Category: Q-Z

AICPA makes recommendations on IRS and Treasury’s proposed rules for QBI deduction

The American Institute of CPAs made recommendations to the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service on Monday about the proposed rules regarding the deduction for qualified business income under section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code. The proposed guidance, issued Aug. 16, 2018, provides rules addressing how… – Continue reading

UK court refuses to extradite former Trust Bank owner to Russia

Magistrates’ Court ruled that Ilya Yurov persecution was politically motivated because of his connections with Khodorkovsky. Westminster Magistrates’ Court refused to extradite Ilya Yurov, the former part owner of Trust Bank, who is on the international wanted list, RBC reported. The court believes that the extradition would violate human rights…. – Continue reading

IRS weighs easing tax-free spinoff rules

The Internal Revenue Service is considering relaxing the rules for companies to qualify for tax-free spinoffs — a shift that could benefit drugmakers and tech firms with promising early-stage products. The agency said Tuesday it’s looking into whether units should still be required to generate revenue before a spinoff from… – 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

India Resident Foreign Companies to Pay 40 Percent Tax: Latest POEM Guidelines

In June this year, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) came out with final clarifications regarding the rules on Place of Effective Management (POEM). POEM is an internationally recognized test for determining the residence of a company incorporated in a foreign jurisdiction with a view to assessing its tax… – Continue reading

China Joins International Financial Data Exchange to Take on Tax Evasion

(Yicai Global) Sept. 5 — China’s tax authority will begin sharing residents’ financial investment data with around 100 countries this month in a bid to crack down on tax evasion. The State Administration of Taxation will begin exchanging data to learn more about what Chinese citizens are doing with their… – Continue reading

Walmart-Flipkart Deal: Income Tax Dept Rejects Plea For Capital Gains Exemption

Income Tax department is also inquiring into some alleged suspicious transactions and investment flow into Flipkart Authorities have demanded a valuation report from Flipkart The international taxation division of the I-T department is currently studying the valuation of Indian assets of Flipkart Singapore At the time when ecommerce company Flipkart… – Continue reading

Uber withdraws lawsuit against HCMC tax man

Ride-hailing firm Uber has withdrawn its lawsuit over HCMC’s demand for $2.3 million in back taxes and fines. A tax department official said Friday that the HCMC People’s Court has suspended the case in which the Netherlands-based Uber B.V. had sued the department over its demand that the firm pays… – Continue reading

Thailand’s Private Trust Act

Baker McKenzie (Thailand) discuss how the proposed trust law aims to bring more wealth back to the country as both Thai and overseas assets (including real estate properties) can be used to set up a trust and promote Thai private banking business. Preserving a faily business for the next generation… – Continue reading

Switzerland To Hand Over HSBC Data To India

India is to receive bank account information from HSBC, after Switzerland’s highest court ruled that the bank is obligated to provide data requested where the leaked data has not been purchased. The information was leaked in 2008 by Herve Falciani, who worked for HSBC’s Swiss private bank. The Indian authorities… – Continue reading

French request for UBS banking data stopped by Swiss court: report

GENEVA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court has ordered the country’s tax administration not to provide France with details about 40,000 UBS bank clients with French addresses, Swiss media reported Thursday. In May 2016, the French tax authorities requested administrative assistance from the Federal Tax Administration (FTA), Swiss… – Continue reading

UK Adopts EU Anti-Money Laundering Legislation

The UK is upgrading its national security by adopting a recently implemented European Union fifth anti-money laundering directive, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced in a statement on Tuesday. The fifth directive is aimed at combating corruption and money laundering and came into effect in the… – Continue reading

IRS plans regulations on non-grantor trusts and new tax law

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department issued a notice Friday saying they intend to issue regulations around estates and non-grantor trusts, which may affect one tactic that some wealthy taxpayers have been using to get around the cap on deducting local property taxes under the new tax law…. – Continue reading

India’s sweeping anti money laundering agenda comes under scrutiny

Money laundering and abuse of sophisticated financial instruments have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators. However observers warn high-profile initiatives often act as a distraction from a lack of genuine political will to tackle global financial crime. For example, India’s leading stock exchange, the BSE, de-listed 222 dormant shell companies… – Continue reading

Standard Chartered selects BearingPoint’s FiTAX as tax reporting solution

Standard Chartered has selected FiTAX, a solution from BearingPoint, as its global client tax reporting solution for QI, FATCA and AEoI/CRS reporting. International banking group Standard Chartered, founded in 1969, is with approximately 87,000 employees across offices in more than 60 countries one of the globe’s leading financial services institutions…. – Continue reading

Ottawa Implementing New Reporting Rules For Trust Funds

The federal government has introduced sweeping new reporting rules for private trust funds, which have been accused of hiding wealthy Canadians’ money from tax collectors. Going forward, trusts that fail to file a tax return will face fines equalling 5% of its total value. The Canadian government still has no… – Continue reading

Central Bank: Client Loss Not Like We Thought

Growing tax compliance demands have not impacted the Bahamian financial services industry as badly as anticipated, the Central Bank is arguing, despite the sector’s continued contraction. The regulator, in its 2017 survey of the sector’s economic contribution, said there were signs that international banks and trust companies were “retaining a… – Continue reading

Australian Government planning on digitally taxing Google and Facebook

The Australian federal government has proposed a tax on digital advertising that could raise up to $200 million each year but could have serious consequences for corporate Australia. Scott Morrison, Australia treasurer, mentioned in his budget speech that the $7 billion in sales from Australians to United States owned media… – Continue reading

Israel Tax Authority is hunting for crypto traders on social media

It has emerged that Israel Tax Authority is hunting for crypto traders on social media. Local sources indicate that various local branches of the organization are sending out letters to those they suspect to be trading crypto without reporting it. In the letters, the authorities demand that the recipients should… – Continue reading

Konrad Mizzi instructed accountants to backdate New Zealand trust documents

While Panama Papers revealed his offshore companies, Konrad Mizzi was giving instructions to backdate changes to his New Zealand holdings Konrad Mizzi instructed New Zealand accountants to backdate documents after the Panama Papers exposed his offshore interests in 2016, The Australian Financial Review reported. Last month, The Shift News reported… – Continue reading

Walmart-Flipkart deal: Buyout liable to tax in India; I-T Dept awaits formal pact

Some advantage could be there under Double-Tax Avoidance Agreement: experts MUMBAI, MAY 8 The $15-billion buyout of e-commerce player Flipkart by US retail giant Walmart is likely to attract capital gains tax under Indian laws, similar to the tax imposed on Vodafone, even though the entities are headquartered abroad. Some… – Continue reading

Delhi High Court refuses to stop Vodafone’s UK arbitration

MUMBAI, MAY 7 The Delhi High Court has refused to stop the arbitration filed by Vodafone Plc in the UK against the ₹22,000-crore tax claim by the Indian tax department. The court said that the Centre can approach the UK arbitration tribunal under the India-United Kingdom Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement… – Continue reading

Bitfinex denies links to Colombian drug money

Assets seized by Polish police are reportedly linked to the cryptocurrency exchange’s account in the country. Following a couple of days of rumours, Bitfinex – currently the fifth largest cryptocurrency exchange based on volume, according to Coinmarketcap – has been moved to deny it is embroiled in an investigation regarding… – Continue reading

Multinational tax avoidance plan extended

The federal government wants to block multinational companies using trusts and partnerships to escape paying tax in Australia. Assistant to the Treasurer Michael Sukkar introduced legislation to parliament on Wednesday that would bring artificial or contrived arrangements involving trusts and partnerships under the multinational tax avoidance laws introduced in 2016…. – Continue reading

Singapore’s central bank imposes penalties on Standard Chartered Bank, Trust

SINGAPORE, March 19 (Xinhua) — The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Monday it has imposed penalties of 5.2 million Singapore dollars (about 3.95 million U.S. dollars) on the Singapore branch of Standard Chartered Bank (SCBS), and 1.2 million Singapore dollars (about 0.91 million U.S. dollars) on Standard Chartered… – Continue reading

Australia Adds To Diverted Profits Tax Guidance

The Australian Tax Office on February 7 released draft Practical Compliance Guideline 2018/D2 on the operation of Australia’s Diverted Profits Tax for consultation. In the 2016-17 Budget, the Government announced that it would introduce a diverted profits tax (DPT), intended to ensure that the tax paid by significant global entities… – Continue reading

Swiss Taxpayer Wins US Tax Treaty Refund Dispute

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia on January 31 ruled in favor of Starr International Company in a case concerning an erroneous refund paid to the taxpayer, which the IRS sought to reclaim. In 2011, the IRS erroneously issued a USD21m refund to Starr International Company,… – Continue reading

Tax advice under scrutiny: Halsall v Champion Consulting

Introduction As the government continues to grapple with a budget deficit and strained public finances, there remains considerable pressure on HMRC to crack-down not only on tax evasion, which is illegal, but tax avoidance, which HMRC refers to as “bending the rules of the tax system to gain a tax… – Continue reading

India Turns Attention to Bitcoin Exchanges to Investigate Tax Evasion

On December 13, 2017, the Indian income-tax department reportedly conducted surveys at bitcoin exchanges across the country to assess the risk of individuals who may have evaded taxes. Surveying Indian Exchanges Typically such surveys are conducted by the department without prior warning and include relatively extensive scrutiny of the assessee’s… – Continue reading

Tax evasion: I-T deptment, SEBI begin crackdown on penny stock firms

The I-T department and SEBI are working on a two-pronged approach that involves action against tax evaders and tightening of norms for scrips prone to price manipulation Tightening the noose around companies invloved in tax evasion, the Income Tax department and market regulator SEBI have launched a crackdown on penny… – Continue reading

Jahangir Tareen’s ‘Trust Deed’ signed and executed in Switzerland

ISLAMABAD/LONDON: The thirty-eight-page trust deed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Khan Tareen’s offshore trust was signed and formalised in Geneva, Switzerland, and facilitated by HSBC Guyerzeller Trust Company Geneva – raising questions about Swiss bank accounts. During the hearing before Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Tareen was asked no questions about… – Continue reading

Investigators raid VW offices as tax fraud suspicion lingers

Prosecutors and investigators from tax authorities have raided the offices of several senior officials from German carmaker Volkswagen. The move was part of an effort to scrutinize the firm in a tax evasion probe. Investigators on Tuesday night searched the offices of VW finance chief Frank Witter and human resources… – Continue reading

Paradise Papers reveal unethical tax avoidance by tech companies

Under President Trump’s political and economic climate, stocks and the economy have been soaring. Trump constantly aims for three percent GDP growth as a result of cutting corporate income and individual income taxes, which aims to encourage spending across different family incomes. However, these corporations the tax cuts favor have… – Continue reading

BDA & Industry Respond To Paradise Papers

“Reportage about hacked data from global law firm Appleby has highlighted the substantial lack of media understanding of offshore investment structures and Bermuda’s long-time reputation for tax transparency and cooperation with international authorities,” the Bermuda Business Development Agency said. “Bermuda is committed to the exchange of relevant information to legitimate… – Continue reading

Paradise Papers: ICIJ releases another database revealing offshore companies

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has released a database of around 13.4 million documents revealing over 25,000 companies owned by the world’s rich and influential individuals. The ICIJ coordinated the Panama Papers investigation into offshore companies. The latest files have disclosed the financial details of politicians, corporations, and… – Continue reading

Goa emerging as a haven of tax evasion

The investigation wing of the income-tax department in Goa probing money laundering and black money has uncovered more than Rs 1,000 crore worth of tax evasion in recent months. The tax evasion cases came to light between April and October 2017 following the post-demonetisation crackdown on undisclosed income, a senior… – Continue reading

Aircraft Leasing in Russia – Key developments in Russian tax and insurance laws

Summary: With effect from 1 January 2017, a number of amendments to Russian law have come into force which will affect aircraft leasing arrangements for lessors and financiers that have aircraft leased or financed with Russian operators. These amendments have started to affect negotiations and re-negotiations of leases with Russian… – Continue reading

Shell transactions under vigil: Serial Income Tax raids on three businessmen

HYDERABAD: Income Tax sleuths on Wednesday conducted simultaneous searches in Hyderabad and Vijayawada on three top businessmen cum-realtors, who were allegedly evading tax, particularly in real estate transactions and unearthed documents pertaining to unaccounted investments running into hundreds of crores of rupees. These are the first big raids after shell… – Continue reading