When it comes to risk management, the adage "Failing to plan is planning to fail", rings truer than most. Risk management is vital in any business, and when a more cost-efficient and customisable alternative to outright insurance purchase is sought, captive insurance ticks all the right boxes. ... - Continue reading
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) recently decided to shrink the tax burden for local microfinance institutions (MFIs) by lowering withholding tax on interest from loans acquired from abroad from 14 to 10 percent, a move that the government claims will keep the massive sector sustainable. This is the… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office is preparing to take several companies to court over abuse of thin capitalisation rules and will start a wave of audits of large multinationals with complex cross-border loans, as it continues to take a hardline approach in the wake of its win against Chevron. The ATO… – Continue reading
A. Introduction In February 2017 Cyprus Tax Department has announced that the current practice regarding profit margins between related Company loans will be abolished by the 30th June 2017. The announcement indicates that the minimum acceptable margins will apply up to 30th June 2017, and as from 1st July 2017… – Continue reading
New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday said it has operationalised the provisions of secondary adjustment in transfer pricing. The Finance Act, 2017 with effect from April 1, 2018 provided for secondary adjustment by attributing income to the excess money lying in the… – Continue reading
ABUJA, May 22 (Reuters) – Nigeria will increase the interest rate on unpaid taxes to discourage companies and individuals from paying late and racking up a larger debt, the finance ministry said on Monday. The ministry said the measure will take effect on July 1 and that the rate would… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office had a superb win against Chevron in the Federal Court last week, but there is something everyone is missing, something that will turn the art of tax avoidance on its head; a game-changer for multinationals. Put simply, Chevron borrowed US$2.5 billion in the US at less… – Continue reading
Report warns that Trump’s proposed corporate tax reforms could spark risk-taking WASHINGTON • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned yesterday that United States President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cuts and reduction of financial regulations could spark a new round of financial risk-taking of the type that preceded the last crisis… – Continue reading
As a rule and according to Article 33 of the Cyprus Income Tax Law, which introduces the arm’s length principle (using wording similar to that of article 9 of the OECD Model Tax Convention), all transactions between companies, including loan agreements/transactions by Cyprus companies, must be undertaken at arm’s length… – Continue reading
AMMAN — Addressing tax evasion efficiently has become of vital importance to the state budget and the overall economy in light of Jordan’s current economic conditions, experts agreed on Saturday. Participants in a panel, organised by the Jordan Transparency Society, agreed on the need for stricter inspections and more awareness… – Continue reading
A resurgent U.S. economy would help offset softness elsewhere in the world. Global growth will pick up faster than previously expected in the coming months as the Trump administration’s planned tax cuts and public spending fire up the U.S. economy, the OECD said on Monday, revising up its forecasts. In… – Continue reading
Foreign banks have been asked to make a written commitment to Malaysia’s central bank to stop trading the ringgit in the offshore non-deliverable forwards market in the bank’s latest move to protect a weakening currency, banking sources said. Foreign banks have been sent a form letter to sign, which asks… – Continue reading
The Indian Government’s dramatic cancellation of large banknotes on the same day as the US election last week looks like the drastic solution to a very Indian problem with tax avoidance and the black economy, but it might turn out to be a harbinger of things to come everywhere. In… – Continue reading
After five years of negotiations, the European Commission has finally announced its plans to overhaul the way in which companies are taxed in the Single Market. The revised Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) is aimed at making it easier and cheaper to do business in the Single Market and… – Continue reading
Countries pursuing billions in unpaid taxes push region’s wealthy to pull cash from accounts LONDON — Switzerland’s private bankers fear cash-strapped Latin American countries pursuing billions of dollars in unpaid taxes will push the region’s wealthy to pull cash from their Swiss bank accounts. For these banks, still recovering from… – Continue reading
A revenue-neutral modification of Finland’s tax structure could boost the nation’s economic growth, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a recently released report. Finland has already adopted some measures to make the tax structure more growth friendly in recent years, the report, Boosting Productivity in Finland, said…. – Continue reading
The Panama Papers have put the spotlight on tax avoidance once again. This is, of course, not a new issue. Before that, we had Swiss Leaks and BVI Leaks. You may be asking: how does tax avoidance work and why have policymakers struggled to rein it in? Firstly, it is… – Continue reading
The European Union’s Anti-Avoidance Directive, which has to be put into national legislation by 2019,is aimed at plugging loop-holes in tax systems which allow large corporations to legally avoid paying tax. While Malta has been criticised for offering competitive tax rates, despite the openness and uniformity of such competitive rates,… – Continue reading
European Union member states have struck a deal on new rules designed to eliminate the most common corporate tax avoidance practices. The measures in the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive target the main forms of tax avoidance practiced by large multinationals and builds on global standards developed by the Organisation for Economic… – Continue reading
The offshore yuan was set for the biggest two-day decline in six weeks after China’s central bank reduced the currency’s reference rate and policy makers were seen preparing a levy on foreign-exchange transactions. The monetary authority has drafted rules for a so-called Tobin tax in an effort to curb currency… – 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
Debt planning and restructuring is a common mechanism to minimize taxable income by increasing deductions among different entities in a multinational group of companies. As interest on debt is generally a deductible expense of the payor and taxed in the hands of the payee, groups may create intercompany loans to… – Continue reading
Even employees earning below Rs 15,000 a month will be impacted if the Centre sticks to the plan of taxing 60% of EPF withdrawals The Budget has proposed significant changes on taxation of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). Given that EPF is at the core of the Indian social security system… – Continue reading
Before conducting business outside of the U.S. for the first time, a company must establish the business case for doing so. That means looking beyond just the profit potential on the product or service to the other costs that can be involved, of which there are many. “The culture of… – Continue reading
Let’s take a moment to compare the world today to before the Global Financial Crisis struck roughly eight years ago. In this short period of time, US federal government debt has DOUBLED. The Federal Reserve now holds $2.4 trillion of that debt, up from $479 billion. Interest rates, which were… – Continue reading
The People’s Bank of China supports the country’s currency and fends off short sellers in the world’s largest overseas yuan market (Beijing) – The offshore yuan market in Hong Kong has been shaken to the core by weeks of volatility that analysts blame on strong intervention by China’s central bank…. – Continue reading
Here’s a transaction that did the rounds some years ago. If I wanted some foreign exchange in the future I could enter into a contract with a bank by which it would sell me some. Assume that, in order to get a bank to promise to give me $2bn in… – Continue reading
Nearly a third of the 26 large foreign banks operating in Australia, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lloyds and BNP Paribas, had no taxable income in 2014, data released by the Australian Taxation Office shows. Eight banks with total revenue of $9 billion had no taxable income, while Credit Suisse, which… – Continue reading
I know Switzerland is renowned as a tax haven but this is surely a step too far? To be fair, they are not actually cutting tax levels. They are just discouraging early payment of taxes. Why would anyone pay the tax authorities early if they didn’t have to? The canton… – Continue reading
