State lawmakers are getting into the act of demonizing corporate inversions even though there is not much they can do to stop them. Corporate inversions, in which U.S. companies merge with or are acquired by an overseas business, are a hot topic on the campaign trail and in the halls… – Continue reading
Only the little people pay taxes. For a small, select cohort of rich Australians, the famous quote of New York property billionaire Leona Helmsley rings not as an outrage but as an inspiration. In the most recent documents released by the Australian Tax Office, there were 55 people who had… – Continue reading
The amount of tax multinational companies pay – and the amount they don’t pay – has become highly controversial, writes RTÉ’s Economics Correspondent Sean Whelan. This is mainly as a result of public outrage over legal tax avoidance schemes that big companies can use to shelter vast amounts of money… – Continue reading
Governments around the world want more tax income. There is a widely held feeling that many international companies are basing themselves in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, and the Netherlands to avoid tax. The world’s largest countries have a plan and things will change. What will be the effect on Luxembourg,… – Continue reading
The US government, in an effort to reduce offshore tax evasion, has taken extraordinary steps to implement FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This includes the hiring and training of over 3,000 IRS examiners newly tasked with process verification and tax audit efforts. The implications for US businesses can… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) welcomes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) plan to allow all countries to participate on an equal footing with OECD and G20 countries in the implementation of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan. The framework announced by the OECD early… – Continue reading
The government reportedly wants to extend to three years the holding period for investments in listed shares to qualify for capital gains tax exemption. This accepts the need to change the present capital gains tax regime but might not be the best way to go about it. It would discriminate… – Continue reading
OECD’s head of tax policy says protectionist measures by national governments had to be avoided The risk of protectionist tax measures being taken by national governments has abated as a result of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (Beps) project, a key official has told a conference in Dublin…. – Continue reading
When Tim Cook and his two senior Apple colleagues were questioned by a US Senate sub-committee back in May 2013, the headlines generated in the world’s business press were unsettling. Some lawmakers repeatedly characterised Ireland as a tax haven, saying behemoth Apple channelled billions of dollars of global revenues generated… – Continue reading
Introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be a crucial step towards tax reforms in India. Abolishing several central and state taxes and replacing them by one single tax will mitigate the recurring problem of double taxation and for the first time, create a common national market. Due to… – Continue reading
Many serious reforms have been implemented, and very strong Federal political will, together with strong state-based political consensus, will be needed for any further tax reform in 2016. Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of talk about tax reform, notably base erosion profit shifting (BEPS)… – Continue reading
Though the use of the retrospective tax on Vodafone and Cairn tend to grab the headlines, a large part of the ‘tax terror’ in India has really been the contribution of the high-pitched transfer pricing (TP) additions to the income of the MNCs Though the use of the retrospective tax… – Continue reading
Today’s proposals aim for a coordinated EU wide response to corporate tax avoidance, following global standards developed by the OECD last autumn. New rules are needed to align the tax laws in all 28 EU countries in order to fight aggressive tax practices by large companies efficiently and effectively. The… – Continue reading
Over the last two decades, an increasing number of companies have chosen to register or establish subsidiaries in offshore financial centres. OFCs are characterized by low taxation, flexible regulations, and secrecy policies (see Fig 1 for the list of OFCs, ranked by Offshore Attitude Index). Many companies with subsidiaries offshore… – Continue reading
If Republican leaders in Congress really want to fix our broken corporate tax system, as they’ve recently claimed, they should start by blocking what would be the biggest offshore tax dodge in American history. By stopping drug giant Pfizer from changing its legal address to Ireland — and thereby avoiding… – Continue reading
Tech company’s 2015 earnings will be announced next week as governments aim to crack down on Google’s controversial tax avoidance arrangements Google is poised to confirm next week that controversial tax structures in Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda have boosted its offshore cash mountain to more than $43bn (£30bn), figures… – Continue reading
House rent allowance (HRA) is an allowance paid by employer to meet employee’s housing cost where an employee arranges for his own accommodation. Exemption under tax provisions has been provided for HRA which is the most sought after exemption by salaried employees. An employee can avail of this exemption if… – Continue reading
Treasurer says possibility of an increase needs to be on table if voters want relief from the effects of ‘bracket creep’ in income tax Scott Morrison has opened the political new year softening Australians up for an increase in the GST, arguing that reform needs to be on the table… – Continue reading
The redomiciliation of companies (ie, movement of a company incorporated in one jurisdiction to another, retaining its legal character) is not recognised under Chilean law. This means that in order to move to Chile, a foreign company must establish a branch or create a subsidiary there. It cannot move its… – Continue reading
While most computer users are likely familiar with Adobe products, they are probably not aware of the company’s tax-dodging practices. The maker of the ubiquitous PDF reader and Flash software earlier this week released its annual report, which revealed the company is rapidly diverting profits offshore. Its stash of “permanently… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has welcomed the Ghanaian Government’s fiscal consolidation efforts, including its various revenue-raising initiatives. The Government is seeking to implement an adjustment of two percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This would bring the country’s deficit to about 5.3 percent of GDP in 2016. Over the… – Continue reading
The abolition of Personal Income Tax (PIT) and contrasting increase in the Revenue Recovery Charge (RRC) from 10 to 13 per cent, is set to see a shift in the burden on taxpayers in the coming months. Prime Minister Gaston Browne in delivering the 2016 Budget Speech, on Thursday, announced… – Continue reading
Ireland’s insistence that it is not a tax haven and that in fact other EU countries have tax regimes that facilitate tax dodging by multinationals will be borne out by a study to be released next week. But while this will be good news to Finance Minister Michael Noonan a… – Continue reading
FOCUS: Major infrastructure projects and other purely commercial transactions could suffer collateral damage from proposals to reform the international tax system and prevent avoidance by multinationals. Rising tax costs could put additional strain on the viability of key projects. Infrastructure projects are capital intensive and often have a high level… – Continue reading
The Financial Services Council (FSC) is calling for the company tax rate to be cut by eight percentage points to 22 per cent in order to boost growth, investment and employment. The FSC has released a tax reform package, which it said would turn around Australia’s sagging competitiveness and flat… – Continue reading
The Financial Services Council has proposed a new tax package calling for company tax to be cut to 22% from its current 30%. The industry body also wants to see “lower, flatter, indexed” income tax rates. The FSC said its tax reform package is designed to “grow the economy and… – Continue reading
KARACHI: Recently, under the context of the Article IV consultation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report on Pakistan’s overall economy. The report started on a positive note highlighting the macroeconomic gains made over the past couple of years which included the increase in growth rate from 3.7% in… – Continue reading
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the world’s company by market capitalization, may face more than $8 billion tax bill in connection with the investigation of the European Commission regarding its tax policies, according to Bloomberg. Matt Larson, a litigation analyst Bloomberg Intelligence analyzed the European Commission’s investigation against Apple, which was accused… – Continue reading
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has maintained third in the global ranking for ease of tax payment, according to the latest release of the Paying Taxes report by the World Bank and PwC. With the least demanding tax framework, well below the world average, the Kingdom has a total tax rate of… – Continue reading
While there is an urgent need to restructure the current income tax slabs, especially hiking the Rs 10 lakh limit for the highest rate of 30%, presumptive taxation for the unorganized businesses also needs to be looked at by FM Arun Jaitley. As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gears up to… – Continue reading
Reforms to corporate tax rules and fiscal transparency will be pursued by EU policy makers in 2016, the EU’s tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici has said. “We have a serious problem with tax avoidance and lack of transparency. Too many people have looked the other way,” Moscovici said. Moscovici told a… – Continue reading
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Wednesday formally introduced a business tax reform plan that would lower the maximum tax on all businesses to 25 percent. The bill, called the American Business Competitiveness Act, has 26 co-sponsors, according to a news release, and the endorsement of Americans for Tax Reform President… – Continue reading
