There must be a level playing field when it comes to taxation so that Gibraltar will suffer the burdens of compliance but not the benefits of having a compliant tax system, said the GSD Opposition this week. “That would simply place Gibraltar at a significant disadvantage and would be unacceptable,”… – Continue reading
11/11/2014 – Southeast Asia’s over-reliance on natural resources like oil, gas, minerals and wood for economic growth is unsustainable over the long term and is causing environmental damage that will hurt future prosperity if left unchecked, according to a new OECD report. Towards Green Growth in Southeast Asia finds that… – Continue reading
November 10: The IRS has posted a draft version (as of November 7, 2014) of Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, and a draft version of the instructions for a requester of Form W-9. Read the draft Form W-9 [PDF 109 KB] and the draft instructions [PDF… – Continue reading
MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia is speeding towards the adoption of anti-offshore legislation. The State Duma (lower house of parliament) on Tuesday will hold the first reading of amendments to the Tax Code obliging both individuals and legal entities to notify the authorities of their foreign properties and profits. This… – Continue reading
The 2013 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) peer review report states that Cayman Islands has developed its standards rapidly, and has proven its long-standing commitment to adhering to the highest standards of regulations. KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10, 2014: The often scrutinised Cayman Islands — having long been associated… – Continue reading
Those who live in glass houses do well not to throw stones, and Ireland’s predilection for such tax schemes as the “double Irish” probably makes it the last place to cast aspersions at Luxembourg’s creative approach to assisting what is now euphemistically called “tax planning”, once “tax avoidance”. Having sensibly… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Five years after Germany gave New Delhi a list of Indians with secret bank accounts in the Alpine tax haven Liechtenstein, the first tribunal ruling has gone in favour of the government. The case pertains to three Kolkata-based individuals – Mohan Manoj Dhupelia, Ambrish Manoj Dhupelia and Ms Bhavya… – Continue reading
India, keen to go ahead with a global tax pact to curb tax avoidance by companies, is expected to push for negotiations of some provisions of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) agreement at the meeting of heads of states of G20 nations to be held in Brisbane… – Continue reading
DUBLIN — In a sprawling conference center on the outskirts of the Irish capital, more than 20,000 people from the global tech industry gathered last week to sign deals and swap contacts. Despite the throngs of startups, American heavy hitters like Peter Thiel, and executives from Facebook and Twitter, talk… – Continue reading
The I-T department had said Vodafone India under-priced shares in a rights issue to its parent. The tax demand was for the two financial years ended March 2011 The finance ministry is yet to decide on filing an appeal against the Bombay High Court order of October 10 in favour… – Continue reading
The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group is concerned that government proposals designed to target tax evaders are likely to catch low-income migrants to the UK who have made a genuine mistake about the UK tax status of a source of income in their home country. In a consultation on offshore… – Continue reading
The recent decision of the U.S.Tax Court, in Gerd Topsnik, (2014) makes it clear that an “informal” surrender of a Green Card, while recognized under immigration laws is not recognized for tax purposes. As stated in Checkpoint, ” The Tax Court held that because the taxpayer did not formally abandon… – Continue reading
Regardless of how M&T Bank Corp.’s planned acquisition of Hudson City Bancorp plays out, one thing is clear: M&T will end up with a much stronger system for fighting money laundering. Buffalo-based M&T and New Jersey-based Hudson City Bancorp still want to complete their $3.7 billion merger – a marriage… – Continue reading
If you have a bank account anywhere outside the U.S., chances are you will receive a letter saying that your bank must hand over the details of any American accounts, including yours. The letters vary with the country and with individual institutions. But the overall message is that the IRS… – Continue reading
In another bizarre twist to what litigation lawyers have called an “unprecedented” case, counsel for McKesson Canada Corp. are now relying on Tax Court of Canada Justice Patrick Boyle’s recusal from a transfer-pricing case in September as grounds for seeking a new trial. Gavin MacKenzie believes the Court of Appeal… – Continue reading
Kansas City businesswoman Cheryl Womack, who was indicted last December on tax-related charges, has filed a request to delay her change-of-plea hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday. At issue is the Tax Information Exchange Agreement application, which acts almost like a search warrant and enables the government to obtain foreign-based documents… – Continue reading
November 10: The IRS has posted a draft version (as of November 7, 2014) of Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, and a draft version of the instructions for a requester of Form W-9. Read the draft Form W-9 [PDF 109 KB] and the draft instructions [PDF… – Continue reading
For five straight quarters, states have collected more in tax revenues than at their pre-recession peak. But the fiscal recovery has been uneven. There are still 29 states where tax collections have yet to return to their pre-recession heights, according to a new Pew Charitable Trusts analysis. Overall, state tax… – Continue reading
Compliance yield for most senior team hits £3.65billion – or 10% of the “tax gap” A record amount of unpaid tax has been recovered from big-ticket tax avoidance, evasion and fraud by HMRC’s top team of specialist investigators – up by almost a quarter (23%) in the last year, says… – Continue reading
With the imminent dawn on tighter tax and social security controls Spanish and other cross border workers are being urged to make sure they know their rights and obligations. The Chronicle commissioned a briefing report from Hassans (see page 4) which sets out key issues. It was reported earlier this… – Continue reading
Vivek Prasad, chief commissioner of Income-Tax – III, Mumbai said they were striving to rid themselves of the unwarranted epithet of ‘tax terrorists,’ and said with regards to tax morality, base erosion, profit shifting and GAAR (general anti-avoidance rules) they were on a learning curve and are evolving beyond the… – Continue reading
Nairobi; Kenya: An insurance lobby wants the State to review the Procurement Act and lower taxes. This, it says will help embrace relationship management in respect to quasi-government enterprises, noting that insurance brokerage is a profession and cannot be treated in the same way as purchase of merchandise. The Association… – Continue reading
Statement says judge could not recall account when asked by authorised officer The family of the late judge Declan Costello has said that while he had a deposit account at Guinness & Mahon bank for a brief period in the 1970s, he never held an offshore bank account. The family… – Continue reading
Bank of Ceylon, the country’s prominent corporate and trade services provider with 75 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry, has achieved an unassailable position in providing exclusive corporate financial solutions for private and Government sector corporate entities. The vast asset base it possesses has enabled BOC… – Continue reading
A long-awaited free trade agreement between Australia and China could be signed soon, federal Trade Minister Andrew Robb says, despite negotiations still raging. Mr Robb, who is in China, said it was his “expectation” the agreement would be signed after the G20 leaders meeting of the world’s richest nations, which… – Continue reading
The tax man is threatening fines of up to £1 million for high-earners shielding their income in tax avoidance schemes. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published a list of hundreds of schemes and laid out in uncompromising terms the likely penalties for taxpayers who fail to pay up. Around… – Continue reading
TRANSPARENCY International warns that just because a company has an anticorruption programme, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t corrupt — it’s just less likely to be. This week, the organisation released “Transparency in Corporate Reporting”, a survey analysing 124 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies with a combined value… – Continue reading
The US Treasury has opened a new front in its war against offshore tax evasion. Overseas banks are being ordered to cooperate with the US Treasury and help identify which of their customers might owe the government taxes – a move that some equate to a form of “financial imperialism,… – Continue reading
Another sophisticated loophole in the tax system means the removal of the “Double Irish” tax-avoidance strategy won’t actually have any real impact for US firms in Ireland seeking to lower their tax bills. An influential US tax journal has found that the Irish subsidiaries of US companies can easily opt… – Continue reading
The days of multi-national companies avoiding tax could be numbered. The issue is on the G20 Summit’s Brisbane agenda next week and Trade Minister Andrew Robb believes all countries will work together to come up with a solution within the next 12 to 18 months. “A consequence of self interest… – Continue reading
The main message from the Web Summit is that companies are here for the tech talent – and not just for corporation tax In a continent of slackers, Dublin and its Web Summit are shining exceptions. Or so said the world’s most powerful venture capitalist, Peter Thiel. The man most… – Continue reading
A slew of regulatory changes including Companies Act 2013, GST and Transfer Pricing (TP) are likely to redefine the role of chief financial officers (CFOs) according to a report unveiled by KPMG in India and CII. The report titled ‘Playing to Win in a VUCA Environment’ was unveiled at the… – Continue reading
KUWAIT, Nov 8 (KUNA) — Senior commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy Dao Le said that Kuwait is a major partner especially in the field of energy, adding that Kuwait will maintain this position well into the medium term, as there is no other alternative for the US. Therefore, Kuwait… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s attempts to amend tax treaties with countries such as Mauritius may have drawn a blank so far, but its efforts are about to get a huge boost with several nations getting together to ramp up work on a global convention to plug treaty abuse. “Multilateral convention will… – Continue reading
Aparajita Basak, the manager, of research analytics, innovation and knowledge centre at Frost & Sullivan, talks about the use of tax havens across the world for Indian black money. What kind of role do tax havens play in black money in terms of Indian companies and individuals? Across the world,… – Continue reading
Investigators for the Australian Tax Office and their lawyers were told by a judge last year that if they travelled to the Cayman Islands they could be locked up. A year earlier the Tax Office had suffered a setback. It lost a case in the Grand Court of the Cayman… – Continue reading
A new taskforce has been created to target tax-dodging restaurants in Milton Keynes. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has seen an increased risk of fraudulent activity in the restaurant industry, and the taskforce is expected to recover more than £3million in corporation tax, income tax and VAT. The team will… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The total amount of black money deposited in foreign banks by Indians is unknown. Some reports claim a total exceeding US$1.4 trillion are stashed in Switzerland.[1] Other reports, including those reported by Swiss Bankers Association and the Government of Switzerland, claim that these reports are false and fabricated,… – Continue reading
Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald is calling on the Taoiseach to clarify the role of Government in the handling of whistleblower allegations regarding tax evasion. A dossier given to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week claims several politicians used offshore bank accounts to avoid paying tax. Last… – Continue reading
Subsidiary funds companies within Irish multinational, says spokesman RH did not feature in the leaked files, but accounts for one of its Luxembourg subsidiaries show it had multibillion-euro intra-group loans going in and out of the state. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons Ireland’s largest indigenous multinational, building materials group CRH, has a… – Continue reading
Irish lawmakers on Thursday debated new legislation that will close one tax incentive but expand another amid controversy over international corporate tax avoidance following an investigation into deals made by multinationals in Luxembourg. As part of the Finance Bill, Dublin would end the contested “Double Irish” system but a separate… – Continue reading
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has launched an onsite examination into Hong Kong-based Taiwanese banks’ loan exposure to mainland Chinese companies, banking sources said last week. The HKMA, which is responsible for maintaining Hong Kong’s monetary and banking stability, has stepped up its supervision of Hong Kong banks since… – Continue reading
Austria said the European Union should tax more kinds of trades at a lower rate to move forward with a financial-transactions tax among 11 willing nations. There is “clear movement” toward reaching a deal by year-end so the tax can start in 2016, Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said…. – Continue reading
Moving overseas, or returning to Australia after a stint abroad, is not just a lifestyle or career decision. It also has far-reaching financial implications that are invariably overlooked until years later. While these often involve what to do with retirement money overseas or the tax implications of selling assets owned… – Continue reading
Minister confident as Luxembourg leaks overshadow finance ministers’ meeting in Brussels Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said he expects the European Commission investigation into Ireland’s tax deal with Apple to be dropped, as he defended Ireland’s corporate tax regime yesterday in the wake of the Luxembourg leaks scandal. “My… – Continue reading
Ahead of next weekend’s G20 summit, the release of leaked documents showing Luxembourg’s facilitation of industrial scale tax avoidance by multinational corporations could not have been better timed. A cache of documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and released on Thursday, found hundreds of companies – including… – Continue reading
Delhi Tribunal holds that the mere fact that one of the steps in a transaction resulted in capital loss for the taxpayer would not make the series of transactions a sham. Karnataka High Court holds that shares bought at a premium, and sold at a lower value to individuals (ex-employees… – Continue reading
The hollowing out of tax collected for public purposes by rich and poor nations is not confined to technology and mining companies, according to a major leak of secret tax agreements covering more than 340 companies around the world. The documents, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, include… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: After reaching a significant breakthrough in information exchange on bank accounts with Switzerland, the Narendra Modi government has now turned the heat on European tax haven Cyprus as part of its fight against black money. The government wants to drop a provision in the tax treaty between the… – Continue reading
A senior civil servant has come forward with information relating to incidents that occurred over a 30-year period. THE GARDAÍ HAVE confirmed that they investigated serious allegations sent to them by a serving civil servant a number of years ago relating to tax avoidence claims. In a statement issued this… – Continue reading
