African nations will have more resources at their disposal to meet the Sustainable Development Goals if their national revenue authorities can boost tax collection. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the continent loses more than $50 billion through illicit financial outflows per year, much of this linked...
South Africans face a tax crackdown on offshore earnings under a new government proposal. The measure will scrap the current rules that allow South Africans to work in another country for half the year without paying tax on income. If the change is adopted, South Africa will become one of...
NAIROBI, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — The Kenyan government on Tuesday announced the deregistration of two human rights and governance lobby groups, citing their failure to adhere to domestic tax and employment regulations. Executive Director of NGO Coordination Board, Fazul Mahamed ordered the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and African Center...
Prospects for Mauritius’s economy remain “robust,” with the Government undertaking a number of initiatives to improve the attractiveness of the domestic tax regime for businesses, the International Monetary Fund said. Amadou Sy, who led an IMF mission to the territory, said that the economy remains “robust” but that “Mauritius is...
The Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) has called on the country’s revenue authority to push for better taxation not more taxation. In its Transfer Pricing Report, BAN identified that such efforts hold the potential to stimulate further growth and investment whilst also allowing for increased levels of tax collection. The huge...
Taxpayers have been reminded of the looming deadline for the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) on 31 August 2017. SVDP is a window period for individuals and companies to regularise undisclosed or unauthorised foreign assets and associated income. It came into effect on 1 October 2016. Taxpayers are urged to...
Nigeria’s federal government on Wednesday signed an agreement with Singapore that would help companies operating in the two countries avoid double taxation in their different bases. The agreement clearly spells out taxing rights of the two countries in respect of different incomes derived from each country. It will specifically assist...
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) allows for the automatic exchange of information between tax authorities. Local taxpayers who may have stashed their assets in cash and property offshore have a month to disclose their earnings and ownership details to the South African Revenue Services (Sars). The deadline for the Special...
LUSAKA, July 28 (Xinhua) — Zambia’s revenue agency warned on Friday that it will freeze all bank accounts holders without Tax Payer Identification Number (TPIN) by the end of this year. The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) said having a TPIN was a pre-requisite to all procedures of tax registration and...
Economist Magnus Heystek says that government’s push towards scrapping tax exemptions for South Africans earning a salary in foreign country will encourage a tax revolt. South Africans have expressed a mix of concern and outrage over the past week, following the news that the government is seeking to scrap tax...
The Gupta family sought advice on how to move tens of billions of rands to the United Arab Emirates, revealing the enormous size of their empire, according to a report by the Sunday Times. The treaty which came into effect in March this year, stops the South African Revenue Service...
TEHRAN – A Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) was signed between Iran and Kenya during the visit of an Iranian trade delegation to the African country. According to the Public Relations Department of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), the agreement was signed by the Iranian ambassador to Kenya Hadi Farajvand,...
The UAE Ministry of Finance (MoF) signed a final agreement for the avoidance of double taxation with the Republic of Cameroon at the Ministry’s premises in Dubai today. The agreement comes in line with the ministry’s strategy to strengthen bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries, in order...
Cameroon has officially become the 70th country to adhere to the convention of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters. The act of accession to this convention has just been signed between OECD and the Cameroonian Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey....
Mauritius has signed the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI). Once ratified, the MLI will affect as many as 23 tax treaties entered into by this island nation, which has been an important jurisdiction for routing investments into India. Interestingly,...
Who is required to file, how it should be filed and what is necessary to disclose. Several South African-based multinational companies have less than six months to prepare their country-by-country reports for exchange with other tax jurisdictions. Many have realised the magnitude of the information expected and have been setting...
The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler said the organisation plans to join the global forum on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) to reduce tax evasion. Fowler disclosed this on Sunday in Lagos on the sideline of the just concluded workshop on Automatic Exchange...
Ghana signed another Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with the Czech Republic on 11 April, 2017. Ghana already has DTAs in force with Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Switzerland, Netherlands, France and Germany. DTAs with Mauritius, Singapore and the Czech Republic are in the process of being ratified...
Nigeria has ratified multilateral conventions on tax related treaties to end profit shifting and tax evasion by multinational companies. The ratification of the treaties Wednesday followed the approval of a memo submitted by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who said this was part of government’s plan to widen its...
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced on Tuesday that Botswana has joined the Inclusive Framework on base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) becoming the framework’s 99th member.The Inclusive Framework on BEPS is a group of countries that have pledged to implement measures designed by OECD and G20 countries...
The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) says tax avoidance schemes such as transfer pricing, base erosion and profit shifting appear to be on the rise in the country. Transfer pricing is regarded as a tax avoidance scheme in which multinational corporations shift profits to low tax jurisdictions and avoid taxes...
As Rwanda continues to attract more foreign direct investments and multinational firms, the economy has seen a wave on new developments and trends in areas like taxation and licensing regime. On the issue of taxation, it is important for the country to implement a transfer pricing policy as matter of...
Pretoria – South African financial institutions, which include banks, long-term insurers and asset managers, will have to exchange financial account information in terms of the common reporting standard for the first time this year. Financial institutions, although having to do similar exchanges in terms of the US’s Foreign Account Tax...
You may be liable for capital gains tax. Here’s how. There is a common misconception that the sale of a person’s primary residence will never result in capital gains tax being payable; this is incorrect. For most taxpayers the sale of a primary residence will not result in a taxable...
About 21 staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have been interdicted for allegedly aiding some private companies to evade duties and taxes. Citi News understands that those interdicted were mostly from the customs division of GRA. Sources close to GRA also told Citi News that the case is currently...
About 21 staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have been interdicted for allegedly aiding some private companies to evade duties and taxes. Citi News understands that those interdicted were mostly from the customs division of GRA. Sources close to GRA also told Citi News that the case is currently...
ABUJA, May 22 (Reuters) – Nigeria will increase the interest rate on unpaid taxes to discourage companies and individuals from paying late and racking up a larger debt, the finance ministry said on Monday. The ministry said the measure will take effect on July 1 and that the rate would...
Grandfathering is term for alteration of rules that apply to a certain investment technique Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) based in Mauritius and Singapore had, it now appears, rushed to take advantage of the ‘grandfathering’ clause in the new Double Tax Avoidance Agreement signed between both the governments of the two...
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) launched the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) in October 2016, providing taxpayers with the opportunity to make good on any tax and/or exchange control contraventions of which they may be guilty in relation to offshore investments. The nine-month window period opened on October 1,...
Sub-Saharan African countries should look to tap tax revenues outside natural resources, to finance stimulus measures that could reinvigorate their ailing economies, a new report from the International Monetary Fund says. The IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa report, released on May 9, notes that growth in the Sub-Saharan...
East Africa tax experts have raised concerns over increasing cases of tax evasion and fraud by some tax payers in the region which is crippling the economies. They made the remarks on Wednesday during the 6th East Africa regional meeting on tax investigation and enforcement in the Rwandan Capital Kigali....
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are putting a new breath to the fight against tax fraud and evasion in Nigeria, as the two agencies will soon launch an anti-tax fraud and evasion team. This collaboration, according to the FIRS Executive Chairman,...
ABUJA – Nigeria has begun to take steps to boost its tax-to-GDP ratio beyond the miserly level of 6 percent. Over the weekend at the 2017 Spring Meetings of the IMF-World Bank/IMF in Washington DC the Finance Minister of Nigeria said that the national government must take extra efforts to...
LUSAKA – Zambia and Malawi have resolved to harmonise trade barriers that affect trade between the two neighbours through the signing of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). The DTAA, also referred to as a Tax Treaty, is a bilateral economic agreement between the two nations that aims to avoid...
Ghana and the Czech Republic have signed a Double Taxation Agreement. The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, and the Czech Ambassador to Ghana, Margita Fuschova, signed on behalf of both countries. This agreement was signed after the two countries concluded negotiations for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the...
MUMBAI: Custodians for foreign portfolio investors and tax consultants are in a deadlock with both parties refusing to take the onus of potential liabilities of their clients in the new tax regime. The custodians, mainly foreign banks, want a certificate from consultants such as the big four firms stating that...
Hong Kong has signed agreements with Portugal and South Africa to automatically exchange financial account information in tax matters. The agreements expand Hong Kong’s Automatic Exchange Of Information (AEOI) network to include a total of 11 countries. The other reportable jurisdictions for Hong Kong are Belgium, Canada, Guernsey, Italy, Japan,...
Hong Kong has signed agreements with Portugal and South Africa for conducting automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters (AEOI), a Government spokesman said today (April 3). “We have been seeking to expand Hong Kong’s AEOI network with our tax treaty partners. The signing of agreements with Portugal...
The DTA clarifies the taxing rights on all forms of income flows arising from cross-border business activities and seeks to ensure such income is not taxed twice. The agreement provides that withholding taxes on dividends, interest, and royalties will generally not exceed seven percent. Withholding taxes on service fees will...
Governments around the world are losing as much as half a trillion US dollars (£400 billion) a year in tax revenue due to so-called “profit shifting” by multinational companies, according to research. The research published by the Tax Justice Network found that poorer countries were hardest-hit by the practice, which...
Recently,Ghana signed an agreement with the government of Mauritius to ensure that its investors will not be taxed twice by the two countries. Apart from that there are other countries that have such an agreement with Ghana. Ghana uses the instrumentality of Double Taxation Agreements (DTA) to rationalize the tax...
Ghana has signed an agreement with the government of Mauritius to ensure that its investors will not be taxed twice by the two countries and vice-versa. Known as the Double Taxation Avoidance agreement (DTA), the both Foreign Affairs ministers Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey and Mauritius counterpart Hon SeetanahLutchmeenaraidoo signed the agreement...
The new scanners by Kenya Revenue Authority at entry points has helped curb a multi-million-shilling tax evasion racket. The crooks had used all ways to beat the authority’s system to import luxury cars declared as toys or bicycles; scrap batteries that turned out to be Kenyan tea for export and...
The government has been urged to publish guidelines on how taxpayers will declare their offshore assets and income to take advantage of a tax amnesty for income earned outside the country. PWC tax partner Rajesh Shah says the guidelines and regulations should have been published by December 2016 adding that...
These three CGT exclusions have remained unchanged for five years. Over the last few years government has collected a significant amount of tax revenue by not fully adjusting the personal income tax tables for inflationary increases in earnings, thereby increasing the effective tax rate of individuals. A middle-class individual earning...
The importance of taxation to a nation’s economic wealth and development cannot be overemphasised. However, the achievement of this goal is often undermined by tax evasion and deliberate attempts by multinationals to shift profits from one jurisdiction to another, amongst others. Over the years, Nigeria has attempted to use taxation...
A bombshell hidden in the detail of the 2017 Budget review relates to the taxation of offshore trusts. It refers to the 2015 Budget review in which it was announced that measures would be introduced to the tax treatment of foreign companies held by interposed trusts. No specific countermeasures were...
Enugu State government has sealed eight banks for failure to remit to its coffers about N1billion in withholding taxes said to have accrued since 2007. As early as 6.00 a.m. yesterday, enforcement officials of the State Board of Internal Revenue had stormed the premises of the affected banks and effected...
ABU DHABI, 16th February, 2017 (WAM)–The Ministry of Finance, MoF, has signed two final agreements on the avoidance of double taxation and the protection and promotion of investment with Burundi. The agreements came as part of the Ministry’s strategy to expand its international relations and to protect and promote Emirati...
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has blamed the poor performance of domestic airlines on multiple taxation by various agencies in the aviation sector. Capt. Nogie Meggisson, Chairman, AON, made the claim on Sunday in Lagos while reacting to the takeover of Arik Air and Aero Contractors by the Asset...
