The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is urging the Treasury Department to take further action to prevent companies from reincorporating overseas to lower their taxes. “It is time we eliminate this egregious offshore loophole to make sure that the corporations that benefit from all of the resources, protections,… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has ruled that no administrative assistance can be provided by Switzerland in response to a group request submitted by the tax authority in the Netherlands (in decision A-8400/2015). In upholding the appeal by a Dutch client of Swiss bank UBS, the court blocked the request… – Continue reading
EXIM Bank launched a Shariah-compliant Offshore Banking Software Solution ‘Ababil’ to operate its all three OBUs at Motijheel, Gulshan and Agrabad branches. The launching ceremony was held on Sunday at EXIM Bank head office in the city, said a statement. Managing Director and CEO of the bank Dr Mohammed Haider… – Continue reading
The Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) has expressed its disappointment that the UK Government intends to press ahead with plans to introduce a stamp duty land tax (SDLT) surcharge on purchases of second homes from April 1. Higher rates of SDLT will apply to purchases in England, Wales, and Northern… – Continue reading
Authorities in China’s southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang cracked down on 115 cases of underground banking involving transactions totalling more than 900 billion yuan (HK$ 1.07 trillion) in 2015, state media reports. The success of the campaign underscored the efforts of Beijing to rein in illegal capital outflows, which hit… – Continue reading
Court cases likely over interpretation of the new levy proposed in the Budget for digital economy The government’s plan to expand the scope of equalisation levy proposed in the Union Budget, seeking to bring more transactions in the digital economy under the tax net, has left many e-commerce players fuming…. – Continue reading
The first Budget tabled by Canada’s new Liberal Government provides for a major crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance, and streamlines the domestic tax credits system. The Budget was delivered by Finance Minister Bill Morneau on March 22, 2016. He told Parliament: “Today, we begin to restore hope for the… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) also known as the common reporting standard (CRS) – a globally co-ordinated approach to disclosure of account information between tax authorities. It follows on from several country’s successful implementation of the US Fatca regulations… – Continue reading
This article’s title may be shocking and antagonize Indonesia’s staunch position of opposing tax evasion by way of tax havens. But, let’s look deeper. While there is no standard definition of a tax haven, it is generally defined as a state, country or territory where tax rates are very low… – Continue reading
The Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police has joined the fight against big-time tax evaders after its help was sought by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. ACG director Senior Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said in a statement Tuesday that BIR Commissioner Kim Henares enlisted the unit’s help, citing its expertise,… – Continue reading
The American Institute of CPAs has written to the Internal Revenue Service recommending some changes in the IRS’s proposed regulations for country-by-country reporting by multinational corporations of financial information to curb tax avoidance. The proposed regulations were issued last December as part of an effort by the Organization of Economic… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has askedMauritius to set up a ‘macro-prudential authority’ to monitor the offshore investments from the island. One of the largest destinations of such offshore investments is the Indian stock market. The proposed authority will have a central role for the banking regulator, the Bank of… – Continue reading
Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate has encouraged several major U.S. companies like Medtronic, Pfizer, Johnson Controls, and Baxalta to move there in tax inversions in recent months, saving them billions of dollars of taxes and protecting themselves from international competition in the process. The U.S. corporate tax rate, on… – Continue reading
The second Protocol to the double tax agreement between Singapore and the United Arab Emirates entered into force March 16, 2016, and will become effective from January 1, 2017, lowering withholding tax rates and amending permanent establishment rules. The protocol, which was signed in October 2014, revises the terms to… – Continue reading
Switzerland is barred from helping the Netherlands in a tax case that centres on a Dutch client of UBS (UBSG.S) after a Swiss court ruled that requested details were too broad to be covered by the information-sharing agreement between the countries. The Swiss Federal Administrative Court sided with a Dutch… – Continue reading
Private equity (PE) populism looks to be in the news again – though in a context that’s unlikely to win too many votes for the instigators. This time it’s the UK, and Chancellor George Osborne’s latest budget. The UK Budget 2016 (the Budget) includes a significant reduction in the UK… – Continue reading
THE digital economy has increased opportunities for digital commerce companies to reap substantial sales from a country without establishing a taxable presence in that country. Existing permanent-establishment (PE) rules in both domestic laws and tax treaties require some type of physical presence before a PE is established in another country…. – Continue reading
The Delhi government’s Trade and Taxes Department has initiated investigation into alleged tax evasion by the city’s top 10 traders. The move comes as the government is reportedly not satisfied with the role of the police in punishing Value Added Taxes (VAT) defaulters. “The department will file a charge-sheet against… – Continue reading
The Australian government has announced that it will back a legislative solution to tax concerns surrounding bitcoin as part of a broad policy statement on financial technology. Under current tax guidance in the country, bitcoin is considered a form of barter rather than a form of money. Australian businesses must… – Continue reading
The investigation and prosecution of tax evasion has, in the last decade, grown from a specialised subcategory of law enforcement into a first-tier policy concern for the global community.Starting with the US government’s crackdown on Swiss bank UBS in 2008, there has been a steady drumbeat of news about prosecutions… – Continue reading
The GAAR guidelines should make it clear that it should be only used as a deterrent against tax avoidance schemes, and not a revenue gathering weapon in the hands of the tax officer. Accordingly, the guidelines should make it explicit that GAAR will be applicable only to artificial, abusive and… – Continue reading
Tax evasion cases have been mounting on UBS Group’s balance sheet; it recently got some hope from the European Court of Human Rights (NYSE:UBS) announced today that its decision, to challenge the French court’s rulings about the tax evasion case, has been accepted at the European Court of Human Rights… – Continue reading
The ways of doing business in a digital economy have evolved rapidly. Traditional tax norms, effective in addressing issues in a world before high-paced technological and e-commerce, are increasingly becoming outdated. Taxation of e-businesses has been a globally identified challenge with tax authorities acknowledging that corporates in this disruptive environment… – Continue reading
The Mauritius central bank said it has issued a banking licence to Bank of China , the first Chinese bank licensed to operate on the Indian Ocean island. Zhang Xiaoqing, who is leading a team setting up the Mauritius unit, said Bank of China wanted to provide financial services to… – Continue reading
LONDON & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Markit (Nasdaq:MRKT), a leading global provider of financial information services, today announced the launch of a tax utility. The initial offering supports compliance with US Treasury FATCA obligations. Designed in partnership with Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Morgan Stanley, the service provides tax form validation and secure… – Continue reading
The Williams Mullen Southeast State and Local Tax (SESALT) team is pleased to provide you with a comprehensive recap of important tax developments around the Southeast. VIRGINIA CORPORATE INCOME TAX Conformity with Internal Revenue Code. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed emergency legislation on February 5, 2016 that advances the state’s… – Continue reading
The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, through its Inland Revenue Department has gone live with Vizor Software’s FATCA & AEOI solution, the FATCA Reporting Portal. Ottawa, Canada (PRWEB) March 17, 2016 Today, Vizor Ltd. announced that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has gone live with the Vizor… – Continue reading
The government said a foreign hedge fund with an Indian fund manager working in India will neither be classified as having a business connection in India nor as being located in India. “Under this regime, the fund management activity carried out through an eligible fund manager in India by an… – Continue reading
Belarus and Kazakhstan introduced amendments and additions to the intergovernmental double taxation agreement and thus updated the tax legislation, Belarus’ Taxes and Duties Minister Sergei Nalivaiko said after a ceremony to sign the protocol, BelTA has learned. The matter is about the protocol between the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan… – Continue reading
Summary The pace of change in international tax is dramatic. Each month brings new initiatives and developments at both national and supra-national levels. In this update, we focus on recent changes which are relevant to our clients. The OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) reports were finalised in October… – Continue reading
Ban on tax haven land rejected in favour of ‘transparency register’ PROPOSALS TO OUTLAW the ownership of land in offshore tax havens were rejected by the Scottish Parliament today [Wednesday 16 March] on the basis of private legal advice. Estimates that 750,000 acres of Scotland are owned in tax havens… – Continue reading
THAILAND HAS no plan to adopt any time soon the three-tiered approach to transfer-pricing documentation recommended by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, large Thai multinational enterprises (MNEs) with subsidiaries operating in countries that are members of the OECD and/or Group of 20 will find that they will… – Continue reading
The offshore yuan was set for the biggest two-day decline in six weeks after China’s central bank reduced the currency’s reference rate and policy makers were seen preparing a levy on foreign-exchange transactions. The monetary authority has drafted rules for a so-called Tobin tax in an effort to curb currency… – Continue reading
A record high 1,163,229 Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (more commonly, FBARs) were filed in 2015, up more than 8% from the prior year. That growth, however, is nothing new: FBAR filings have grown on average by 17% per year during the last five years , according to… – Continue reading
New tax regulations dealing with the issue of BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) may have a disproportionate impact on the real estate development sector as they are implemented in the UK. The concept of BEPS originates from the OECD and the G20 nations. The intention is to deal with… – Continue reading
Thomson Reuters Checkpoint has just released a special report, European Commission Presents Anti-Tax Avoidance (ATA) Package, summarizing the ATA Package to help businesses plan for the latest developments in advance of implementation. On January 28, 2016, the European Commission presented its Communication on the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package. The goal of… – Continue reading
President Barack Obama is heading to Cuba next week. When Air Force One lands on that island nation on March 20, Obama will become the first U.S. commander in chief to visit Cuba in 88 years. In advance of that historic visit, which the administration hopes will eventually lead to… – Continue reading
For the last five years, the U.S. has waged a strong battle against offshore tax evasion. In 2010, America began its boldest crackdown with the enactment of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (known widely as “FATCA”). FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (e.g., banks, investment houses, etc.) doing business in… – Continue reading
State lawmakers are getting into the act of demonizing corporate inversions even though there is not much they can do to stop them. Corporate inversions, in which U.S. companies merge with or are acquired by an overseas business, are a hot topic on the campaign trail and in the halls… – Continue reading
China’s chess game to seize control of the South China Sea may take an interesting turn if an influential businessman’s suggestion is followed and Beijing turns one of the disputed islands into its very own Cayman Islands-style offshore bank. The idea, as explained by The Washington Post, is to establish… – Continue reading
Only the little people pay taxes. For a small, select cohort of rich Australians, the famous quote of New York property billionaire Leona Helmsley rings not as an outrage but as an inspiration. In the most recent documents released by the Australian Tax Office, there were 55 people who had… – Continue reading
N.R. Narayana Murthy, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Infosys, said here on Saturday that reducing friction for business and creating an easy-to-comply-with tax system can help shore up the Human Development Index (HDI) of the country. He also called for jailing people who do not pay tax as it is… – Continue reading
Mauritius plans to sell itself as a world class financial-services hub to investment companies in Asia and the Far East to win new business, an official said. The island-nation’s Financial Services Promotional Agency plans to market the country as an international financial center, or IFC, and is already collaborating with… – Continue reading
The amount of tax multinational companies pay – and the amount they don’t pay – has become highly controversial, writes RTÉ’s Economics Correspondent Sean Whelan. This is mainly as a result of public outrage over legal tax avoidance schemes that big companies can use to shelter vast amounts of money… – Continue reading
Fortune 500 firms may be avoiding $695 billion in U.S. income taxes on $2.4 trillion held offshore. What do Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have in common? Both seek an end to the use of offshore tax havens by corporate America. Bernie Sanders’ plan ends the ability of corporations to… – Continue reading
It’s not just the Indian banks that business tycoon Vijay Mallya has taken for a ride. The chairman of United Breweries (UB) group and promoter of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines also concealed in his election affidavit, filed before the Rajya Sabha, his business interests in offshore tax havens elsewhere. dna… – Continue reading
Two units of Cayman National Corporation Ltd pleaded guilty to U.S. charges on Wednesday as part of a $6 million settlement of an investigation into how the financial services firm helped Americans evade paying taxes. Cayman National Securities Ltd and Cayman National Trust Co Ltd each pleaded guilty in federal… – Continue reading
Colorado House Democrats succeeded Wednesday for a second straight year in sending a bill to the Senate that would generate more tax revenue from some international companies — but only after a lengthy and very pointed debate that often sought to pit big businesses against small companies and average Colorado… – Continue reading
Credit Suisse Group (CSGN.S) is under investigation in Italy in connection with a case looking into allegations that the bank helped wealthy clients transfer undeclared funds offshore, Italian judicial sources said on Wednesday. Credit Suisse offices in Milan were searched by Italian police in December 2014 as part of an… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has expressed deep approval for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) plan to allow all countries to participate in its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan. BEPS is an international policy proposal designed to counteract the negative effects of multinational companies’… – Continue reading
