ISLAMABAD: Businessmen and tax experts have criticised the government for its failure to draft framework for jurisdictions of federal and provincial tax authorities. The government has not yet drafted a framework that clearly outlines the federal and provincial tax authorities’ jurisdictions in taxing the services sector. The absence of framework… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON — Zimbabwe’s central bank governor, John Mangudya, on Thursday blamed the sustained decline of the country’s economy on illicit cash flows, saying more than a billion dollars was externalized last year. Presenting his 2016 Monetary Policy, Mangudya said some $684 million was exported to foreign accounts by individuals while… – Continue reading
The Tax Authority and Barclays Israel CEO Leonard Rosen are disputing the bank’s VAT liability. Barclays Israel CEO Leonard Rosen was summoned back for additional questioning by the Israel Tax Authority, following the testimony he gave when the alleged tax evasion at Barclays Israel was first reported six months ago…. – Continue reading
The present French Tax Update will focus on an overview of several noteworthy publications, including decisions issued during the past few months by the French Administrative Supreme Court (Conseil d’Etat) and French Constitutional Court (Conseil Constitutionnel), as well as the European Commission decision in respect of the Belgian Excess Profit… – Continue reading
Estonia has become the first country in the world to offer a transnational digital identity. It’s attracted the attention of entrepreneurs and digital nomads worldwide, but there’s still a huge amount of confusion about the benefits of the E-Residency Program and what e-residency actually means. Let’s take a look. What… – Continue reading
Freeman Tax Law, a tax law firm specializing in overseas bank account reporting and foreign banking, recently released an infographic for people dealing with FBAR offshore bank account disclosures. Detroit, MI (PRWEB) February 02, 2016 Freeman Tax Law, a tax law firm specializing in overseas bank account reporting and foreign… – Continue reading
The formal IRS/Department of Justice (DOJ) Swiss Bank Program has concluded with 80 Swiss banks coming forward. The banks agreed to provide information about personnel, depositors and advisors who were participated in or assisted U.S. taxpayers in offshore tax evasion. In addition to disclosure and cooperation with investigations each of… – Continue reading
BEIJING: China is planning a pilot programme to allow selected commercial banks to set up equity investment arms to take direct stakes in technology firms, people familiar with the matter said, a move aimed at giving lenders a chance to buy into a high-growth industry while stoking competition with private… – Continue reading
Modi promised efficiency in allocation of resources as well as creation of opportunities for citizens to progress. New Delhi: Promising reforms that will transform lives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the government will not eliminate all subsidies but will rationalise and target them to the needy. He said… – Continue reading
swissinfo.ch charts the evolution of the long-running tax dodging dispute between Switzerland and the United States and looks at how far there is still to go before the final curtain can be drawn on the affair. The United States wound up its “Category 2” tax evasion programme on Wednesday, netting… – Continue reading
India and Armenia on Wednesday signed a protocol to amend the existing Double Taxation Avoidance Convention between the two countries. “The Protocol amends the Article on Exchange of Information for tax purposes to bring it in line with the updated provisions in the OECD Model,” said a Finance Ministry release…. – Continue reading
Could you be one of the lucky expats who qualifies for tax free living in the Seychelles? Or would you have to pay the Seychelles flat tax on personal income? At first glance it looks as though the Seychelles levies a flat rate of personal income tax, and at only… – Continue reading
Moving money out of the usual offshore secrecy havens and into the U.S. is a brisk new business. Last September, at a law firm overlooking San Francisco Bay, Andrew Penney, a managing director at Rothschild & Co., gave a talk on how the world’s wealthy elite can avoid paying taxes…. – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office has stepped up investigations into Australians with Swiss bank accounts, pursuing some individual debts worth more than $100 million. Figures obtained by The Australian also show that in the past 12 months the ATO has handed the details of more than 30,000 ¬financial accounts to the… – 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
FATCA. Since July 2014, the five-letter acronym has instilled dread in the hearts of American expats all around the world. “The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires banks to report information to the IRS regarding all financial accounts held by American clients,” Ines Zemelman, expat tax specialist and founder… – Continue reading
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) which is now saddled with the onerous task of getting alternative sources of revenue for the federal government has since adopted a stick and carrot approach to bringing tax payers into the tax net. Assistant Editor, Nduka Chiejina looks at the issues contained in… – Continue reading
Study abroad programmes will be exempt from a new 25% tax on overseas payments that was announced last week, the Department of Federal Revenue has announced, prompting a sigh of relief among stakeholders that send and receive Brazilian students abroad. The new levy prompted widespread concern in the study abroad… – Continue reading
India’s biggest source of FDI is India itself, money departing on a short holiday to a tax haven and then routed back as FDI. Will the government muster up the political will to clamp down on the tax-allergic business elite? This could be a bumper year for the ever-lucrative tax… – Continue reading
Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 21, 2016 (SKNIS): The Honourable Mark Brantley, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aviation, said that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is demonstrative of the Federal Government’s seriousness in playing its role in an ever-changing global environment. He made these comments during an appearance on… – Continue reading
HMRC is set to repay tax to around 2,000 banking and IT contractors who used an offshore scheme because of a flawed process around issuing payment notices. The tax office issued so-called accelerated payment notices to individuals who used Isle of Man-based schemes to limit their income tax during the… – Continue reading
China’s central bank said on Monday it will start implementing a reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on offshore banks’ domestic deposits, in what appears to be its latest attempt to stem speculation in the yuan and manage money flowing in and out of the country. Confusion over China’s foreign exchange policy… – Continue reading
Banking and IT contractors forced to stump up tens of thousands of pounds to settle contested tax debts last year are now in line to be repaid, after the UK tax authority accepted it should not have issued payment demands. HM Revenue & Customs has withdrawn so-called accelerated payment notices… – Continue reading
Banking and IT contractors forced to stump up tens of thousands of pounds to settle contested tax debts last year are now in line to be repaid, after the UK tax authority accepted it should not have issued payment demands. HM Revenue & Customs has withdrawn so-called accelerated payment notices… – Continue reading
There will be no end to the inequality crisis until world leaders end the era of tax havens, once and for all, according to a report from charity Oxfam. In its report, “An Economy for the 1%”, published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Oxfam has challenged world… – Continue reading
The government is ready to restrict British expatriates’ tax benefits in a bid to get agreement with the European Union over renegotiating the UK’s terms of membership, according to press reports. The Guardian has reported that expats could be banned from claiming tax credits for up to four years as… – Continue reading
China’s central bank said on Monday it will start implementing a reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on offshore banks’ domestic deposits, in what appears to be its latest attempt to stem speculation in the yuan and manage money flowing in and out of the country. Confusion over China’s foreign exchange policy… – 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
Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs) are jurisdictions, usually self-governing, which because of their low tax regimes, have specialized in providing commercial services to corporations and individuals, whether or not they are normally resident in that jurisdiction. The better-known offshore financial centres are small and sparsely populated countries or islands, and are… – Continue reading
Switzerland took an important step toward becoming a renminbi trading hub on Thursday with its inauguration of a new branch of the China Construction Bank, (CCB), one of the biggest financial institutions in the world. The Zurich branch of the CCB has been authorised by China’s central bank to operate… – 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
Following a number of questions and concerns raised with the Governor’s Office in recent days, I thought it would be helpful to clarify the situation with respect to seven pieces of legislation passed by the House of Assembly during December 2015. Four of these Acts, which give the Government of… – Continue reading
ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Bloomberg BNA today announced the publication of the Daily Tax Report’s 2016 Outlook on tax and accounting policy. Dozens of policy experts, along with current and former members of Congress, congressional staffers and federal agency officials provided insights on the year ahead regarding… – Continue reading
Tough new measures targeting those who have not played by the tax rules have been criticised by a leading professional body concerned with taxation Anyone owing UK tax on their overseas income is set to face punitive penalties of at least 30pc of tax due, and potentially criminal prosecution, under… – Continue reading
Americans living abroad feel that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act negatively impacts their professional lives and that compliance with the related tax reporting requirements is overly burdensome, a survey by Americans Abroad Global Foundation and the University of Nevada has found. But most survey respondents believe the U.S. government… – Continue reading
The investigation and prosecution of tax evasion has, in the last decade, grown from a specialized subcategory of law enforcement into a first-tier policy concern for the global community. Starting with the U.S. government’s crackdown on Swiss bank UBS in 2008, there has been a steady drumbeat of news about… – Continue reading
Tax is back in the news with the release of information of the taxes paid (or rather not paid) by some of the biggest companies operating in Australia. After much hand wringing (and a break for Christmas) politicians will return in the New Year to attempt to get back some… – Continue reading
Dreyfus Sons & Co. has operated for two centuries as a private Swiss bank, catering to Jewish clients who wanted to hide assets from the Nazis during the 1930s and World War II. More recently, it helped U.S. clients hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service by concealing their true… – Continue reading
The whistleblower has been wanted by the Swiss for seven years. Thierry Esch/Getty “There have been times,” Hervé Falciani tells me, “when I’ve wondered if I was losing touch with reality. Could I really have seen what I saw, and revealed the things that I did, while the financial world… – Continue reading
The yuan rebounded from early losses in Hong Kong’s offshore market, spurring speculation Chinese policymakers are propping up the currency after its discount to the onshore spot rate doubled. The yuan was trading 0.13 percent stronger at US$6.5227 as of 11:45am in Hong Kong, after sliding as much as 0.19… – Continue reading
RIGA – The Latvian Financial and Capital Markets Commission (FCMC) on Dec. 11 imposed a record 2-million-euro fine on Ukrainian-owned A/S Privatbank and ordered the dismissal of its CEO and managing board for violations of money laundering and other banking regulatory laws in connection with the alleged plundering and collapse… – Continue reading
There are a variety of benefits to moving offshore, yet few would argue the assertion that tax neutrality is paramount among them. As anyone familiar with the phrase “tax haven” would surely recognize, many countries offer strongly favorable tax terms as an incentive to draw new business. Written by CT… – Continue reading
As the curtain falls on Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf’s career in government, one of the most abiding legacies she leaves behind is the collapse of Swiss banking secrecy under her watch as Finance Minister. Her predecessor, Hans-Rudolf Merz, told the world in 2008 that it would “break its teeth on Swiss banking… – Continue reading
The tiny nation wants to become “the European location of choice” for global financial services firms, and is already the biggest centre for fund management in the EU, reports the Telegraph. Luxembourg’s finance sector has set out plans to become Europe’s leading financial centre in the next five years, plotting… – Continue reading
A lengthy and yet complex investigation by The Botswana Gazette into financial affairs of the company in the shady tax haven of Bermuda blows the lid off the dealings amounting to P29 million with a mailbox sister company that has no office, employees or any legitimate business activities. Not only… – Continue reading
Former UBS bank executive Raoul Weil believes the United States tried to use him to batter down Swiss banking secrecy by having him arrested and placed on trial last year. In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Wednesday, Weil said the US Department of Justice intended to “lead me… – Continue reading
A trial in Switzerland has been adjourned against Hervé Falciani, the former IT worker from the HSBC Private Bank in Geneva who leaked data about thousands of suspected tax evaders. Falciani, 43, now living in Spain, failed to appear in the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in the canton of… – Continue reading
Raoul Weil, a former UBS Group AG banker, faces tax-dodging charges in France less than a year after he was acquitted of U.S. tax conspiracy allegations. France’s national financial prosecutor charged Weil with helping tax evasion and illicit marketing and set a payment similar to bail at 200,000 euros ($226,000)… – Continue reading
The yuan was headed for a record gain in the freely-traded offshore market, spurring speculation China’s central bank intervened to deter bets against its currency. The yuan strengthened 1 percent to 6.4013 per dollar as of 6 p.m. in Hong Kong, poised for the biggest one-day advance since offshore trading… – Continue reading
