Kenya was conned of more than Sh78 billion through corruption and tax evasion between 2003 and 2012, a US-based research firm has reported. Researchers from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) compiled the losses, which they describe as “modest” considering gaps in information, but could be bigger than all mega-scandals, including Goldenberg,… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): There were 5,391 new company registrations in the Cayman Islands in the first half of 2014, a 17% increase over those incorporated in the jurisdiction in the preceding six months, a report by offshore law firm, Appleby, revealed. The Cayman Islands experienced the greatest percentage increase in new… – Continue reading
Armenia’s Central Bank (CB) claims thatsome data regarding money flows to and from offshore financial centers is protected from public disclosure under the law. We say ‘some’, because the CB is being selective when it comes to which information can be disclosed and what cannot. When Hetq contacted the CB,… – Continue reading
The wise thing is to forget the past, bring reforms to prevent generation of black money Considering other man’s point of view is Decency — George Orwell This quality seems to be in short supply in India although it is the most needed even to understand any black money retrieval…. – Continue reading
A secret deal with the Swiss government negotiated by media group Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd when James Packer was chief executive set a tax rate of less than 2.15 per cent on PBL’s intra-company loans. “We do have good news for you!” Ernst & Young Swiss partner Markus Huber wrote… – Continue reading
Action Aid Zambia has welcomed the European Ombudsman ruling that the European Investment Bank (EIB) should reconsider its refusal to grant access to the findings of their investigation into alleged tax dodging by mining company Glencore’s Mopani subsidiary. And Action Aid Zambia has called on Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) to… – Continue reading
The European Investment Bank, which gives loans and grants using taxpayers’ money, acted wrongly when it refused to disclose details of alleged tax evasion by mining giant Glencore, the EU’s watchdog has ruled. The EIB failed to disclose the results of its own investigation into the allegations surrounding a mining… – Continue reading
China and Turkey have fallen in international rankings of perceived corruption, according to a new report released by the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI).09 Dec 2014 Regulatory Europe Asia Pacific Gulf Africa According to the latest edition of TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2014, which scores countries on a… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said Mauritius is yet to agree to certain proposals to the long pending revision of bilateral tax treaty. “India has made certain proposals for revision of DTAC (Double Taxation Avoidance Convention) to end round tripping and other aspects. Mauritius is yet to agree to… – Continue reading
THE media and civil society organisations should join hands and work together to ensure a fair taxation system in Africa, an advocacy group has said. Tax evasion, illicit financial flows and harmful tax incentives are rampant among governments, investors and multinational companies in Africa, Tax Justice Network’s Africa executive director… – Continue reading
President Putin’s surprise amnesty allowing Russians with cash stashed abroad to bring it back home with no penalty may be a windfall, but then maybe not. The US, Mexico, Italy, Kazakhstan, and many others have tried it with varied success. When financial crises hit, governments have tried to reel in… – Continue reading
PwC Nigeria, a leading professional services firm, has challenged financial institutions operating in Nigeria and the sector’s regulators on the need to develop a regulatory framework to drive the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the country. Andrew S. Nevin, a partner at PwC Nigeria and… – Continue reading
DELHI – Mauritius has overtaken Singapore as the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India, it was announced earlier this week. During the April-September period, Mauritius emerged as the strongest contributor of investment with an inflow of $4.19 billion. During the same period, Singapore provided $2.41 billion in… – Continue reading
JOHANNESBURG – It has been quite difficult to keep up with the flurry of regulatory reforms in the financial services industry. Apart from the introduction of tax-free savings accounts next year and the fact that certain retirement reform regulations have been postponed, a number of other changes are also in… – Continue reading
AN essential part of the Transfer Pricing (TP) documentation process is that of finding and selecting closely comparable companies. Only comparable, independent companies can truly establish the arm’s length nature of the intercompany transactions under review. This process of finding comparable companies and the arm’s length price they pay or… – Continue reading
In the African tax sphere, the trend remains for headline tax rates to continue to remain stable or decrease. Withholding tax rates have generally remained stable, although the experience of Dentons and our clients is that African tax authorities are requiring tax to be withheld from payments that have not… – Continue reading
November 28: Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service previously indicated that it would no longer accept tax returns filed by non-resident companies on a “deemed profit basis,” but that non-resident companies must file their tax returns on an “actual profit basis.” These returns are to include audited financial statements as well… – Continue reading
Good news for South Africans who worked abroad. JOHANNESBURG – A number of pensioners and tax specialists heaved a collective sigh of relief after the South African Revenue Service (Sars) ruled that any pension South Africans accumulated while working outside the country will generally not be subject to local tax…. – Continue reading
DOUBLE taxation for companies and individual investors at the securities market could be scrapped in 2016, if a plan by the Capital Markets Authority is adopted. In a move to attract and grow investments, the Capital Markets Authority has initiated talks on a transparent tax regime, to eliminate multiple taxes… – Continue reading
The concept of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) has been debated at various international forums following discussions at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting and the G20 Heads of State summit in Russia last year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) BEPS Action Plan… – Continue reading
The concept of base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”) has been much discussed at various international forums including the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in July 2013 in Moscow as well as the G20 Heads of State meeting in September 2013. From a South African perspective, the… – Continue reading
By closing the tax gap, South Africa can reap billions of rands to benefit the economy. A global crackdown on tax avoidance has begun and South Africa is forging ahead in a bid to tackle wealthy individuals and corporates who practise this tactic. The initiative is better poised to succeed… – Continue reading
President Yahya Jammeh and the Emir of Qatar have signed two agreements on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion on income and air services between The Gambia and Qatar. According to Qatar News Agency (QNA), the signing of the agreements between “the governments of the State of… – Continue reading
Students from ‘ONE Durham’ took part in a campaign outside the Bill Bryson Library on Tuesday 11th November in support of an international campaign to fight corruption and tax avoidance. The group is part of a wider international advocacy organisation, ‘ONE campaign’, which has six million members across the globe…. – Continue reading
THE South African Revenue Service (SARS) is investigating possible changes to the law to make it easier for it to audit transfer pricing by multinational companies to ensure that they pay their rightful tax dues to the government. The need to maximise tax revenue has become particularly acute in the… – Continue reading
An increasing number of South Africans are sending substantial amounts of money offshore each year due to frequent travel, a greater appetite for offshore investing, business interests abroad and a growing trend to educating their children there. The UK has proven to be the popular choice due largely to the… – Continue reading
REGIONAL businesses continue to suffer from double taxation three years after a plan to harmonise taxes was approved, causing a delay in realisation of East Africa Community integration benefits. Kenya Association of Manufacturers CEO Betty Maina said the tax issue needs to be urgently addressed by ensuring all member countries… – Continue reading
A publication in the Economic Times has caused much debate in India since after blacklisting Cyprus for not sharing information on tax evaders, India is now looking to take away the favourable tax treatment available to investors from the European tax heaven under the bilateral tax treaty between the two… – Continue reading
In today’s global economy, where multinational companies do business in different geographical and tax jurisdictions, the need for arm’s length pricing of related party transactions is a growing concern for revenue authorities. Tax bodies are increasingly requiring multinationals to document their related party transactions. Where these transactions are not well… – Continue reading
Pretoria — President Jacob Zuma has concluded his visit to Brisbane, Australia, where he led the South African delegation to the G20 Leaders’ Summit, says the Presidency. The main outcome of the Leaders’ Summit was a commitment to lift the G20’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by at least an additional… – Continue reading
THE Lagos State government has begun the prosecution of no fewer than 50 companies over alleged tax evasion charges. The number adds up to 200 that have so far been charged to court in the last one year. Chairman of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Services (LIRS), Tunde Fowler,… – Continue reading
IN July 2014, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sent letters to some tax consultants requesting their non-resident clients operating in Nigeria to file complete tax returns effective from 2014 tax year. In practice, non-resident companies file their tax returns on the deemed profit basis. Following an initial period of… – Continue reading
You know those annoying “We Agree” television ads by the fossil fuel corporate giant Chevron? The ones where an actor playing a student or a concerned member of a community “agrees” with supposedly noble objectives of this multinational? Those ads make me feel like puking. The objective of this campaign… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has adopted dispatches on five double taxation agreements, which will now be submitted to Parliament for approval. The treaties with Estonia, Ghana, Iceland, and Uzbekistan either replace or revise the current deals, while the agreement with Cyprus is Switzerland’s first with the territory. All of the… – Continue reading
A new report on tax transparency across 15 EU states highlights hidden profits People in Europe and in developing countries are being robbed. One trillion euro is lost to tax dodging every year in the EU, with billions being lost from developing countries each year for the same reason. It… – Continue reading
Orascom Construction Industries, an international engineering and construction firm, has won a ruling in its favor from the Egyptian Tax Authority’s Independent Appeals Committee, against an earlier USD1bn tax evasion ruling relating to its Egyptian subsidiary. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) SAE said that it had been served with an assessment… – Continue reading
Two Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officers yesterday appeared in court charged with soliciting for a bribe from Megalinks Pvt (Ltd) to help the firm evade paying over $6 million in taxes. zimra chief investigation officer Tafara Gumede (41) of 4 Gainsbrugh Court in Harare and an investigation officer Obrie Tinashe Tozivepi… – Continue reading
Nairobi; Kenya: An insurance lobby wants the State to review the Procurement Act and lower taxes. This, it says will help embrace relationship management in respect to quasi-government enterprises, noting that insurance brokerage is a profession and cannot be treated in the same way as purchase of merchandise. The Association… – Continue reading
TRANSPARENCY International warns that just because a company has an anticorruption programme, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t corrupt — it’s just less likely to be. This week, the organisation released “Transparency in Corporate Reporting”, a survey analysing 124 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies with a combined value… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s attempts to amend tax treaties with countries such as Mauritius may have drawn a blank so far, but its efforts are about to get a huge boost with several nations getting together to ramp up work on a global convention to plug treaty abuse. “Multilateral convention will… – Continue reading
Aparajita Basak, the manager, of research analytics, innovation and knowledge centre at Frost & Sullivan, talks about the use of tax havens across the world for Indian black money. What kind of role do tax havens play in black money in terms of Indian companies and individuals? Across the world,… – Continue reading
Washington – While a major global campaign to cut down on tax evasion is picking up momentum, anti-poverty advocates say the initiative overlooks the world’s poorest countries. Last week, 51 countries from four continents agreed to systematically exchange tax information by 2017, with the aim of allowing authorities to quickly… – Continue reading
Private sector arm of DfID and other EU development institutions channel significant investments to offshore havens, study finds More than two-thirds of the investments made by the private sector arm of the UK’s aid programme last year were channelled through “notoriously secretive” tax havens, according to a report that calls… – Continue reading
Vodafone sign in India. Photo: Ishan Khosla. Used under Creative Commons license. Vodafone recently won a rare – but potentially very significant – victory over Indian tax authorities. The Bombay High Court dismissed the government demand for the company to pay 30 billion rupees (about $490 million) for a share… – Continue reading
The taxation of a person is based on two principles: Source and Residence. A person for tax purposes includes an individual, trust, company, partnership and any form of business arrangement one chooses to take on. It should be noted that with globalisation, there is a constant mix of these two… – Continue reading
India today told Mauritius that it will not take any decisions that will “adversely impact” bilateral relations while reassuring the country that amendments to the bilateral tax treaty would be made only after considering the legitimate interests of both sides. This was conveyed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during… – Continue reading
Seychelles is preparing to submit a supplementary report to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Global Forum, to communicate measures taken to enhance how the territory exchanges tax information with other jurisdictions in practice. Last year, during Phase Two of the Peer Review Group rating process, the OECD rated… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Ahead of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s three-day visit to Mauritius from tomorrow, India today said amendments to the bilateral tax treaty with the island nation would be made only after taking into account the “legitimate interests” of both sides. Swaraj will also be visiting Male and hold… – Continue reading
In front of European Commissioners, leading politicians, chief executives of huge multinationals, senior bank bosses and billionaires, the Egyptian investment tycoon was asked to set the tone of the forum, a three-day lobbying event funded by the EU. Dr Heikal is founder and chairman of Qalaa, an African investment fund… – Continue reading
Hawala networks are being replaced by sophisticated transfer pricing approaches. The image is easy to envision. Corrupt politicians, crooked corporate honchos and evil criminals stashing away their ill-gotten gains in shady Swiss banks. Thousands of crores of rupees that should be earning India tax revenue wilfully being hidden from authorities… – Continue reading
