Canada’s health-care stocks are sizzling, as Concordia Healthcare Corp. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s buy-and-streamline strategy has pushed the industry’s earnings and margins ahead of U.S. peers. The drugmakers are the two top-performing stocks in the Canadian equity benchmark this year, boosting total returns for the members of the Standard… – Continue reading
1. Global focus on transfer pricing There has been a recent surge in regulatory attention around the world towards pricing arrangements within multinational corporate groups. Regulators are concerned that these pricing arrangements may be used as a means of profit shifting and therefore tax avoidance. The price at which an… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to launch an investigation into Axact Pakistan (Pvt) Limited’s assets in foreign countries, including the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, bank accounts, credit card transactions and internet marketing in and outside Pakistan. FBR’s subsidiary Directorate General Intelligence & Investigation… – Continue reading
At a time when traders who bet on deals are constantly being thrown curve balls, more bad news: Yahoo! Inc.’s plan to make them rich may be getting derailed. The stock plummeted as much as 12 percent near the end of Tuesday’s trading session because the U.S. Internal Revenue Service… – Continue reading
Three years after a major restructuring of the business, general insurer AIG Jamaica is moving its operations offshore but will continue to write business for clients here. AIG Jamaica Insurance Company Limited was formerly Chartis Jamaica Insurance Company Limited, which was created in 2012 when sister company American Home Assurance… – Continue reading
Short cuts, loopholes and other forms of skulduggery will not be tolerated when the automatic exchange of tax information comes into force, a top official from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has promised Swiss bankers, reports FinFacts. Grace Perez-Navarro, second in command at the OECD’s tax policy… – Continue reading
Premier Colin Barnett (left) and Chevron manager Colin Beckett at its LNG project on Barrow Island. Secretive oil major Chevron Corp has taken the art of tax avoidance to its ultimate form thanks to a scheme so aggressive that it goes beyond merely reducing exposure to income tax, but rather,… – Continue reading
The I-T dept has received over 500 applications from MNCs for signing APAs. Income-tax department has set a target of 50 advance pricing agreements (APAs) to be sealed with multinational companies in the current fiscal that will exempt cross-border transactions by these firms from rigorous auditing to check income suppression…. – Continue reading
Luxembourg has been a prime destination for Canadians looking for a tax haven. Secretive. Discreet. Accommodating. These features were so attractive that Canadian companies, including a federal pension fund, sent $36 billion there in 2013. But new Statistics Canada data shows that more than $5 billion got pulled out of… – Continue reading
JOHANNESBURG – A R2.6bn merger deal between telecoms firm Telkom and IT services company Business Connexion Group (BCX) has been approved with conditions. The Competition Commission (CompCom) on Thursday announced that it recommended to the Competition Tribunal that the merger be approved with conditions. “These are technical conditions relating to… – Continue reading
The minimum alternate tax row has damaged the credibility of government promises to enforce an investor-friendly tax regime and made the Indian stock market Asia’s worst performer this year New Delhi/Mumbai: Castleton Investment Ltd, a unit of GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), in 2012 asked an arm of the Indian finance ministry… – Continue reading
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) were among the first Congressional leaders to welcome the May 7th signing of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), a longstanding policy priority for the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). Chairman… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 ― 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) must publicly prove its ability to repay its RM3.6 billion loan with a Deutsche Bank-led consortium instead of using “banking confidentiality” as an excuse to avoid addressing the matter, DAP’s Tony Pua said today. The Petaling Jaya Utara MP pointed out… – Continue reading
FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act—is America’s global tax law, called an American tax nightmare by the New York Times. That is an apt description. It was quietly enacted in 2010, and after a four-year ramp up, it’s finally in effect. Never before has an American tax law attempted such… – Continue reading
The Bahamas Ministry of Financial Services released draft copies of the FATCA Legislation and the FATCA Guidance Notes to meet the International Tax Compliance Requirements of the Model 1 FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the Bahamas and the United States of America (US). The new FATCA Bill was drafted in… – Continue reading
Head of forum’s tax policy will push for reform to cut down on avoidance. The OECD has attacked the “extremely aggressive” tax planning of companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple as it pushes for reform of global tax rules to cut down on avoidance. Pascal Saint-Amans, who heads up… – Continue reading
Glencore is under audit by the Australian Taxation Office for the low level of taxes it pays, claiming billions in “losses” overseas and resorting to low-tax or no-tax nations such as Bermuda, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. The Swiss-based mining giant revealed it was being investigated by the ATO in… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank today made a case for more clarity on taxing the sunshine e-commerce sector, which has been seeing high valuations and frenetic activities, saying doing so will help bolster their finances. “Taxing the burgeoning e-commerce space could bolster states’ own revenues, provided there is greater clarity around… – Continue reading
A complaint has been lodged with the ASX alleging an announcement about Australia’s biggest coal development contained misleading information about the project’s economic potential. In December last year Downer EDI Limited announced to the ASX its partnership with Adani Mining, to provide services for the controversial Carmichael mine in central… – Continue reading
The Federal Reserve barred Markus Walder, the former head of North America offshore banking at Credit Suisse Group AG, and four other previously indicted ex-bankers at the company from employment in the banking industry. The five were indicted for conspiracy to defraud the U.S government by assisting U.S. citizens’ evasion… – Continue reading
The financial plight of the debt-laden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is set to deepen, as jittery lenders of a $975 million syndicated loan led by Deutsche Bank plan to ask the troubled state-owned firm to pay up before the loan falls due in less than four months, the Business Times… – Continue reading
On May 11th 2015, the Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (“DITC”) announced that Notifications may now be submitted on or before Thursday, 21 May 2015; and that returns may be reported on or before Friday, 12 June 2015. There will be no penalties or enforcement measures once there… – Continue reading
Australia to fine tech tax-dodgers 100% of their avoided tax, plus profits Australia’s treasurer* Joe Hockey has revealed that he and other money ministers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have shared plans to have online retailers charging the appropriate consumption tax on intangibles and goods bought… – Continue reading
The Australian government announced a world-leading crackdown on Monday on alleged tax avoidance by 30 multinational companies that will likely force them to restructure their businesses before next year, reports Reuters. “These companies are diverting profits earned in Australia away from Australia to no-tax or low-tax jurisdictions,” Treasurer Joe Hockey… – Continue reading
Bangladesh is set to enforce transfer pricing rules to curb tax evasion and overseas fund transfers by multinational and foreign firms, officials said. The National Board of Revenue will start auditing income tax files of multinational companies from next fiscal year. Last month, the tax administrator assigned seven of its… – Continue reading
Corporations that have reclassified themselves as “foreign-owned” received approximately $1 billion in federal contracts over the last five years. These companies profit from American tax dollars despite avoiding U.S. taxes themselves. That could soon change. Two members of Congress have reintroduced legislation that would block these companies from winning lucrative… – Continue reading
There are fears the Government’s plans to prevent foreign controlled banks from slipping under the taxman’s radar, could end up hitting their New Zealand customers in the pocket. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is proposing to impose a higher tax burden on non-resident investors who get income from interest, dividends… – Continue reading
Offshore investment firm RL360° Group has acquired Scottish Widow’s offshore business Clerical Medial International. In December 2014 it was reported Scottish Widows had put the business up for sale and several parties had expressed an interest in the Isle Man-based business, which manages around £5 billion of assets and 24,000… – Continue reading
AMP has reassured shareholders at its annual general meeting that it’s not involved in tax avoidance. Wealth management giant AMP has told its shareholders that it’s not aggressively avoiding tax. The company was responding to a question at its annual general meeting during which it also released quarterly results that… – Continue reading
VietNamNet Bridge – How to deal with transfer pricing – whether to view it as an inevitable part of foreign direct investment (FDI) or take drastic measures to stop it – remains a controversial matter among Vietnamese. METRO Cash & Carry Vietnam (MCC) will have to pay VND507 billion (US$23.8… – Continue reading
State-backed bank Lloyds has sold offshore life insurer Clerical Medical to investment manager RL360 for an undisclosed sum, Lloyds and RL360 said on Thursday. Clerical Medical’s policies were closed to new business in March 2012. The firm is estimated to have a value of 200 million pounds. “The sale reflects… – Continue reading
UK offshore life companies and advisers both need to evolve to maximise offshore bond sales by 2020, said Axa’s Simon Willoughby. Speaking at an event in London on Wednesday, Axa Wealth’s head of proposition said pension reforms and changes to distribution channels mean the future for the UK offshore life… – Continue reading
The Senate enquiry into corporate tax avoidance has been successful in disclosing some difficult-to-find information about corporate groups as well as the Australian Taxation Office. Out of it has come news of an important detection tool developed by the tax office to identify corporate groups for investigation. The detection tool… – Continue reading
Dropbox has become the latest technology firm to skirt local tax rates after confirming it will bill its customers from a company set up in Ireland. In an email sent to users on the weekend, Dropbox confirmed it would bill its international users using the entity Dropbox Ireland from June…. – Continue reading
By Saeed Azhar SINGAPORE, May 5 (Reuters) – Singapore banks, which have enlarged their China credit exposure in recent years, were hit by a drop in billions of dollars of China trade financing deals as mainland borrowing conditions became easier while offshore interest rates grew more expensive. The premium of… – Continue reading
Cracking down on sweetheart tax deals with multinational corporations is proving more difficult than the European Commission had anticipated. Delays, uncooperative member states, and missed deadlines are among the frustrations highlighted Tuesday (5 May) by the EU’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager. Speaking at a special committee on tax rulings at… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is set to take two banks to the Supreme Court over using alleged tax avoidance schemes to avoid paying big tax bills on bonuses for its staff. HMRC has previously lost two court cases against UBS and Deutsche Bank over the two schemes which operated… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS–The European Union won’t meet a self-imposed June deadline for deciding whether four multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. benefited from illegal tax sweeteners, the bloc’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said Tuesday. “We won’t meet the deadline we set ourselves [of] the end of the second quarter,” Ms…. – Continue reading
No investor in the world believes that India is a tax haven and the large tax demands on Cairn and FIIs have rattled investors and must be resolved quickly, said Patricia Hewitt, head of the UK India Business Council backed by the British government. With industry sentiment about the Modi… – Continue reading
Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he expects a slump in reinsurance results in the coming decade as investors enter the market. “It’s a business whose prospects have turned for the worse and there’s not much we can do about it,” Buffett said Saturday at his… – Continue reading
Bradley Birkenfeld was released from federal prison in August 2012 after serving 2½ years for his role as a Swiss banker hiding millions of dollars for wealthy American clients. Five weeks later, he found himself in the kitchen of a small rental house in Raymond, New Hampshire. At that moment,… – Continue reading
In the spotlight for tax practices in Australia, Apple has raised a flag about the potential cost if it is required to pay past taxes to Ireland as part of a European Commission investigation. Apple has raised a flag about the potential cost if the company is required to pay… – Continue reading
FORMER treasurer Peter Costello says changing or ending tax credits for shareholders who get dividends would see investors send their money offshore. The financial system inquiry (FSI) last year questioned the wisdom of dividend imputations, where shareholders get a tax credit for the profits a firm shares with investors via… – Continue reading
Singapore is not a tax haven, it’s a value-adding hub. That is the claim of the island nation’s Economic Development Board, the Singaporean government agency that’s been charged with attracting business and investment. It has disputed recent claims at the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that it’s being used… – Continue reading
SAN FRANCISCO, April 30 — Apple Inc. has raised a flag about the potential cost if the company is required to pay past taxes to Ireland as part of a European Commission investigation that started last year. While Apple hasn’t been able to estimate the amount, it could be “material,”… – Continue reading
ZURICH: Switzerland’s money laundering office received a record number of suspicious activity reports last year, in part due to increased vigilance from Swiss banks. The Alpine nation has faced intense international pressure over bank secrecy, tax evasion and money laundering, most recently highlighted by allegations that the Swiss arm of… – Continue reading
If Illinois small business owners were to collectively offset state and federal revenues lost annually due to corporations using offshore tax havens, they would each have to pay $4,570 in additional taxes a year. That what-if scenario is laid out in a recent report from the Illinois Public Interest Research… – Continue reading
With the Delhi High Court to resume hearing on Wednesday on the Rs.20.495 crore tax case slapped on Cairn India, experts voiced the apprehensions of foreign investors about an adversarial tax regime. “Foreign investors expect stability and clarity in tax policy, which has been coming from the top with the… – Continue reading
Last September, the US Treasury Department announced new tax rules designed to crack down on the rising trend of “tax-inversion” deals in the pharmaceutical industry, as an increasing number of US firms had begun to pursue overseas acquisitions in attempts to relocate their legal addresses to non-US based headquarters to… – Continue reading
BHP Billiton is contesting A$522 million (S$544.8 million) in Australian tax bills on its Singapore marketing operations up to 2010, after having paid almost no tax in Singapore since 2006, the global miner told an Australian Senate panel, reports the Business Times. The figures were released on Monday by a… – Continue reading
