ISLAMABAD: A three member high level delegation of Inland Revenue-Policy Wing of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will attend a three day conference on regional taxation problems in the first week of April in Japanese capital Tokyo. The conference is funded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well… – Continue reading
Margaret Hodge accuses HMRC of bias On Monday it was the turn of Dave Hartnett, former secretary of HMRC and Edward Troup, the current tax assurance commissioner, to face the poisonous Public Accounts Committee chairperson, Margaret Hodge. The two were giving evidence as part of the Committee’s inquiry into tax… – Continue reading
Seven Caribbean countries find themselves on the US “Major Money Laundering List for 2015”. The United States Government published its “2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report” on Wednesday, and the Cayman Islands is on the list, reports CNS News. The other six Caribbean countries listed are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas,… – Continue reading
The Abbott Government will shortly release a discussion paper on the Australian tax system. It will be the first step towards the much anticipated tax white paper. International factors should figure prominently in the white paper — specifically, how to ensure that Australia has a resilient tax system given the… – Continue reading
CARACAS, VENEZUELA – Venezuela is launching a probe into large offshore bank deposits amid a spate of reports that at least $2 billion was siphoned off by corrupt, top-level officials at state-run oil company PDVSA. Chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz’s announcement Tuesday was the socialist government’s first response to the… – Continue reading
(CS) The Lord Mayor of the City of London was in Luxembourg Tuesday to meet with representatives of the financial sector and political decision-makers to discuss a number of issues, from BEPS to FTT and TTIP. Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Alan Yarrow explained that there is much common… – Continue reading
As part of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill which Parliament is expected to approve today, the government is attempting to implement a public register showing who really owns companies. The bill is a good example of how UK legislation can affect countries around the world, especially those in… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cash-strapped Americans anxious for tax refunds are increasingly turning to payment advances, prepaid cards or other costly services when getting tax preparation help, according to new federal data raising concerns among regulators about whether consumers are fully informed about the fees. Regulators are looking to increase oversight… – Continue reading
Rather than installing a territorial tax system, the federal government should change U.S. securities rules, a law professor contends. Changing to a “territorial” tax system in the United States won’t ultimately stem the exodus of U.S.-based multinationals to lower-tax countries and could come at a significant cost in terms of… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Developer Sunac China (1918.HK) on Tuesday urged creditors of its takeover target, Kaisa Group Holdings (1638.HK), to accept a plan by the struggling property firm to restructure $2.5 billion in debt or risk the company running out of cash by end-April. Sunac’s comments come days after a group… – Continue reading
Fifteen people suspected of running a smuggling scam that bilked the state out of tens of millions of shekels in taxes were indicted Tuesday for a series of conspiracy and fraud charges. Early this month, 200 investigators from the police and the Tax Authority raided Ashdod Port and homes belonging… – Continue reading
The Budget is one of the set-piece dramas of British political life. Yet every Chancellor of the Exchequer, every year, adds greater complexity to Britain’s tax system. This in turn muddies the grey areas of tax avoidance. With more than 1,000 tax reliefs and exemptions forming a part of a… – Continue reading
According to Offshore Alert, CWM World is linked to a $16 billion Ponzi scheme run by the Mauritius-based Belvedere Management Limited, as sources close to the firm have dismissed the report as inaccurate. Offshore Alert, an investigative research publication, is claiming that CWM Group is part of a massive $16… – Continue reading
President Barack Obama’s proposal to impose a minimum tax on the foreign income of US companies would place them at a substantial competitive disadvantage in global markets, Pamela Olson, former assistant secretary for tax policy at the US Department of Treasury, has said. As well as including proposals for a… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Providing relief to scores of multinational companies locked in transfer pricing disputes with income tax authorities, a tribunal has clarified that a company can claim deduction of expenses paid to a subsidiary if it follows a global cost allocation policy. The Delhi bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal,… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Tuesday to reject a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would have created millions of infrastructure jobs and closed an “absurd” tax loophole to pay for the plan. Fifty-two lawmakers opposed the proposal during votes on amendments to a GOP fiscal 2016 budget proposal…. – Continue reading
Jakarta (ANTARA News) – The Indonesian and Japanese governments agreed to review the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJ-EPA) to derive mutual benefits, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received by Antara here on Tuesday. The review of IJ-EPA was agreed during a bilateral meeting between… – Continue reading
Two important developments last week in the transfer pricing domain have the potential of completely transforming the way this critical and controversial tax area has been handled by the income-tax department. One is the Delhi High Court judgment on tackling the AMP (advertisement, marketing and sales promotion) expenses involving a… – Continue reading
Law firm boss Tom Maher has been invited to be a speaker at a prestigious conference alongside the FBI special agent who caught the notorious ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ He will also share the platform with a host of other newsworthy people in the business world including the whistleblower who… – Continue reading
Internationally, Australia has been seeking to take a lead on addressing transfer pricing issues as chair of G20, with a focus on a global and coordinated approach to base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). Domestically, the focus has been on reform of the transfer pricing regime in light of deficiencies… – Continue reading
Jim Murphy says cash freed up by abolishing bedroom tax in UK would be used to end reliance on food banks Jim Murphy has pledged to set up a £175m “anti-poverty fund” in Scotland using cash freed up by abolishing the bedroom tax in the UK, in a fresh attempt… – Continue reading
Earlier today the UK government delivered its last budget before the UK general election in May. Many of the measures were, as one might expect so close to an election, focused on personal rather than corporate taxation. However, below is a summary of some of the business related announcements: Diverted… – Continue reading
Clearstream now offers five offshore RMB accounts in four leading financial centres and will give customers more options and flexibility in managing offshore RMB liquidity Clearstream, the international central securities depository of Deutsche Börse Group, is making further progress in its Asia strategy: the company will open three new offshore… – Continue reading
Many investors are unaware of high charges that can eat into their wealth, according to finance experts Expat investors using offshore bonds as a way to boost their wealth could be paying nearly £89,000 in fees on a £100,000 investment over 20 years, it has been claimed. This would leave… – Continue reading
DMS reminds stakeholders of all Cayman Islands investment funds deemed Foreign Financial Institutions (“FFIs”) of their International Tax Compliance (“ITC”) Obligations to the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (“TIA”) which may apply under the following: Launch of the Cayman AEOI Portal The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (“DITC”)… – Continue reading
According to news reports, Gibraltar’s government isn’t going to take being called a ‘tax haven’ lying down. The little British Overseas Territory at the tip of Spain is suing ABC—not the TV network, the Spanish newspaper—for defamation. Gibraltarians may live in what many call a tax haven, but their government… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has briefed leaders of the Group of Twenty (G-20) nations on recent advances towards the conclusion of its base erosion and profit shifting project, which it says may be completed ahead of schedule. The OECD presented a report to the G-20 Finance… – Continue reading
A former Director of Public Prosecutions has accused banking giant HSBC of “grave” cross border crime and of engaging in “a systematic and profitable collusion in serious criminal activity” in the UK. According to the Independent, in a damming intervention Lord Ken Macdonald, who led the Crown Prosecution Service until… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Net profits at LGT, Liechtenstein’s biggest bank, rose more than 18 percent last year, the bank reported on Monday, after it attracted fresh funds and acquired a large portfolio of accounts from HSBC’s private bank. The Vaduz-based lender, owned by the principality’s royal family, said last year it… – Continue reading
Colby Smith took a “one-man direct action protest” inside HSBC in Ely on Saturday to highlight the campaign against tax avoidance. The painter and decorator from Sutton answered the call to action by national activist group UK Uncut with his two hour sit-in at the Ely bank. Mr Smith, 29,… – Continue reading
Cobus Kellermann, Stellenbosch University graduate now in his late 30s who runs Cape-based money manager Clarus Capital, has been fingered as a mastermind behind a massive global Ponzi scheme run out of Mauritius. Kellermann’s company also manages eight South African unit trusts under the Met Collective Investments banner. They have… – Continue reading
LONDON: HM Revenue & Customs has introduced a new strict liability criminal offence on both offshore tax evaders and those who help them following the UK Government’s clampdown on tax dodging in yesterday’s Budget. Under today’s new rules, tax evaders will no longer be able to plead ignorance in order… – Continue reading
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has criticised the government’s decision to press ahead with the introduction of a new ‘strict liability’ offence for offshore tax evasion. Although the CIOT says it is “generally strongly supportive” of the tax authority’s efforts to tackle evasion, it opposes the creation of a… – Continue reading
Tax authorities of the Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) have approached the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for resolving taxation issues of taxpayers, registered with the AJK’s Board of Revenue, who have to pay double rates of taxes while clearance of their taxable transactions within the territory of Pakistan. Sources… – Continue reading
PM’s sudden decision to shelve the controversial land and buildings tax reflects a communications failure about its long-term benefits The sudden turnaround by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on the imposition of the land and buildings tax brought relief to middle-income taxpayers but prompted confusion among economists, policymakers and even the… – Continue reading
International bank HSBC has declined to comment on whether they are cracking down on Isle of Man accounts held by UK residents. It was widely reported this week that the bank is contacting holders of accounts in Jersey and asking them to produce identity documents at one of the Channel… – Continue reading
A leading Swiss banker told his Lebanese counterparts that the days of banking secrecy are over, urging the lenders to prepare their clients for this inevitable outcome. “The banks which attracted tax evaders can no longer continue in this pattern because the era of banking secrecy is over and an… – Continue reading
Switzerland and the European Union (EU) have initialled an agreement on the automatic exchange of tax information (AEOI). Account data will be collected from 2017, with the first exchange scheduled for 2018, reports Tax News. The agreement was initialled on March 19, 2015, by Jacques de Watteville, the Swiss State… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): On Friday 20 March at 4:15pm the Cayman Islands officially opened the doors to the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) Portal to report tax information to other jurisdictions. The Financial Services Ministry has announced the AEOI Portal is now available for financial institutions to register and report customer… – Continue reading
One of Britain’s leading lawyers Lord Pannick, QC, will be heading a team of Gibraltar Government experts at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning as the local gaming industry takes on the British Government over tax issues, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle. Government is not participating directly in… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS: Fresh efforts at bolstering economic and trade relations between Belgium and Qatar kicked-off on a high note as Belgium’s Princess Astrid, representative of the King of Belgium, met Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs contacted foreign governments on 490 separate occasions in one year as it sought information on suspected tax evasion, a drop of 150 information requests compared to the previous year. During the 2012-13 tax year, the Revenue made nearly 500 information requests to tax authorities to find… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a Paris-based international bureaucracy with the self-proclaimed mission to “promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.” But if there was a truth-in-advertizing requirement, the OECD would instead say that its mission is to… – Continue reading
ZURICH, March 23 (Reuters) – Liechtenstein’s biggest bank LGT does not expect to suffer any fallout from assets it bought from HSBC’s private bank months before that business was embroiled in a scandal over allegedly helping clients to dodge taxes. Vaduz-based LGT, owned by the principality’s royal family, snapped up… – Continue reading
The Chartered Institute of Taxation has said the UK Government has taken its campaign against offshore tax evasion too far, after degrading taxpayer rights with confirmed plans for a new “strict liability” offense for offshore tax evasion. The CIOT said that, while it is generally strongly supportive of HMRC’s efforts… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India has offered a “cash reward” to a former HSBC bank employee-turned-whistleblower in exchange for any fresh information about its citizens holding illegal accounts in various tax haven countries, including in Swiss banks, as it looks to combat black money and unearth funds stashed away abroad. Sources said… – Continue reading
MEPs vote this week on a financial grant to Ukraine, debate the results of last week’s European Council summit as well as discuss new legislation to tackle corporate tax avoidance. They will also take part in a meeting on the importance of inter-religious dialogue. On Monday, the economic affairs committee… – Continue reading
Elizabeth Boardman wants the IRS to stop calling her frivolous. Ms. Boardman is a Quaker and a member of the Administrative Committee of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. The Ninth Circuit turned down her appeal earlier this month. I wrote about the original district court decision over two… – Continue reading
Finnish tax officials have received a record number of tax evasion tip-offs since launching an online whistleblower service at the end of January. The tax administration says that nearly 80 percent of fraud reports now come in online. Finland’s tax authorities appear to have struck a rich vein by introducing… – Continue reading
Car dealers in Uganda who are unregistered importers are set to face the wrath of Uganda Revenue Authority as the tax body moves in to catch tax evaders. Last week, the tax body said more Ugandans were importing cars in the pretext of owning them, but when they reached the… – Continue reading
