Inquiry sparked by leaked Luxembourg files naming the sovereign wealth fund among dozens of Australian companies using elaborate structures to cut tax bills The $100bn Future Fund has refused to give evidence to a Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance despite being named in leaked documents last year among scores… – Continue reading
A senator wants to change the law so the Canada Revenue Agency is required to annually report how much money is lost to tax evasion, after a two-year battle with “stonewalling” bureaucrats to get that information. Senate Liberal Percy Downe is tabling a private bill aimed at getting a handle… – Continue reading
A BRITISH philanthropist at the centre of a national tax avoidance storm has donated £2,000 towards a Worcestershire MP’s bid for re-election, it has emerged. Lord Fink, a multi-millionaire former hedge fund manager embroiled in a row Ed Miliband, has handed the cash to West Worcestershire Conservative Harriett Baldwin. The… – Continue reading
EU’s Highest Court Rules on Information Exchange On 19 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a significant judgment on the application of EU competition law to information exchange between competitors. The case was an appeal from the European Commission’s 2008 decision to fine banana importers Dole,… – Continue reading
We asked Vincenzo Villamena, a New York-based international tax adviser and certified public accountant with Online Taxman, and his British-expat client Ed Zitron of San Francisco, to share personal finance tips for expats, particularly those hailing from the U.K. Here are their top tips: 1. Mind your pensions & QROPS!… – Continue reading
Jurisdictional issues will limit success. It’s no secret that companies including Apple, Google and Amazon, seem to pay less than their fair share of tax in Australia. Despite booking huge revenues from sales to Australian customers they are able to reduce their profits in this country by shifting profits to… – Continue reading
BENGALURU: Parthasarathi Shome, who is chairman of the Tax Administration Reforms Commission (TARC) of the Union finance ministry, together with and former Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty, has formed a taxation think-tank that will be based in Bengaluru. Called International Tax Research Foundation (ITRF), the think-tank will study and understand the… – Continue reading
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday threatened to resort to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in case Israel did not release Palestinian tax money. Addressing a meeting of the central committee of his Fatah faction, Abbas said the Palestinians would try to solve the issue of withheld tax money… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday accused his political rivals of wanting to raise taxes and borrow more after coming under pressure from six party leaders over his plans to tackle Britain’s 1.5 trillion pound ($2.2 trillion) debt mountain. In the first and only full TV debate of… – Continue reading
Governments in resource-rich African countries must effectively negotiate the terms of operational contracts with mining companies and their affiliates if they are to avoid revenue losses that reduce their capacity to finance development, the African Civil Society Circle has said. The Circle is a coalition of nine civil society groups… – Continue reading
ACCORDING to Greens leader Christine Milne, “Superannuation in Australia has become a tax haven for the wealthy.” Yet as far as most Australians can see, there is only one guaranteed, rolled-gold tax haven in the whole country. It’s called Parliament House, where a fortunate group of people are set to… – Continue reading
It is a peculiar feature of devolution in the United Kingdom that each nation is treated differently, with its own settlement geared to local political demands. Foreign observers look with puzzlement, seeing it as British pragmatism taken to extremes. Yet, whether by chance or design, devolution does seem to occur… – Continue reading
The Barbados Government Information Service has announced that negotiations are in progress for a double taxation agreement between Cyprus and Barbados, as well as for co-operation in other areas, such as tourism. At a recent meeting with the Barbadian Prime Minister the Cyprus High Commissioner to Barbados expressed his optimism… – Continue reading
April 2: Guidance from the State Bank of Vietnam provides financial institutions and branches an automatic 90-day extension of time in which to file their FATCA reporting forms. Therefore, financial institutions have until 30 June 2015 to file their FATCA reports to the U.S. tax agency (IRS). KPMG observation Pending… – Continue reading
An agreement to lower the mainland withholding tax for aircraft and ship leasing is a crucial first step towards realising the Hong Kong government’s ambition of making the city an international centre for financing a global aviation industry that will need US$4.6 trillion worth of planes in the next two… – Continue reading
The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Exchange Connected is working out its kinks and investors are taking notice. Hong Kong and Beijing signed a tax treaty on Thursday that ends double taxation for equity traders, which was one of the sticking points for local brokers hoping to buy into China’s massive mainland… – Continue reading
A new circular says multinational corporations like Google and Facebook will pay taxes on online business with Israelis. Foreign Internet companies and another other foreign corporation with significant business in Israel must register with the VAT authorities as authorized dealers, and their transactions are liable to VAT. Under certain conditions,… – Continue reading
One million American citizens in Canada face double tax troubles. Max Reed explores these challenges in a spring series If you’re a U.S. citizen living in Canada, you might be frantic about the IRS tax crackdown and hefty fines if you haven’t been tax compliant. How fast can the IRS… – Continue reading
Ireland has been targeted by a new Greek law that the country’s government says is aimed at combating the nation’s widespread corporate tax avoidance, reports the Irish Independent. However, critics say a new tax regime that explicitly targets companies doing business in Ireland, Cyprus and Bulgaria undermines Europe’s common market… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — A former Swiss asset manager pleaded guilty to helping U.S. clients hide millions of dollars in offshore accounts and avoid paying federal income taxes. Peter Amrein, 53, a Swiss citizen, told U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan Tuesday that from 1998 to 2012 he helped Americans evade… – Continue reading
85% of the 160 compliance professionals in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region surveyed by Thomson Reuters in collaboration with Deloitte, said that they have been investing in technology rather than skills over the last 2 years. The survey, which examined the anti-financial crime technology used by a… – Continue reading
The Mirror can reveal that a third have ploughed £9m into the Tory war chest while all are likely to have saved thousands from the Tories’ income tax cut Bosses who backed Tory tax cuts can be revealed as party donors, tax avoiders, firms using zero-hours contracts and others accused… – Continue reading
Puerto Rico’s governor has signed a law that requires service providers to accept at least two different types of payment in a push to crack down on tax evaders. The law applies to anyone requiring a license or legal authorization to provide services. It is common for doctors, lawyers and… – Continue reading
The banking sector’s risk from a cooling housing market might be contained, as prudential measures and the likely reversal of an accommodative monetary policy have helped check property speculation and the buildup of systemic risk, Fitch Ratings Ltd said yesterday. “The sector’s household debt servicing would remain manageable under a… – Continue reading
The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor and China’s proposed ‘Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road’ are “closely” related, Beijing says as it has unveiled action plans on this joint ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visits to Central Asia and Southeast Asia in 2013… – Continue reading
DONETSK: The year-long conflict in east Ukraine has closed businesses across this industrial heartland, ramping up unemployment, crippling finances and leaving it ever more reliant on Moscow. Fierce fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels has ravaged a region that once provided 25 percent of the nation’s exports and has… – Continue reading
The federal government is set to target profit shifting by multinationals in the May budget using a so-called Google tax in a bid to raise revenue and wrest the political initiative back from Labor. While Australia is leading a push within the Group of 20 for a joint approach to… – Continue reading
[NEW YORK] A Swiss asset manager pleaded guilty on Tuesday to participating in a scheme to help US citizens hide millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts and evade paying taxes. Peter Amrein, 53, entered his plea in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to defraud the United States and Internal… – Continue reading
Russia’s Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, announced that the deadline to report on CFCs will be postponed from 1 April to 15 June 2015. As such, failing to file before 15 June 2015 will not result in any penalties. Submissions of notifications on participation in CFCs must have actual information as… – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has pledged the Australian Taxation Office will beat a budget target of hitting $1.1 billion in revenue from multinationals by 2017, and says it expects to clock much of it by the end of the year through audits of technology companies. In an interview with Fairfax… – Continue reading
Hundreds of members of the diamond exchange attended a meeting on anti money laundering in the diamond sector held at the Cullinan restaurant last Thursday. During the meeting, members received a detailed review of the main elements of the order against AML that takes effect next year, and the measures… – Continue reading
On March 19, 2015, the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (“TIA”) officially opened the Cayman Automatic Exchange of Information (“AEOI”) Portal. Reporting Process The TIA indicated that the Portal is now available for Cayman Islands Reporting Financial Institutions (“Cayman Reporting FIs”) to submit their Notification (due by April 30, 2015)… – Continue reading
The measure of bank strength favoured by the financial system inquiry – capital levels – is too narrow, and assessing capital by reference to offshore banks will create “uncertainty and unintended consequences”, National Australia Bank has told Treasury. The more capital a bank holds, the less leveraged it is, which… – Continue reading
In 2015, Singapore celebrates its 50th year of independence and also mourns the passing of its first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who steered Singapore’s success for many critical years. From its origins as a British trading post in 1819, Singapore has grown into one of the busiest ports and… – Continue reading
AMBITIOUS plans to create a tax haven and luxury hotel on Cowes outer breakwater have been revealed today (Wednesday). The plans would see the outer breakwater being extended and renamed as Isle of Cowes. A spokesman said: “Much work,time and effort has gone into the construction of “Isle of Cowes”…. – Continue reading
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
Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted the north-east will be adversely affected by “unfair tax competition” if Scotland abolishes APD. Air passenger duty was introduced on November 1, 1994 and has since increased seven-fold — more than 3.5 times the rate of inflation — and is the highest aviation tax… – Continue reading
Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor K C Chan, signed the Fourth Protocol to the Arrangement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income with the Mainland (the Fourth Protocol) with the Deputy Commissioner… – Continue reading
New York, NY (April 1, 2015) – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the indictment of individuals charged with conspiring to abuse the unique 19th century America’s Cup Charitable Trust to shelter profits to the offshore tax havens in Bermuda, Guernsey, and The Isle of Man. Beginning in January… – Continue reading
Australia’s biggest 900 companies claimed tax deductions and exemptions worth a total $25 billion last year – enough to wipe out two-thirds of the current federal budget deficit at a stroke. As Treasurer Joe Hockey prompted a national “conversation” about tax reform, including the prospect of a higher and broader… – Continue reading
The British Virgin Islands has published revised guidance notes on the international tax compliance requirements under its intergovernmental agreements with the United States and the United Kingdom. The original version, dating back to July 2014, has been updated to reflect subsequent developments. Attention is drawn to the revised deadline of… – Continue reading
Japan is the latest global financial hub to start making inroads into Islamic finance, a move that could help strengthen regional economic ties and give its lenders an edge in winning business in markets whose growth prospects far outpace their home turf, reports Reuters. Tokyo has long been a major… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The government of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) said it has no plans to establish a central register of true company owners, despite pressure from Britain to adopt the anti-money laundering and tax evasion measure. The BVI said in a statement on Wednesday it was backing other measures… – Continue reading
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, K C Chan, has described the various tax policies that the Government intends to pursue in the coming year. As part of his testimony before the Legislative Council (LegCo) Finance Committee special meeting on the 2015-16 Budget, Chan stressed that the… – Continue reading
British people and expats with accounts with international banks in the Channel Island of Jersey are facing confusion over a global clampdown on tax avoidance and money laundering. The move is a result of a series of high profile cases in which banks have been investigated over allegations that offshore… – Continue reading
Greece submitted a list of economic reforms to the European Union (EU) in an effort to secure emergency financing. Greece submitted a list of economic reforms to the European Union (EU) in an effort to secure emergency financing. The reforms include proposals to raise revenue by curbing tax evasion and… – Continue reading
The US and Canada are fuelling a record influx of foreign investment in the Netherlands; our local expert looks at why Despite a fair bit of doom and gloom over global economy figures, foreign companies continue to grow – and they continue to look at the Netherlands to help fuel… – Continue reading
PETALING JAYA: Local car companies can claim the 10% sales tax on unsold stock after the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) – if they can produce documented proof of purchase. “If you’re holding stocks that had been paid for, you will get a full refund if you… – Continue reading
As Tax Day approaches, homeland Americans scurry to file their annual tax filing obligations. But for an estimated 7.6 million Americans working and living overseas, they have an obligation to not only pay taxes in their respective countries where they live; they need to pay the piper in homeland America… – Continue reading
United Kingdom In Tower Radio Limited and another v HMRC5, the taxpayers successfully utilised a scheme which was designed to take advantage of Part 7 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA). Background During the periods relevant to this case, no liability to income tax arose under… – Continue reading
