owner or owners. A captive can be an effective risk-management tool, especially for costly or unconventional risks, and it can also give businesses direct access to reinsurance markets. The number of… – Continue reading
TEHRAN- The first round of talks for signing a double tax avoidance agreement between Iran and Hungary was held between the two countries’ tax officials. The three-day negotiations were held from June 15 to 17 in the meeting hall of the Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA), the IRNA news agency… – Continue reading
A “captive” insurance company is an insurer formed for the limited purpose of insuring the risks of its non-insurer owner or owners. A captive can be an effective risk-management tool, especially for costly or unconventional risks, and it can also give businesses direct access to reinsurance markets. The number of… – Continue reading
Turnover at UK and offshore investment companies has risen rapidly, with almost one in five fund managers being replaced in the past 18 months amid growing pressure to improve performance, reports the Financial Times. Figures from the Association of Investment Companies showed that 18 per cent of funds had appointed… – Continue reading
