Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs has sought to clarify when financial advisers will be considered “enablers” of tax avoidance when promoting tax-free investment and savings schemes. The move is in response to government plans to fine those promoting such avoidance schemes, which led to industry unease at how the authorities… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS – Despite initial support, EU ministers are backing out of support for an international tax on digital companies. Over the weekend at a meeting of the Finance Ministers of the EU discussed the recent proposal to levy a tax on the revenues major international online businesses. The taxation of… – Continue reading
Alfi speaks out on the double taxation treaty signed between Luxembourg and France on 20 March 2018. Although it appreciates that it is the product of bilateral negotiation, it calls for more clarity before it is ratified. The Association of the Luxembourg Funds Industry (Alfi) has added its voice to… – Continue reading
KARACHI: Government asked banks to impose up to three percent tax on foreign funds transfer made through plastic card in a new finance bill. The finance bill for the next fiscal year of 2018/19 proposed a new advance tax levy on individuals remitting amounts abroad through credit, debit or prepaid… – Continue reading
Islamabad : The government has proposed the scope of gift scheme in order to avoid misuse for purpose of tax evasion. According to the Finance Bill 2018 issued here on Friday, it has been decided by the government to restrict the scope of gifts amongst the relatives of the taxpayer…. – Continue reading
KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has accused the Federal Board of Revenue of double taxation after the tax authorities raised a demand of Rs4.32 billion income tax and withholding tax on goods against various departments of the Sindh government. This, he said, while presiding over a meeting today… – Continue reading
The Government of Luxembourg has published in its Official Gazette the law for the introduction of the new intellectual property tax regime. The Act of April 17, 2018, amending the law of December 4, 1967, concerning the tax treatment of intellectual property was signed on April 17, 2018, and published… – Continue reading
Hong Kong’s Government has published a draft law preserving the profits tax exemption for offshore venture capital funds who participate in the island’s new Innovation and Technology Venture Fund (ITVF). The ITVF was set up by Hong Kong’s Government in 2017 with the aim of encouraging more private investment in… – Continue reading
THE Deputy Prime Minister yesterday promised that the proposed Beneficial Ownership registry will have “the most stringent controls”, amid industry concerns over the lack of prior consultation. K P Turnquest told Tribune Business that it was “not an unreasonable guess” to suggest that the Bahamas would follow the Cayman Islands’… – Continue reading
In Mahaveer Kumar Jain vs. Commissioner of Income Tax, the Supreme Court held that the income earned by the assessee from lottery prize cannot be subjected to tax under Income Tax Act, 1961 when the same tax was already paid under Sikkim State Income Tax Rules, 1948. The appellant had… – Continue reading
Doing away with the outdated and increasingly minority offshore tax system can create problems with what the Basic Law says ‘The Macau Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, make policies on tourism and recreation in the light of its overall interests,’ states the Basic Law in Article 118. Today,… – Continue reading
Ireland’s tax on sugar-sweetened beverages will come into effect on 1 May after the European Commission (EC) concluded that the levy does not involve state aid. The country had planned to introduce the tax on 6 April – the same day as the UK’s levy started – but it was… – Continue reading
Apple will start paying 13 billion euros in back taxes to the Irish government from May, according to the Financial Times, nearly two years after the European Commission ruled that the company received illegal aid from the country that saw its tax bill significantly reduced over the past few decades…. – Continue reading
The crusade against fiscal havens is not working. According to the BIS, “banks’ outstanding claims on offshore banking centres surpassed their previous peak recorded in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Outstanding cross-border claims on offshore centres totalled $4.6 trillion at end-2017, compared with $4.3 trillion at end-March 2008.”… – Continue reading
The Bahamas will have “lost the plot” if it allows external pressures to dictate tax reform, a top accountant yesterday warning against any “knee jerk” changes. Gowon Bowe, the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) president, told Tribune Business that this nation must avoid reform merely for the sake of… – Continue reading
Ferreting out people who want to hide their assets and income overseas is nothing new for the Internal Revenue Service. And for roughly nine years, the agency has sponsored programs tailored to those taxpayers who were prepared to come forward and disclose their unreported foreign assets and income in exchange… – Continue reading
Legislation led by U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) to reform Internal Revenue Service (IRS) civil asset forfeiture tools and his other priorities to protect taxpayers cleared the U.S. House last week as part of a larger IRS modernization initiative. The House on April 18 passed the Taxpayer First Act, H.R…. – Continue reading
The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the new tax law suggests it could incentivize companies to offshore investments and jobs, which is directly at odds with GOP claims about the tax law. After the release of the GOP’s tax reform plan, several outlets, including the Prospect, noted that new tax… – Continue reading
Officials say fraudulent claims fell off quickly after new technologies took the state off attackers’ easy-target list. With tax season comes attempted fraud, as crooks use false identities to try to trick all levels of government into sending them refund checks. There are ways to fight back, though, and Indiana… – Continue reading
DOHA: The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) recently held an event to update its firms on the new rules being introduced globally to automatically exchange financial accounts information between countries. During the event, firms were presented with the context and key features of Common Reporting Standard (CRS), and offered an in-depth… – Continue reading
PARIS — Tom Wallis was born here and has spent his entire life in France, but it turns out that the 40-year-old entrepreneur from Grenoble owes tens of thousands of dollars in taxes to the United States. Wallis’ mother was French, but he holds U.S. citizenship through his American father…. – Continue reading
(Web Desk) – Pakistan Stock Brokers Association (PBSA) has proposed end of double taxation whereby abolishing tax on dividends, bonus and capital value tax as it has been discouraging foreign as well as domestic investment in the Pakistan stock exchange . Pakistan Stock Brokers Association sent budget proposals from the… – Continue reading
The holding of bank accounts and life insurances abroad follows a downward trend, reported La Libre Belgique on Saturday, based on figures from the federal tax administration. According to tax returns, the decrease since 2015 is around 5 to 10% for accounts abroad, life insurance and offshore construction. “It’s quite… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has asked the government to slash the advance tax from 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent for filers on cash withdrawals from banks exceeding Rs 50,000, and abolish the Super Tax in the upcoming budget 2018-19. The SBP has referred to sections 231 A… – Continue reading
KARACHI: Authorities have spotted more than 600 local firms to investigate the tax status and gather other financial information of non-residents, as new rules on data sharing, under an international treaty, kicked in to fight tax evasion, officials said on Friday. The officials said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)… – Continue reading
The Government has stripped corporate taxation from its anti-blacklisting response, as a top attorney yesterday warned: “Time is not our friend.” Michael Paton, who co-heads the financial sector working group dealing with the European Union (EU) concerns, told Tribune Business it will be “a long summer” as the Bahamas seeks… – Continue reading
RIGA – The Saeima national economic, rural, environment and regional policy committee today supported amendments to Public Procurement Law, deleting the ban for the companies registered in low-tax or tax-free countries, or the so-called offshore countries, from taking part in public tenders in Latvia. As reported, the Latvian parliament on… – Continue reading
KARACHI: People are awaiting budget announcement for the next fiscal year of 2018/19 to declare their local and foreign assets and benefit from the new amnesty scheme, a senior tax practitioner said on Wednesday. Khalid Mahmood, president of the Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) said bar members are receiving a… – Continue reading
(Business in Cameroon) – During the inauguration of Nestlé Cameroon’s new production unit on April 12, 2018, in Douala, Pietro Lazerri, the Swiss ambassador to Cameroon informed that his country and Cameroon would initiate discussions to find a solution to the double taxation of companies operating in both countries. The… – Continue reading
The UK tax agency, HM Revenue and Customs, on April 16, 2018, released proposed changes to the list of amendments it intends to make to its bilateral double tax avoidance agreements through the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting multilateral instrument. The new document – Proposed changes to the provisional… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) yesterday said it will continue with the drive to counter the threat of aggressive tax planning, base erosion and profit shifting, and tax evasion practices that cause tax leakages. IRBM chief executive officer Datuk Seri Sabin Samitah said the effort to… – Continue reading
Capital gains taxes will always remain a controversial topic. This is especially true in Thailand, by the look of things, as the cryptocurrency community wants the nation’s Finance Ministry to rethink its guidelines in this regard. For most people, this is also an effort to create a more lenient ecosystem… – Continue reading
Expanding the tax base under the existing conditions is like bleeding an anaemic person. A recent directive by President Yoweri Museveni to the Minister of Finance to tax users of social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp in a bid to widen the country’s tax base has stirred a… – Continue reading
Saving American jobs from going overseas was the cornerstone of candidate Trump’s populist campaign for president. “We’re just shipping company after company after company is leaving this country and leaving jobs behind,” Trump said in March of 2016. “And I’m going to get it stopped.” In October of 2017, while… – Continue reading
The Bermuda Monetary Authority has issued a consultation paper on draft regulations pertaining to “virtual currency businesses” and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The proposed bill seeks to create a framework that encourages and fosters the development of Bermuda’s nascent cryptocurrency industry. Bermuda Reveals Regulatory Proposals for Crypto Industry The minister… – Continue reading
Malawi is struggling to address loss of revenues due to smuggling of minerals, unregulated artisanal and small-scale mining activities, under declaration of taxable income and transfer mispricing by mining companies. Reserve Bank of Malawi statistics show that Malawi lost $980 million (MWK78 billion) between 2010 and 2017 due to foreign… – Continue reading
Kosovo Tax Administration inspectors have discovered a tax evasion scheme involving multiple businesses in northern and southern Kosovo. The Kosovo Tax Administration, ATK, has uncovered a network of Albanian and Serb businesses collaborating in a tax evasion scheme, suspected to have emptied the public purse of millions of euros. Raiding… – Continue reading
IMF Section 2 – Article 8 “No member may impose restrictions without the approval of the International Monetary Fund on payments and remittances in respect of current international transactions” KUWAIT CITY, April 15: The thirty-first report of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economic Committee on bills on taxation of expatriate… – Continue reading
MACAO, April 16 (Xinhua) — An agreement was signed between China’s Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Vietnam to avoid double taxation as well as prevent tax evasion, according to a press release by the Macao SAR’s financial service department on Monday. The agreement, signed by Macao SAR Secretary for… – Continue reading
In what appears to be an attempt to test their ability to distribute Bitcoin Gold (BTG), a Coinsecure weakness was apparently exposed, and over 3 million dollars worth of bitcoin were stolen as a result. The large crypto exchange based in India filed a First Information Report (FIR) with police,… – Continue reading
Guwahati The CBI has arrested Swetabh Suman, Commissioner of Income Tax (Audit), Guwahati, Assam from Delhi in connection with a case of tax evasion and criminal conspiracy. The central agency has registered a case against the arrested Commissioner of Income Tax. Similar procedures have been initiated against Income Tax Officer… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has launched a consultation inviting input on proposals to tackle arrangements entered into by individuals, partnerships, or companies that aim to move UK profits outside the scope of UK taxation, typically through the use of offshore trusts and companies. The new legislation, to be drafted… – Continue reading
The OECD has published new transfer pricing country profiles for Australia, China, Estonia, France, Georgia, Hungary, India, Israel, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and Uruguay, bringing the number of such overviews published by the OECD to 44. The profiles explain the current transfer pricing legislation and practices of each country…. – Continue reading
Assets seized by Polish police are reportedly linked to the cryptocurrency exchange’s account in the country. Following a couple of days of rumours, Bitfinex – currently the fifth largest cryptocurrency exchange based on volume, according to Coinmarketcap – has been moved to deny it is embroiled in an investigation regarding… – Continue reading
When Mark Zuckerberg told US senators yesterday (April 10) that Facebook is in an “arms race” against Russian trolls seeking to manipulate its users, his comment made global headlines. One of the steps Facebook is taking to stop US elections from being manipulated by foreign actors is to put in… – Continue reading
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he wanted to tax social media to keep the gossip mill in check and raise revenue for the cash-strapped country. Now the government says it has no such plans. The government of Uganda admitted this week that it won’t impose a social media tax, after… – Continue reading
THE Bahamas will be unable to satisfy the European Union’s (EU) demands by merely promising to implement corporate taxation, a prominent attorney has warned. Michael Paton, who co-heads the financial services industry working group assessing the Government’s ‘blacklisting’ response, told Tribune Business in a recent interview that time and the… – Continue reading
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian authorities are discussing the creation of two offshore financial centers (OFCs) with special legal systems in the Kaliningrad Region and the Primorsky Territory to support business circles targeted by US sanctions, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Tuesday. According to the Vedomosti newspaper, the tax havens… – Continue reading
The Bahamas could be removed from the European Union’s (EU) ‘blacklist’ as early as this Thursday, with the Government hoping to at least get “an indication” of delisting progress. K P Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister, told Tribune Business that the Government was yesterday “following up” with EU officials on the… – Continue reading
AEOI deals with the challenge of taxpayers operating cross-border but tax administrations remaining confined to their national borders, by providing an open international architecture. Singapore has activated three new Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) relationships under the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account… – Continue reading
