US companies can end up sitting on vast piles of untappable cash, held overseas for tax purposes. Success for the iPhone 6 would make things worse If, as expected, the launch of the new iPhone and Apple’s iWatch health monitor leads to record sales, more money than ever will pour… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. C Three US companies seeking to use controversial takeovers to cut their US tax bills hold at least… – Continue reading
The verdict serves as reference for invoking treaty abuse provisions in the absence of General Anti-Avoidance Rules Mukesh Butani September 7, 2014 Last Updated at 22:33 IST In a ruling demonstrating wise judicial discipline, the Delhi High Court (HC) recently upheld non-taxability of sale of shares in an offshore company… – Continue reading
Dutch bank ABN AMRO has criticized a new report, The Fair Banking Guide, published by the Dutch BankWiser (EBW) after an investigation into international tax avoidance in the Dutch banking sector. “ABN AMRO considers the report to be of such poor quality that it does not wish to react to its… – Continue reading
Seven Dutch financial institutions may be involved in evading taxes and are ‘extremely vague’ about what they do to ensure this does not happen, the Dutch Fair Bank Guide said on Wednesday. ABN Amro, Aegon, Delta Lloyd, ING, NIBC, Rabobank and Van Lanschot emerge as potential tax avoiders in research… – Continue reading
On August 26, Burger King announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Tim Hortons, Inc., the Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain, in a transaction that will be structured as an “inversion” (i.e., Burger King will become a subsidiary of a Canadian parent corporation). The deal is expected to close in 2014… – Continue reading
Amazon has been accused of violating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) laws in India by setting up business in the country. Seattle based Amazon.com, operating its business from Bangalore, is in confrontation with the Karnataka government’s commercial taxes department. While, the department argued that Amazon.com has violated FDI, regulations by making… – Continue reading
The Obama administration is employing an ObamaCare contractor that was once based in the tax haven of Bermuda, even as it assails corporations for lacking the “economic patriotism” to pay taxes. Accenture was awarded a contract in January that’s now grown to well over $100 million to make improvements to… – Continue reading
Burger King’s announcement that it will move its headquarters to Canada has put the spotlight on that country’s tax system. However, the tax benefits of doing business in Canada, as opposed to doing business in the U.S. are not well-known. First, Canada has a much lower corporate tax rate: 15… – Continue reading
You’ll have to forgive Amazon for getting a little flustered when the British Parliament publicly blasted the company for “gaming the system” to dodge paying taxes. Amazon is an American company. They’re used to far more deferential treatment. Responding to how the company paid only $7 million in taxes despite… – Continue reading
I n July, the American pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, maker of the world’s top-selling drug – the arthritis treatment Humira – reached a blockbuster deal to acquire European rival Shire, best known for the attention-deficit medication Adderall. The merger was cheered by Wall Street, not for what the deal will do… – Continue reading
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Politicians are up in arms over the growing wave of U.S. corporations hooking up with foreign companies as a way to lower their U.S. tax bills. But for some, a merger,known as an inversion, isn’t the method of choice for paring a tax bill. There’s another… – Continue reading
An innocuously named species of transaction has inspired a political furor this summer. After a number of U.S. companies announced plans to move overseas in so-called inversion deals, Sen. Carl Levin proposed banning them outright. President Barack Obama called the companies unpatriotic. Because of the controversy, Walgreen Co. backed away… – Continue reading
Twitter is the latest major internet multinational to have opened up a Spanish subsidiary. But the popular micro-blogging site has followed in the footsteps of Google, Apple, Facebook and Linkedin, all of whom keep their Spanish corporate taxes down to the bare minimum by shifting their income to Ireland. Created… – Continue reading
According to Canada’s finance minister, the country’s corporate tax rate has dropped from 20% to 15% since the Conservative government took office in 2006. The U.S. tax rate is 35%, making the tax advantage for Burger King’s move to Canada a central part of the deal. Cutting corporate tax payments… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON — Two top Republican lawmakers profited from a corporate tax-avoidance maneuver that the Treasury Department is seeking to curb. While House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, Mich., have resisted calls for a crackdown on companies adopting overseas addresses to pay lower taxes,… – Continue reading
With all the talk about inversions and America’s Burger King Going Canadian, it’s easy to ignore even more prevalent tax savings by numerous American companies. Take Microsoft, which admits in its 2014 SEC filing that it avoids $30 billion in U.S. taxes. The trick? Keep about triple that amount, $93… – Continue reading
Microsoft’s stash of cash stored overseas, not subject to US taxes, is growing. In its latest regulatory filing, the software giant said it has now stockpiled $92.9 billion offshore and that this money could have cost the company $29.6 billion in taxes, but didn’t. That compares to $76.4 billion from… – Continue reading
NEW YORK — There’s more than one way for a U.S. company to avoid taxes by claiming a foreign address. Consider the business founded in 1916 as General Plate Co., a maker of sensors and controls for everything from Fords and Frigidaires to the spaceship that first carried Americans to… – Continue reading
Burger King is moving to Canada, by way of Omaha. Warren Buffett is finally getting into the burger business. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway brk.a -0.00% has agreed to help finance Burger King’s BKW -4.32% purchase of Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons THI 8.47% . The deal, first reported by The Wall… – Continue reading
VietNamNet Bridge – The bad news about tax evasion and debt repudiation cases by foreign invested companies has darkened Vietnam’s foreign direct investment (FDI) landscape. Tuoi Tre newspaper has reported that Austrian Harald Biebl, director of the HCM City-based Bach Hop Company, operational in Vietnam since 2005, has fled the… – Continue reading
MONTREAL • Eugene Melnyk, the billionaire owner of the Ottawa Senators and founder of drug maker Biovail Corp., is waging war against the company that now controls his one-time business. Mr. Melnyk alleges that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is masquerading as a Canadian company to make use of this country’s… – Continue reading
Planting its European headquarters in Luxembourg has afforded Amazon significant tax advantages. That does not sit well in Britain, where members of Parliament from across the political spectrum have expressed outrage at the strategy. t would be hard to find anything better, unless, of course, you’re Cecil or Amazon. A… – Continue reading
The Delhi High Court upholds the non-taxability of gains from sale of shares of overseas entities by the Copal Group to the Moody’s Group. Interpretation of the indirect transfer tax provisions in a restrictive manner. 50% threshold for substantiality based on guidance by OECD/ UN material and Shome Committee Report… – Continue reading
Reasons given by the bank for refusing to publish findings of an investigation into alleged tax evasion remain unconvincing When commodities giant Glencore publishes its half-yearly report on Wednesday, it is unlikely to mention what may be a significant victory for the firm. This relates to an investigation into allegations… – Continue reading
Companies with links to John George Russell are accused of entering into “tax avoidance” arrangements and are in a $3.5 million fight with the IRD. Russell – who developed a template that the Court of Appeal called a “blatant tax-avoidance scheme” – is a 79-year-old accountant being chased by the… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc’s Chief Executive Omar Ishrak has insisted that the company’s USD42.9bn deal to acquire Dublin-based Covidien Plc, and, thereby, move its tax residence from the United States to Ireland in a “corporate inversion,” is based on business logic and not corporate tax reduction. Medtronic is among a number of… – Continue reading
Never heard of FATCA? You will. FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act—is America’s global tax law. It was quietly enacted in 2010, and after a four-year ramp up, it’s finally in effect. What is most amazing is not its impact on Americans—although that is considerable—but its impact on the world…. – Continue reading
LONDON: Scottish explorer Cairn Energy plc today said it is working with the newly elected government to resolve a tax dispute that has stalled sale of its 10 per cent stake in Cairn India Ltd. “Cairn continues to seek resolution of the tax issue in India and will take all… – Continue reading
For years, chief executives have complained bitterly about the United States corporate tax code, arguing that it is too complicated and that rates are too high. The issue has reached a near boiling point this summer as many large American companies have sought to buy smaller foreign rivals so they… – Continue reading
Northern Ireland looks set to be handed the power to slash corporation tax in a move with the potential to significantly boost our stuttering economy. In a development which could transform international investment, senior sources in London and Belfast predict that an announcement will be made no later than October… – Continue reading
To some, US companies switching their tax residency to gain a tax advantage are economic “traitors.” To others, they are victims of a United States tax code that effectively punishes them for investing at home and encourages them to look for opportunities overseas. In this Tax-News Topical Focus, we try… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency is speeding up the frequency of reassessments of Cameco’s tax returns in what may be an attempt to pressure Cameco to settle out of court. Cameco’s cash is being tied up as they are required to remit 50% of each disputed bill. Cameco could ultimately be… – Continue reading
Nobody likes paying taxes, but just how far would you go to avoid them? For some companies who market themselves as homegrown American brands, it’s better to move cash overseas than to pay federal taxes on billions of dollars of earnings. According to the New York Times, U.S. law states… – Continue reading
NEW YORK – According to industry insiders there is a battle waging over Software-Defined Networking (SDN) that is a way to build corporate networks without the networking gear built by companies such as Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR). The battle pits network equipment manufacturers against a string of companies… – Continue reading
THE FINANCE CHIEF of Aviva has suggested the UK insurer is paying more tax than it needs to after it paid out around a third more than its fdour biggest FTSE 100 rivals in the past five years. Research by the Financial Times found Aviva paid 30% of its profits… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Auto parts supplier Delphi Automotive Plc (DLPH.N) said it would “vigorously contest” pressure by U.S. tax authorities to file taxes in the United States as a domestic company, when its tax base is in the UK. Delphi, which operates out of Detroit, is one among several American companies… – Continue reading
Bank of America’s projected $16 billion settlement for selling toxic mortgages is expected to be the largest in the history of corporate America, but it’s also likely to include some hidden, and significant, financial benefits for the giant bank. With some $7 billion of the total likely to come in… – Continue reading
DALLAS, TX, Jul 29, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — This week, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing to question leaders of major banks and hedge funds about an alleged tax avoidance strategy. According to the Senate’s report, these entities have used basket options to skirt billions in… – Continue reading
Seychelles News Agency) – The Seychelles islands and Singapore have concluded a double taxation avoidance agreement, which will allow businesses operating in the two countries to pay tax in one of the jurisdictions and avoid taxation in the other, which is expected to encourage trade and investment between the two… – Continue reading
World banking giants Barclays and Deutsche Bank have been accused by the US of helping more than a dozen hedge funds in tax evasion. Addressing a news conference, US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chairman Carl Levin said the banks sold complex option products to Renaissance Technology that saved them… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said it is effectively using the information received from various countries to combat the menace of tax evasion and avoidance. “Effectively utilising the information received from treaty partners to combat tax evasion and avoidance,” Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said in a… – Continue reading
The latest proposed tax inversion deal just got even bigger. U.S. bidder AbbVie hiked its offer for Dublin-based Shire PLC Sunday after four days of talks in a deal that could now reach $31.35 billion, underscoring what it sees as the benefits of a tie-up that will also give it… – Continue reading
A Winnipeg auto-financing company has been slapped with a large fine for years of tax evasion. Barbara Reimer Auto Financing Ltd. was fined $152,000 in provincial court this morning. Barbara Reimer, as director of the company, entered guilty pleas on its behalf to Income Tax Act violations for evading paying… – Continue reading
DETROIT — Delphi Automotive plc is in the crosshairs of a battle between the IRS and many large American companies over the use of offshore tax shelters. Delphi is the latest corporation in dispute with the federal government over its tax practices. The IRS notified the supplier last month it… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – European officials have asked Luxembourg to hand over documents relating to U.S. online retailer Amazon’s tax affairs in the country, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing official sources. The EU’s competition commission has requested information from the Grand Duchy, where the online retailer’s main European operating company… – Continue reading
Amazon’s Luxembourg-located tax affairs are under the scrutiny of the EU’s Competition Commission as regulators and lawmakers in the bloc widen an investigation into tax avoidance strategies carried on at the European headquarters of big companies. Amazon looks likely to join Apple, Starbucks and Fiat Finance and Trade, all of… – Continue reading
The judges who found Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana guilty of tax evasion in April have spoken up, saying that they believe the designers were aware of the dealings. “It is not at all believable that the designers, once made aware of the project [to avoid Italian taxes], could feel… – Continue reading
EC launches Apple tax investigation The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland The EC has announced three “in-depth investigations” into the transfer pricing arrangements on the corporate taxation of Apple, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat in Luxembourg, as to whether they comply… – Continue reading
Apple Operations International, the principal Irish holding company for foreign subsidiaries, was not always stateless for tax purposes based on the last filed accounts in Ireland. It stopped paying tax in Ireland from 2006, based on US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations evidence. The most explosive revelation in the May… – Continue reading
