Barely two weeks after e-commerce major Flipkart dragged the Uttarakhand government to court for imposing a 10 per cent entry tax in the state on goods purchased from e-commerce firms, the Gujarat government passed a similar bill on Wednesday. The bill proposes to levy entry tax on goods purchased through… – Continue reading
Both the US and the global forum working on automatic exchange of information under OECD have endorsed the data safeguards put in place by India New Delhi: India’s tax systems have withstood international scrutiny over data confidentiality and other safeguards put in place by the government before the revenue authorities… – Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (Xinhua) — Stopping abuse of tax havens and promoting global tax cooperation will help create a fairer global society, Jeffrey Sachs, U.S. economist and UN special adviser on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) told reporters here Wednesday. Sachs made the statement at a press conference here… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Industry chamber Assocham today suggested the government to introduce the equalisation levy as part of Indian Income Tax Act itself and not as a separate chapter in the Finance Act as it would only increase cost of doing business. “Introducing equalisation levy separately under Finance Act and not… – Continue reading
The government is cutting the tax on real estate investment trusts (REITs) to boost local use of the financial mechanism that employs commercial properties like malls, hospitals, warehouses, hotels and office buildings as underlying assets. Indonesia only had two REITs created in the country in the past nine years, namely… – Continue reading
Global international tax takes from multinational companies will almost certainly increase in the next 5-10 years as governments around the world look to level the taxation playing field. Commenting on the New Zealand Herald’s series examining ‘the tax gap’ – multinationals channelling earnings to lower tax regimes, disadvantaging some of… – Continue reading
Kenya has received global recognition from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), following the appointment of James Karanja, a career Kenyan tax administrator to lead the recently established Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Secretariat. TIWB is a global scope initiative, that was launched mid last year at the… – Continue reading
The proposed Article 26 (exchange of information) of the convention on Avoidance of Double Taxation, being renegotiated between Pakistan and Switzerland, would bound the Swiss tax authorities to exchange all requested information, including confidential bank account information of Pakistanis maintaining Swiss accounts. Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that… – Continue reading
Investors alerted to risks of higher payments as crackdown closes loopholes A global crackdown on tax avoidance has forced a surge of warnings by multinational companies that higher payments are set to hit their earnings. A Financial Times analysis of company filings revealed that more than twice the number of… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Anxiety still prevails among foreign institutional investors (FIIs) with regard to General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR), which will come into effect from April 1, 2017. While the draft rules in GAAR may have cleared the air over retrospective taxation and treatment of Participatory Notes ( P-notes), experts say doubts… – Continue reading
The Commissioner of Taxation, Chris Jordan has assured the public it can have confidence in the compliance approach the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is taking to its wealthiest taxpayers. Following the release of tax details relating to about 300 private companies with incomes of $200 million or more, Mr Jordan… – Continue reading
In a search for financial records of a U.S. taxpayer who allegedly parked undeclared income offshore, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) are seeking to enforce a summons against a U.S. branch of a foreign bank for records held by a foreign branch of… – Continue reading
In the last few weeks, a proposed communications service tax which sought to tax voice calls, SMS, MMS, Data and Pay TV used by subscribers has dominated the telecommunications space since it was presented as a bill before the national assembly with Nigerians describing it as another way of exploiting… – Continue reading
The Tax Department has signed 11 more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with taxpayers covering overseas transactions within group entities so as to reduce litigations. “Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed 11 unilateral APAs on March 28, 2016. With this signing, India has entered into 59 bilateral and/or unilateral… – Continue reading
A bill that would have allowed voters to close a tax loophole allowing some of Colorado’s largest companies to hold revenue offshore and avoid paying state income tax died in the Colorado Senate, after being approved by the Colorado House earlier this month. It is the second year in a… – Continue reading
ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Finland have signed an agreement on the exchange of information for tax purposes between the two countries. The agreement was signed by Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, MoF, and Riitta Swan, Ambassador of Finland to… – Continue reading
The idea is simple. Firms make profits in one jurisdiction, and shift them across borders by exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules, to take advantage of lower tax rates and, thus, not paying taxes to in the country where the profit is made. There have been concerns across the… – Continue reading
Georgia and South Korea are stepping up bilateral cooperation to avoid double taxation, boost investments and increase economic cooperation. Georgia’s Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri plans to visit South Korea and sign a cooperation agreement on avoidance of double taxation, prevention of evasion of income and capital taxes. Double taxation is… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has ruled that no administrative assistance can be provided by Switzerland in response to a group request submitted by the tax authority in the Netherlands (in decision A-8400/2015). In upholding the appeal by a Dutch client of Swiss bank UBS, the court blocked the request… – Continue reading
European Union member states are taking the lead on implementing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recommendations under the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, a new EY report says. EY’s Outlook for global tax policy in 2016 report highlights that, of the 14 jurisdictions (37 percent) either… – Continue reading
Finomial Corporation today announced the launch of a comprehensive and automated online investor services and tax reporting platform. This software enables financial institutions to meet the compliance requirements for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) mandated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). These new tax regulations require that… – Continue reading
The Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) has expressed its disappointment that the UK Government intends to press ahead with plans to introduce a stamp duty land tax (SDLT) surcharge on purchases of second homes from April 1. Higher rates of SDLT will apply to purchases in England, Wales, and Northern… – Continue reading
Indonesia hopes its plans for a tax amnesty will dissuade companies from channelling profits through overseas tax havens and shopping around for the most advantageous tax treaties, its finance minister said on Wednesday. Bambang Brodjonegoro said he suspected Indonesian firms of setting up “special purpose vehicles” (SPVs) to benefit both… – Continue reading
Authorities in China’s southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang cracked down on 115 cases of underground banking involving transactions totalling more than 900 billion yuan (HK$ 1.07 trillion) in 2015, state media reports. The success of the campaign underscored the efforts of Beijing to rein in illegal capital outflows, which hit… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has adopted a dispatch on the implementation of a new tax information agreement (TIEA) with Brazil and submitted it to Parliament for approval. The agreement was signed in November 2015. It is the tenth TIEA signed by Switzerland. The Council said that the agreement governs the… – Continue reading
Bulgaria has definitively removed Gibraltar from its ‘tax haven’ list following intensive lobbying by Albert Isola, Minister for Financial Services, and the Gibraltar Finance Bulgaria team. This change has been reflected in the updated lists published on the European Commission website under ‘Tax good governance in the world as seen… – Continue reading
Court cases likely over interpretation of the new levy proposed in the Budget for digital economy The government’s plan to expand the scope of equalisation levy proposed in the Union Budget, seeking to bring more transactions in the digital economy under the tax net, has left many e-commerce players fuming…. – Continue reading
Even as more large companies announce plans to take advantage of the inversion loophole to avoid taxes, Congress has refused to move on commonsense legislation that would put an end to inversions. Fortunately, as outlined in a new letter signed by Citizens for Tax Justice and 54 other groups, there… – Continue reading
In March 2010, the FATCA was enacted in the United States (“US“) for the purpose of preventing the non-compliance of US persons with US taxation laws through the participation and cooperation of foreign governments and financial institutions. FATCA Implementation in Malaysia On 30 June 2014, Malaysia reached an agreement in… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service is offering up to $10,000 to the winner of a new competition to make its online tax information more understandable to taxpayers. The IRS issued a notice Tuesday outlining the requirements and procedures for the Tax Design Challenge, a crowdsourcing competition with cash prizes that the… – Continue reading
Ireland recently announced it will introduce a formal advance pricing agreement (APA) programme this year. Ireland has accepted and concluded bilateral APAs for many years although there have been no formal procedures to initiate an APA in Ireland. However, in light of comments made by an Irish Revenue official at… – Continue reading
The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) has disclosed that 81 percent of respondents to a survey of South Korean companies professed that, although they were aware of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, they were not, as yet, making any preparations. The South Korean Government is preparing… – Continue reading
The first Budget tabled by Canada’s new Liberal Government provides for a major crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance, and streamlines the domestic tax credits system. The Budget was delivered by Finance Minister Bill Morneau on March 22, 2016. He told Parliament: “Today, we begin to restore hope for the… – Continue reading
Multinationals with turnover of more than €750 million would have to publish profit and tax details on their websites under new European Commission plans, the Financial Times has reported. According to plans seen by the Financial Times, the Commission would impose the requirement on companies with subsidiaries in Europe as… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) also known as the common reporting standard (CRS) – a globally co-ordinated approach to disclosure of account information between tax authorities. It follows on from several country’s successful implementation of the US Fatca regulations… – Continue reading
This article’s title may be shocking and antagonize Indonesia’s staunch position of opposing tax evasion by way of tax havens. But, let’s look deeper. While there is no standard definition of a tax haven, it is generally defined as a state, country or territory where tax rates are very low… – Continue reading
With increasing number of people from multiple countries investing in India and vice versa, there is a need to have a system that could track all such financial transactions in a transparent manner. With increasing number of people from multiple countries investing in India and vice versa, there is a… – Continue reading
The Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police has joined the fight against big-time tax evaders after its help was sought by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. ACG director Senior Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said in a statement Tuesday that BIR Commissioner Kim Henares enlisted the unit’s help, citing its expertise,… – Continue reading
The American Institute of CPAs has written to the Internal Revenue Service recommending some changes in the IRS’s proposed regulations for country-by-country reporting by multinational corporations of financial information to curb tax avoidance. The proposed regulations were issued last December as part of an effort by the Organization of Economic… – Continue reading
The Finance Act 2015 introduced certain gateway conditions for the new exemption from UK withholding tax on interest payments for “qualifying private placements.” The Qualifying Private Placement Regulations 2015 setting out the detailed conditions for relief have now been made. While January 1, 2016 was appointed as the effective date,… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has askedMauritius to set up a ‘macro-prudential authority’ to monitor the offshore investments from the island. One of the largest destinations of such offshore investments is the Indian stock market. The proposed authority will have a central role for the banking regulator, the Bank of… – Continue reading
Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate has encouraged several major U.S. companies like Medtronic, Pfizer, Johnson Controls, and Baxalta to move there in tax inversions in recent months, saving them billions of dollars of taxes and protecting themselves from international competition in the process. The U.S. corporate tax rate, on… – Continue reading
A TAX loophole has been closed to stop Jersey developers avoiding or evading tax on profits made from UK property projects. The loophole, which was known as ‘The Island Handshake’, had been in existence since the 1950s and was used to make Jersey an ‘investment doorway’ for UK property development…. – Continue reading
The second Protocol to the double tax agreement between Singapore and the United Arab Emirates entered into force March 16, 2016, and will become effective from January 1, 2017, lowering withholding tax rates and amending permanent establishment rules. The protocol, which was signed in October 2014, revises the terms to… – Continue reading
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Sunday advanced a bill to link tax evasion with money laundering. The bill would set certain types of tax evasion acts as predicate offenses, meaning they would be considered as part of the larger crime of money laundering. The bill, backed by… – Continue reading
Switzerland is barred from helping the Netherlands in a tax case that centres on a Dutch client of UBS (UBSG.S) after a Swiss court ruled that requested details were too broad to be covered by the information-sharing agreement between the countries. The Swiss Federal Administrative Court sided with a Dutch… – Continue reading
THE digital economy has increased opportunities for digital commerce companies to reap substantial sales from a country without establishing a taxable presence in that country. Existing permanent-establishment (PE) rules in both domestic laws and tax treaties require some type of physical presence before a PE is established in another country…. – Continue reading
The Delhi government’s Trade and Taxes Department has initiated investigation into alleged tax evasion by the city’s top 10 traders. The move comes as the government is reportedly not satisfied with the role of the police in punishing Value Added Taxes (VAT) defaulters. “The department will file a charge-sheet against… – Continue reading
The Australian government has announced that it will back a legislative solution to tax concerns surrounding bitcoin as part of a broad policy statement on financial technology. Under current tax guidance in the country, bitcoin is considered a form of barter rather than a form of money. Australian businesses must… – Continue reading
New Delhi: A new report on Indians stashing their black money in tax haven and assets abroad illegally is startling. As per a report in the Times of India, senior economists from the Bank of Italy have come up with an estimate on black money. The report states that Indians… – Continue reading
