Category: A-E
France sees EU digital tax solution in 2021
GAFA group -- Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, please take note! ... - Continue reading
Facebook to pay $125 million in back taxes to France
Earlier, France had decided to take the bull named digital tax by its horns, and now it is reaping the benefits. ... - Continue reading
Apple Wins €13 Billion Tax Avoidance Case Against EU Antitrust Regulator
A big win for Apple in a tax avoidance court case. ... - Continue reading
Tech companies rejected by top court on tax breaks
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to question a ruling that technology companies including Facebook Inc. and Google say will cost them billions of dollars in taxes by limiting deductions for stock payments to employees. The justices without comment Monday turned away an appeal by Intel Corp.’s Altera unit, which challenged… – Continue reading
Why ‘Digital Taxes’ Are the New Trade War Flashpoint
A further discussion on the possible treatment of digital taxes in today's world where it has its hugest economic presence. ... - Continue reading
Australian High Court clarifies definition of “associate” in BHP Billiton tax dispute.
BHP Billiton's case puts Australia’s controlled foreign corporation laws into better perspective. ... - Continue reading
Tax amnesty plan faces hurdles – Credit Suisse
MANILA, Philippines – Investment bank Credit Suisse said an effective tax amnesty program would face hurdles in the Philippines due to the country’s strict banking secrecy law. In its Asian daily report titled “Philippines: Credible threat still lacking,” Credit Suisse economist Michael Wan said the planned program announced by Finance… – Continue reading
Deutsche Bank slapped with €15m fine in money laundering case
German authorities raided Deutsche Bank's offices, including its Frankfurt base, in connection with the probe in 2018. ... - Continue reading
Amazon most ‘aggressive’ in $100bn global tax avoidance
Amazon has been accused of being the most ‘aggressive’ in avoiding tax, compared with other tech giants, by tax transparency campaign group Fair Tax Mark. ... - Continue reading
New study deems Amazon worst for ‘aggressive’ tax avoidance
The big six US tech firms have been accused of “aggressively avoiding” $100bn (£75bn) of global tax over the past decade. ... - Continue reading
Airbnb probed by UK tax authorities
A note in newly filed accounts for Airbnb UK said it had been contacted by HMRC over "tax laws or regulations impacting the company's business". ... - Continue reading
G20 finance ministers reaffirm support to tax digital companies
G20 finance ministers support taking the 'Unified Tax Framework' a notch higher - Multinational enterprises like Google, Facebook and Amazon with huge customer base to retain share of profits in concerned countries. ... - Continue reading
Dutch tax office demands £902m in back taxes from British American Tobacco
The Dutch tax authorities have issued British American Tobacco with a €1bn bill for back taxes after a tax evasion investigation, website De Onderzoeksredactie has reported. ... - Continue reading
Apple to challenge EU over record $14 billion tax dodging case
A panel of judges in Luxembourg on Tuesday will begin hearing arguments concerning the US tech giant Apple and the world’s biggest tax case. The EU General Court (EGC) will begin hearing the appeals lodged by Ireland and Apple against the EU tax ruling. It has to weigh up whether… – Continue reading
US appeals court sides with Amazon in $1.5 billion transfer pricing dispute
A US federal appeals court on Friday affirmed the Tax Court’s decision in Amazon, ruling that cost sharing buy-in payments made by Amazon’s Luxembourg subsidiary in exchange for Amazon’s transfer of intangible property should not include compensation for transferred residual business assets such as workforce in place, goodwill, and going concern value. ... - Continue reading
Will a new direct tax law push up compliance?
- Numerous amendments over five decades, as well as the influence of case laws, often made it difficult to interpret the rules
- India is rewriting its direct tax law to make it simpler, more sophisticated and less prone to disputes.
Banks tell BB single-digit rates not possible now
Top executives of banks on Sunday informed Bangladesh Bank that bringing down the interest rates to single digit would not be possible now considering the liquidity situation in the country’s banking sector. Some of the banks were even paying 9.5 per cent interest against deposits of state-owned entities and more… – Continue reading
Transfer (mis)pricing
TRANSFER pricing — the pricing of commodities traded between or within multinational enterprises — is a legal practice and a key feature of cross-border and intra-firm transactions. The United Nations prefers to use the broader phrase ‘trade pricing’ in addressing this practice and defines it as a ‘normal incident of… – Continue reading
Bank of Singapore’s Hong Kong CEO on Developing a Greater China Proposition
As Bank of Singapore’s Global Market Head for Greater China and North Asia, and since March 2018 also Hong Kong CEO, Derrick Tan has plenty of challenges in front of him. But he can draw on from his multi-faceted background – he spent five years as an investigating officer with… – Continue reading
G-20 ministers agree to tax tech giants
Tax technology giants to be taxed by the Group of 20 nations ... - Continue reading
British overseas territories top corporate tax loophole index
Governments are stepping up efforts to recoup more tax from multinationals, with the European Commission forcing iPhone maker Apple to repay 13 billion euros after it used Ireland to cut its tax on European profits to almost zero. The Tax Justice Network, a group campaigning for transparency, said its study… – Continue reading
TAX FIX WOULD MAKE SUMMER SWEETER FOR RENTERS AT THE SHORE
Lawmakers want to ease the tax bite on most short-term rentals, but agreements made through Airbnb and similar marketplaces would still face 12 percent levy A new state tax meant to help level the playing field for hotels and motels amid rising competition from online rental marketplaces like Airbnb may… – Continue reading
Tax authorities mount raids on 19 German banks and houses
Investigation is linked to Panama Papers and part of money laundering allegations Eleven banks and eight private homes and offices across Germany have been raided by police and tax investigators as part of a wide-ranging investigation into tax evasion. The raids, which began at dawn on Wednesday and went on… – Continue reading
Kamal says fully foreign-owned cos no more to be allowed
Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the foreign companies will be required to have local partners for doing business in Bangladesh as the government wants to bring them under the tax net. ‘No foreign company can do business alone here any longer,’ he told reporters on Thursday after… – Continue reading
KPMG dominates 2019 Asia Tax Awards but EY claims Tax Firm of the Year
The winners of International Tax Review’s 2019 Asia Tax Awards have been announced with Ernst & Young named Tax Firm of the Year. After three consecutive crowns in the Asia Tax Awards’ Tax Firm of the Year category, KPMG has this year been bumped from the podium by fellow Big… – Continue reading
Africa’s problem with tax avoidance
Every year African countries lose at least $50 million in taxes — more than the amount of foreign development aid. So where is it all going and how can multinational companies be held to account? NGOs continue to raise the alarm. African countries are being cheated out of billions in… – Continue reading
Understand the Differences Between Retail and Offshore Private Banks
Many people don’t put too much thought into the diverse types of banks that exist. They simply want to know their money is safe and that they can access it when needed. While the word bank can be a generalized term, it is important to recognize how different banks can… – Continue reading
Swedbank hires EY to conduct forensics into money laundering
Swedbank, one of the largest banks in Sweden, has hired professionals services firm EY to investigate the bank’s possible involvement in large scale money laundering. According to media reports in Sweden, over the period of nearly ten years the bank facilitated approximately $5.8 billion worth of suspicious transactions. The transactions… – Continue reading
Tax Netflix and other e-commerce companies, say Canadians and CRA professionals
OTTAWA, Feb. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The federal government needn’t worry about a consumer backlash to a sales tax on Canadians’ Netflix accounts, if newly released results from an Environics Research poll and a separate survey of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) tax professionals are any indication, says the Professional… – Continue reading
OECD moves toward consensus on taxing multinational tech companies
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is making progress on dealing with the tax challenges of the digital economy with a goal of arriving at a new consensus-based long-term solution in 2020. The OECD announced last week that the countries and jurisdictions participating in the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on… – Continue reading
Apple settles 10-year tax battle with France, paying a reported €500M ($570M)
Apple has settled a ten-year tax battle with France, agreeing to pay a reported half a billion Euros ($570M) in back tax. The French government had accused Apple of evading or avoiding tax due on sales made in France. The line between tax evasion, which is illegal, and aggressive tax-avoidance,… – Continue reading
Global tax advisory services revenue grows to $20B, up $5B in 3 years
Tax advisory revenue at professional services firms expanded 8.6 percent to $20.3 billion in 2017, and grew by around $5 billion in just the three years from 2014 to 2017, according to a new report. The report, from Source Global Research, found that the main tax advisory services around the… – Continue reading
Chile May Tax eCommerce Companies 19 Pct
Chile is considering a 19 percent tax on multinational eCommerce companies like Amazon, Netflix and Uber. Finance Minister Felipe Larrain made the announcement on Thursday (Jan. 10), and if it comes to fruition, the rate would be almost double what was originally proposed, Reuters reported. The Chilean Chamber of Commerce,… – Continue reading
Austria to Introduce Tax on Tech Giants With Annual Revenues Over $864Mln – Kurz
VIENNA (Sputnik) – The Austrian government will introduce a 3-percent tax on international tech giants with an annual turnover exceeding 750 million euros ($864 million), Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Thursday. “Europe currently does not have taxation of digital Internet giants and Austria intends to become a pioneer in… – Continue reading
IRS gives foreign banks a break in Trump tax law’s new levy
The Internal Revenue Service is giving foreign-based banks with U.S. operations some leeway when calculating a major new international tax aimed at preventing global companies from shifting profits abroad. Multinationals often transfer payments, such as interest or royalties, to their affiliates in low-tax jurisdictions to maximize deductions and minimize tax… – Continue reading
Australian corporate tax takes up 20 percent: data
CANBERRA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) — The amount of tax paid by Australia’s biggest companies has risen 20 percent in a single year, data has revealed. According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) ‘s corporate tax data for financial year 2016-17, which was released on Thursday, the nation’s 1,470 biggest companies… – Continue reading
Tiny Deutsche Bank Unit At Heart Of Money Laundering Investigation
The center of the money laundering investigation at Deutsche Bank lies at a tiny unit that was barely able to eke out a profit and had been up for sale since the early part of 2016, reported Financial Times. Citing several people briefed on the matter, the publication reported that… – Continue reading
EU finance ministers need to deliver: Digital companies must pay tax
When European finance ministers meet on Tuesday (4 December), they should swiftly adopt the digital service tax: a levy on turnover for very large digital firms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Booking and Spotify, write Udo Bullmann and Paul Tang. Udo Bullmann is president of the Socialist and Democrats… – Continue reading
A tax ruling just opened the Pandora’s box for India’s back offices
MUMBAI: Are India-based back offices of multinationals merely brokers? And, are Indian companies providing services to foreign firms just commission agents? Going by the tax department’s definition, it appears that they are so — and not exporters. Several back offices at multinationals now face 18% Goods and Services Tax (GST)… – Continue reading
US multinationals dodge $180 billion in taxes on foreign profits per year
US multinational corporations are plundering the populations of the United States and the world to the tune of trillions of dollars by driving down and evading taxes on profits booked overseas. This is the conclusion that emerges from a recent study by University of California at Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman… – Continue reading
Britain to start taxing big internet companies
LONDON — Britain’s Treasury chief unveiled Monday a new tax on big internet companies’ revenues, insisting it is time that the global tech giants with profitable business in the United Kingdom pay their fair share for public services. Philip Hammond made the announcement as he outlined his budget, explaining that… – Continue reading
Germany urges global minimum tax for digital giants
FRANKFURT AM MAIN: German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz in an interview said he backed a global minimum fiscal regime for multinationals as Europe looks to levy tax notably on US tech giants. “We need a minumum tax rate valid globally which no state can get out of (applying),” Scholz, a… – Continue reading
New Zealand Law Foundation Report suggests accepting cryptocurrency
A recent report published by the New Zealand Law Foundation on regulating cryptocurrencies in New Zealand suggests the regulators of the country to start taking tax in crypto and trial a CBDC. The report, that is commissioned by the New Zealand Law Foundation and written by the University of Auckland… – Continue reading
McDonald’s Luxembourg tax deal not illegal
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – McDonald’s tax deal with Luxembourg did not breach EU state aid rules, EU antitrust regulators ruled on Wednesday, saying the reason the US fast food chain did not pay some taxes was due to the mismatch between US and Luxembourg laws. The decision by the European Commission… – Continue reading
EU Should Challenge Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon Payment Systems, ECB Says
A European Union board member gave a speech criticizing the weak presence of European fintech businesses in the continent’s own market. The leader’s comments come in response to several major clashes with American multinationals over their unscrupulous practices. Yves Mersch, European Central Bank (ECB) member of the Executive Board, addressed… – Continue reading
