Multinational tech giants Google and Facebook could soon be charged goods and services tax on advertising booked by Australian companies if a proposal flagged by federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is adopted. While multinational corporations continue to come under fire for minimising their tax bills in Australia, Turnbull has floated… – Continue reading
– The Indian financial system needs to rethink its regulatory norms The role of the banking and financial service sector (BFS) in the process of economic development has always attracted attention. The framework of the Indian financial system needs a relook if we need to ensure unhindered credit availability to… – Continue reading
The Finance Ministry on Monday notified the Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) rules governing rollback provisions in transfer pricing cases. Though the provisions were announced in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden Budget in July 2014, they could not be activated because the rules were not codified. Consultants said the move could… – Continue reading
Lawyers are urging investors who have been advised to invest in disputed tax avoidance schemes to take their financial advisers to court for compensation. A number of legal experts called on investors to pool together and launch US-style class action law suits against their advisers, who they said, had failed… – Continue reading
PwC expects that UK Chancellor George Osborne’s 2015 Budget will seek to strike a balance between ensuring fiscal responsibility and enticing support from prospective voters. On March 18, Osborne will deliver the Coalition Government’s final Budget ahead of the May 7 general election. PwC pointed out that, crucially, the resultant… – Continue reading
(Seychelles News Agency) – France’s ambassador to Seychelles, Genevieve Iancu, left the Seychelles archipelago, situated in the Indian Ocean on Friday after a little over two years spent in the post. Seychelles and France have good bilateral relations and strong historical ties due to the presence of the first French… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service wrapped up the 2015 “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams last week with a warning to taxpayers about aggressive telephone scams continuing coast-to-coast during the early weeks of this year’s filing season. The aggressive, threatening phone calls from scam artists continue to be seen on a… – Continue reading
Center City-based Morgan Lewis, the largest law firm in the U.S. in terms of lawyers based domestically, is growing again, this time overseas. The firm said Sunday it was combining with the Stamford Law Corp., an 80-lawyer firm based in Singapore, a booming commercial hub and island nation with a… – Continue reading
Our ‘special relationship’ with the US gets forgotten when America looks at threats to the dollar’s dominance For a while now the phrase “special relationship” has sounded a touch desperate when spoken in a British accent and a tad condescending if uttered by an American. The lopsidedness of this transatlantic… – Continue reading
Rio Tinto has warned that multinational companies could be discriminated against if moves to combat tax “base erosion and profit shifting” went too far. With Australia and the other 33 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ramping up efforts to prevent multinational companies avoiding tax, Rio… – Continue reading
I SUPPORT the tax-dodging bill” badges are handed to the group of 20, gathering at the Eros statue in London’s Piccadilly Circus. This is a walking tour with a twist. The two guides sporting bowler hats will avoid the traditional tourist traps. Instead, we will be touring the banks, shops… – Continue reading
A group of U.S. senators is renewing a push to allow states to collect sales tax from remote retailers that don’t have a physical presence in the state, a move they say would level the playing field between online and traditional retailers. The Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the Senate… – Continue reading
Tax advisers are calling on the chancellor to make clear in this week’s Budget that while tax evasion is a crime, tax avoidance is a citizen’s right – and a good idea. In response to the recent debate on where the line should be drawn, accountancy firm Saffery Champness calls… – Continue reading
Senators and members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Anti-Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition (AMLCSC) are working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), to prosecute about 115 tax offenders. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions, Senator Aloysius Etok, said… – Continue reading
Tom Gordon Scottish Political Editor DANNY Alexander was last night at the centre of a new donations row after accepting money from a millionaire defender of tax avoidance. The LibDem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who in 2013 said he was “livid” at companies and individuals “avoiding paying the proper… – Continue reading
The findings revealed that 76 per cent of those surveyed believe people open bank accounts in Switzerland for “underhand reasons”, and just one in 10 consider it is done for “legitimate reasons.” The UK’s The Times newspaper recently asked individuals for their thoughts as to why Britons might hold Swiss… – Continue reading
Subsidiaries of Israel’s Delek Group and the Houston-based Noble Energy are suing the state for some $15 million, claiming the government has collected more royalties than permissible on natural gas sales. Accusing the National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Ministry of calculating royalty revenues based on the higher Tamar reservoir gas… – Continue reading
Giant financial institutions that benefitted from federal bailouts during the depths of the recession have repaid the American people’s largesse by hiding profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. According to a report (pdf) commissioned by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), four big banks—Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of… – Continue reading
Authorities of the Mion District Assembly in the Northern Region are unhappy about residents’ apathy towards paying their taxes. In the direction to increase the assembly’s Internal Revenue Mobilization (IGF), a Taskforce has been established to pursue the agenda. The Mion District Chief Executive, Dan Mankandan at a public sensitization… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): After months of preparation, the exchange of tax information from the Cayman Islands to other jurisdictions will become more efficient with the launch of a new online system. The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) Portal will be launched this month and will be used by Cayman’s financial institutions… – Continue reading
Martin McNamara had his suspicions. An OPP officer and executive officer of the provincial force’s union, McNamara was the first to complain to authorities about unusual financial transactions involving the union’s top brass. When McNamara, who had signing authority for the 6,000-member union, was asked to authorize a $5,000 cheque… – Continue reading
Indian equity benchmarks have entered into red terrain after a firm start as investors opted to book profits at higher levels. Meanwhile, retail inflation rose to 5.37 percent in February, the third consecutive month of uptick, the industrial output grew by modest 2.6 percent in January, diminishing hopes of another… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) – The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process: APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS — British bank Barclays (LSE: BARC.L – news) to acquire sole control of Spanish insurer CNP Barclays Vida y Pensiones Compania de Seguros,… – Continue reading
The Irish Government has launched its strategy for Ireland’s International Financial Services Sector for the next five years (IFS2020), which seeks to consolidate and grow Ireland’s position as the global location of choice for specialist international financial services (IFS). The strategy includes a comprehensive overview of the existing strengths of… – Continue reading
Permal Group is moving some of its British Virgin Island accounts to Ireland, after the Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle (ICAV) was signed in to law last week, reports the Asset Servicing Times. The alternative asset manager will move a total of almost US$4 billion from separate accounts to a newly-launched… – Continue reading
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore is to closely monitor company formation behaviour to ensure that high income earners do not set up companies to avoid the higher personal income tax (PIT) rates announced in the 2015/16 Budget, reports Tax News. The Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport,… – Continue reading
Many Islamic financial institutions like Qatar Islamic Bank have caught up to their Western counterparts in terms of efficiency and technology and are targetting new clients abroad. Also, given Doha’s expertise in the sector and its close ties with the UK, Qatari banks are well positioned to tap into British… – Continue reading
Add Ndamukong Suh to the ever-growing list of professional athletes who are bidding farewell to their high-tax home state in favor of sunnier economic climates. Suh – considered one of the top-two players in free agency this season – is leaving Detroit for Miami. By doing so, the defensive tackle… – Continue reading
There is a double standard when it comes to paying taxes in Canada. And the Canada Revenue Agency makes it worse with each passing year. Take the recent news story about Irwin Rodier, the Montreal doctor with accounts at the Swiss branch of HSBC. Leaked data showed that he had… – Continue reading
The debate over agency media rebates in the US (and, by implication, everywhere else) seems to be generating more heat than light. The US Association of National Advertisers, which hosted ‘whistleblower’ Jon Mandel, formerly a CEO of WPP’s MediaCom and now of the Dogsled consultancy, has backtracked a bit, saying… – Continue reading
[Market Watch] Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (NYSE:RBS)(TREND ANALYSIS) is accelerating its plans to dismantle its investment banking franchise, with expectations that the firm will deliver as many as 14,000 pink slips in the group at the sprawling U.K. financial institution, according to the Financial Times report Tuesday. As… – Continue reading
Ras Al Khaimah, close to Dubai, is one of the fastest growing emirates in the United Arab Emirates. The emirate has also gained a reputation for being a transparent, tax free, corruption free, no red tape and inexpensive to do business jurisdiction. Ras Al Khaimah is the most popular offshore… – Continue reading
The owner of a Sewell-based landscaping company was sentenced Friday to one year and a day in prison for evading taxes on more than $2 million in business receipts, according to a release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Nicholas Lepore, 40, of Deptford, owner of Down to Earth… – Continue reading
Things just got worse for HSBC. Its private banking arm faces new criminal charges after a French magistrate officially requested that the Swiss bank be brought to trial over a suspected tax-dodging scheme for wealthy customers, the Guardian reports. The request for trial comes after a series of allegations against… – Continue reading
Senators and members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Anti- Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition are working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to prosecute about 115 tax offenders. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions, Senator Aloysius Etok, (PDP-Akwa Ibom),… – Continue reading
I hold some U.S. stocks in a non-registered account and pay U.S. withholding tax of 15 per cent on the dividends. My tax slips provide the dividend and tax information in U.S. dollars. Given the currency fluctuations we’ve seen recently, how do I report these amounts on my Canadian income… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): Even if you’re living in the Cayman Islands, the US tax authorities can come knocking on your door if you are not in compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), US taxpayers residing in the Cayman Islands learned at a free seminar on Wednesday at the… – Continue reading
Hundreds of jobs at the Wrexham tax office have been thrown into doubt with uncertainty surrounding the future of the facility. As part of an ongoing process to centralise facilities HMRC are looking to potentially axe the Wrexham Technology Park office and move the service to Liverpool or Manchester. The… – Continue reading
The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is increasingly unwilling to believe that any error in a tax return can be the result of an ‘innocent error’, said Fiona Fernie, a tax investigations expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-law.com. New powers introduced in recent years to allow… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings plc’s (LON:HSBA) shares were down 0.23 percent to 559.00p as of 13:13 GMT yesterday, after earlier on Friday the French financial prosecutor’s office announced it had formally requested that the lender’s Swiss private banking unit be put on trial for helping French citizens to aggressively avoid taxes. HSBC… – Continue reading
The Price We Pay argues that profit-shifting by corporations is undermining democracies A new Canadian documentary draws attention to the profit-shifting tactics used by multinationals to avoid billions of dollars of taxes. Directed by Montrealer Harold Crooks, the film The Price We Pay opens this Friday in Toronto and Montreal,… – Continue reading
The public accounts chair has been accused of being a bully, but she has rocked the tax world by asking difficult questions about how taxpayers’ money is spent Her verdict on HMRC’s efforts to prosecute tax evaders: pathetic. The gagging of civil service whistleblowers: outrageous. And as for tax-avoiding Google,… – Continue reading
State-run Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) — the main subsidiary of Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) — aims to increase its loan book by 4.2 percent this year, driven by corporate lending, senior bank executives said yesterday. The target is lower than the 5 percent increase last year, as… – Continue reading
Kirstie Spicer writes that investors could be facing one of their last chances to make the most of a higher dollar and invest some cash offshore as the RBA tries to jawbone the Australian dollar lower once again. FOR those of us with spare cash, European holidays are not the… – Continue reading
TP Week As a result of Brazil’s unique policy to prevent erosion of the tax base, companies often face double taxation. The pending case before the US Tax Court (Docket 5816-13), 3M Co. et al. v. Commissioner, brings this issue into the spotlight. In this case the US Internal Revenue… – Continue reading
Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee recently released a tax reform proposal that is a curious mix of principled pro-growth measures and populist middle-class relief. Where it sticks to principle, it is great. But where it veers into populism, the plan collapses into incoherence. The senators’ plan is a… – Continue reading
Pharmacy chain Boots Alliance has been under scrutiny from the British public since it first relocated to Switzerland in 2008. The contentious move involved the chain’s headquarters moving to a country that generated little income for the company, but provided low taxes. Yesterday at a retail industry conference, the issue… – Continue reading
VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of private enterprises in Vietnam are shoring up offshore investment activity, particularly in regional markets, to make the most of material sources and tap into opportunities presented by these growing markets. An expert of Vinamilk tests the quality of powdered milk made by the company… – Continue reading
Yesterday, The Treasury released draft legislation that it said was intended to modernise the Commonwealth’s Offshore Banking Unit regime. The draft explanatory material states that the proposed changes would implement some of the recommendations from Mark Johnson’s ‘Australia as a Financial Centre’ report, as well as plug some integrity shortcomings… – Continue reading
Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Bajwa has said that Pakistan and China are re-negotiating agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income. On the conclusion of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at the Parliament House here on Thursday,… – Continue reading
