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...
The US taxes its citizens and permanent residents on their worldwide income regardless of where they live or how long they’ve lived outside of the US. There is only one other country in the world that operates like the US – Eritrea – an African nation. According to the IRS:...
EU member states sent a letter to 92 countries on Wednesday (1 February) informing them that they will be “screened” with a view to inclusion in a future “blacklist” of tax havens. The list of the countries that have been contacted is not public, but EUobserver understands that it is...
CROSS-border taxation in current times is poised for significant changes. Tax is key in foreign ventures. Absent tax strategies and foreign tax leakages would erode margins and return of investment. Although international tax-efficient strategies to mitigate capital gains tax (CGT), withholding tax (WHT) and the risk of creating a taxable...
The programme includes measures to combat base erosion and profit shifting, based on four main measures that can challenge exploitation of tax agreements, monitor developing international tax work rules, and ensure a more transparent environment. Egypt was chosen by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in a conference...
In a significant step, Mauritius will soon start automatically sharing of tax information with India and other countries as part of global efforts to curb multinational companies from profit shifting activities. The development also comes months after the island nation, long perceived to be a jurisdiction for alleged illegal fund...
MUMBAI: The Multilateral Instrument (MLI), a new global tax avoidance agreement, that is in the process of being signed by 100 countries, is now causing a lot of anxiety among foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). MLI is an agreement put out by OECD, the intergovernmental economic organisation, to stop Base Erosion...
World Economic Forum debate hears how fight to make companies ‘pay their fair share’ is being undermined by race to cut corporation tax rates Efforts to tackle global tax avoidance are being undermined by a “race to the bottom” on corporate tax rates led by Britain and the US, the...
There is a possibility that the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR, on taxes) and the tax treaties signed by the government with those of Mauritius, Singapore and Cyprus, and even other nations such as Netherlands, could be overtaken by another event. These could, say experts, be partially or fully overridden by...
Unknown to many Kenyans, Parliament’s passing of Finance Bill, 2016 that granted amnesty to Kenyan residents who have offshore incomes and assets in foreign banks had a very global agenda. The foreign income that is subject to amnesty is for the year ended December 31, 2016 and offers a waiver...
Tax experts believe significant sums of undeclared assets have been hoarded offshore by South African taxpayers but they might be reluctant to declare them under the special voluntary disclosure programme because of the way it deals with trusts. The Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws (Administration) Bill...
Given the recent developments in the Indian economy, the upcoming Union Budget will certainly be critical and important in determining the future outlook of the economy. The financial services industry has been one of the key drivers of growth due to its strong cause and effect relationship with the economy....
As per the Economic Survey 2016, the ratio of Indian taxpayers to voters is 4%; ideally it should be roughly 23% at existing levels of economic and political development. The tax to GDP ratio at 16.6% is well below the emerging market economy norm of 21% and OECD average of 34%....
The creation of a new United Nations tax body to clamp down on tax dodging, which experts say could cost developing countries more than $200 billion a year in missed revenues, will be a key priority of the Group of 77 and China under Ecuadorian leadership, according to the country’s...
India is unlikely to amend its tax treaty with the Netherlands as it did with Mauritius, Singapore and Cyprus and this could shape the investment strategy of foreign portfolio investors (FPI) and private equity (PE) funds investing in India, said three people in the know. “There were talks to amend...
A further three countries have committed to participate in international base erosion and profit shifting discussions and implement minimum standards, under the OECD’s new “inclusive framework” for countries. The OECD confirmed on January 6 that the three territories are: Bermuda, Côte d’Ivoire, and Kazakhstan. This brings the total number of...
The Central Board of Direct Taxes in India issued Circular Number 41 on December 21, 2016 providing clarifications on applicability of ‘indirect transfer’ provisions under the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961 to investors of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) – earlier known as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in India. The circular...
Starting April 1, 2017, India will have the right to tax capital gains arising on Indian equity shares sold by a Singapore resident. The governments of India and Singapore have amended the double taxation avoidance treaty between the two countries, in line with the changes India recently made to a...
A parliamentary drive to force greater transparency on the UK’s offshore tax havens is being led by former Commons spending watchdog chairwoman Dame Margaret Hodge and ex-international development secretary Andrew Mitchell. The pair, backed by scores of MPs from across the Commons and supported by an alliance of charities, are...
