SINGAPORE – Singapore has signed two international agreements which will make it easier for the country to automatically exchange tax information with other jurisdictions. The agreements are part of ongoing global efforts to combat tax evasion and money laundering as well as improve tax transparency. Called multilateral competent authority agreements...
Indian immigrants in Saudi Arabia are set to be hit by the Kingdom’s newly introduced ‘family tax’ that will come into effect starting from July 1. The tax requires employed persons to pay a fee of 100 riyals (Rs 1,700 approx) per dependent each month. So, an Indian expat living...
Japan should commit to new gradual increases to its consumption tax rate, beyond 10 percent, to help rein in its substantial deficit, a new report from the International Monetary Fund says. It said the Government should “place emphasis on a gradual, pre-announced schedule of consumption tax rate hikes, of 0.5...
New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday said it has operationalised the provisions of secondary adjustment in transfer pricing. The Finance Act, 2017 with effect from April 1, 2018 provided for secondary adjustment by attributing income to the excess money lying in the...
India has, for long, been always regarded as the one of the most aggressive transfer pricing jurisdictions. To mend this image and reduce litigation, the government introduced various measures like Advance Pricing Agreements (APA), the safe harbour regime, risk-based selection of transfer pricing audit cases etc. While most of these...
BERNNEW DELHI: Switzerland today ratified automatic exchange of financial account information with India and 40 other jurisdictions to facilitate immediate sharing of details about suspected black money, even as it sought strict adherence to confidentiality and data security. Adopting the dispatch on introduction of the AEOI, a global convention for...
The Directorate General of Taxation has given assurances that the government will strictly regulate the accessing of banking information by tax officers to avoid irregularities. Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No. 1/2017 on financial information access for tax purposes has ended the country’s bank secrecy regime as it allows...
BISHKEK (TCA) — On June 13, the first Double Taxation Agreement was signed between the Kyrgyz Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by British Ambassador Robin Ord-Smith and Kyrgyz Minister of Economy Arzybek Kojoshev, the British Embassy in Bishkek said. This Double Taxation Agreement represents...
HA NOI — Viet Nam’s long-standing efforts to tackle the practice of transfer pricing as a tax avoidance ploy have gained sharper legal teeth with a new decree. Transfer pricing is the pricing of goods, services and intangibles between related parties, like a parent company and its affiliates. Apart from...
In a meeting with Iran’s foreign minister in Tehran on Sunday, Schelling said he has visited Iran with the purpose of boosting bilateral economic and financial relations. Voicing Austria’s eagerness to develop joint training programs with Iran in the banking industry, Schelling hoped he would nail down investment deals and...
Japanese individuals and companies listed in the leaked Panama Papers owe more than ¥1 billion ($9.06 million) in taxes on undeclared income, sources close to the matter have said. This is the first calculation by Japanese tax authorities of the amount owed on the undeclared income exposed by the documents,...
Regulator Sebi is mulling tightening its investigation and enforcement mechanism to check misuse of stock market platform for generating “bogus” long-term capital gains to launder black money. The markets watchdog has also come across cases wherein fraudulent tax benefits have been claimed through trades in some blue-chip stocks, as against...
Cairn Energy has petitioned an international arbitration tribunal against billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd withholding its dividend for last three years New Delhi: UK’s Cairn Energy plc has petitioned an international arbitration tribunal against billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd withholding its dividend for last three years despite tax authorities saying...
MOSCOW — Some of Russia’s super-rich have given up residency to escape a 2014 law requiring them to disclose offshore assets, wealthy businessmen told Reuters, a practice that could keep billions of dollars hidden from Moscow’s tax authorities. Interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the practice —...
Brazil, Greece, Argentina, China among the top 10 most complex Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, BVI, UAE the easiest places in the world for Accounting and Tax LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Turkey is the most complex place in the world for Accounting and Tax compliance, followed by Brazil, Italy, Greece and Vietnam – according...
Taxpayers laundering tax-evaded money through gifts received fromparents, siblings and spouses who are out of tax net or have no known sources of income ISLAMABAD: The Anti Money Laundering Cell of the Directorate General of Intelligence & Investigation, Islamabad has started investigating cases of money laundering committed through gift back...
Most online transactions in Vietnam involve cash, which is difficult to track and tax. District tax departments in Ho Chi Minh City have sent out tax demands to nearly 13,500 Facebook retailers in a move to target tax avoidance by online businesses. Since February, Vietnam’s tax authorities have been looking...
THE Philippines and Mexico have discussed new ways to further improve trade and investment cooperation, and avoid incidents of double taxation, the Department of Finance (DoF) said. A recent meeting between Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd and Mexican Ambassador to Manila Julio Camarena Villaseñor focused on Mexico’s concerns regarding a...
BHP has defended its Singapore marketing hub, where it is accused of routing profits, and says it is confident of its position in a $1 billion dispute with the Australian Taxation Office over the amount of taxes payable on the sale of Australian commodities to its Singapore marketing business. BHP’s...
A top personal tax rate of 49.5 per cent will hasten the trend for multinationals to base their operations in Asia rather than Australia, according to recruiters and tax specialists. “There is no doubt higher taxes make Australia a less attractive country for international executives who can just as easily...
Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay $41 million to settle Federal Reserve allegations that its U.S. operations failed to maintain adequate protections against money laundering, the latest in a string of fines that have cost the German lender billions of dollars. The Frankfurt-based bank’s U.S. operations fell short in complying...
Russia will sign the OECD’s Multilateral Convention to implement tax treaty-related measures to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), the Government announced on May 20. The Convention, developed by the OECD under Action 15 of the BEPS project, will transpose BEPS recommendations into over 2,000 tax treaties worldwide. According...
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will travel to Paris next week to sign the OECD multilateral convention that aims to check crossborder tax evasion by multinational companies. During his three-day visit beginning June 7, Jaitley will also attend the OECD Ministerial Council meeting, in which ministers from the OECD and partner...
Japan and Iceland have agreed in principle to sign a convention aimed at eliminating international double taxation and preventing tax evasion, the Japanese Finance Ministry said Monday. The convention is hoping to boost mutual investment and encourage economic exchange, the ministry said. After signing, the convention is expected to come...
KARACHI: The rate of withholding tax for non-filers against the winning amount on prize bonds has been increased to 25 percent from the existing 20 percent. The government through the Finance Bill, 2017 has proposed stern measures for non-filers in order to broaden the tax base and generate revenue. In...
Apartment construction is booming as the wealthy rush to invest in rental housing as a way to reduce inheritance tax and banks hand out easy mortgages, but concerns are mounting that excessive supply paired with a shrinking population could soon lead to the bursting of the bubble. New starts on...
India’s e-commerce firms lost the GST battle after months of discussions with the government and representation through sectoral bodies. The GST Council on Friday decided to levy an up to 1 percent tax collected at source on e-commerce companies while making payments to suppliers. Once the new indirect tax regime...
Malaysia uses both progressive and flat rates for personal income tax, depending on an individual’s duration and type of work in the country. As expatriates may fall into either tax category depending on their work, it is important to understand Malaysia’s basic tax structure. The Income Tax Act of 1967...
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...
New reporting regulations meant to help authorities track down evasion at home and corrupt officials overseas Beijing has ordered an overhaul of financial accounts to crack down on tax cheats at home and abroad. From July 1, all deposit-taking institutions, policy banks, investment agencies and insurers must ensure each new...
REVENUE generated from taxing offshore gaming operations here is expected to double in 2017, or less than a year since the industry was regulated, with the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation’s (PAGCOR) online gaming arm noting high demand for licenses. PAGCOR’s recently established Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) estimates that it...
The Union Cabinet has given its approval for the signing of multilateral convention to implement tax treaty-related measures to prevent base erosion and profit shifting. A product of OECD/ G20 BEPS Project, this convention is aimed at tackling baseerosion and profit shifting through tax planning strategies that exploit gaps and...
The tax base in India is set to widen with more people coming forward to pay taxes after unaccounted for cash lost its anonymity following the note ban, finance minister Arun Jaitley said today. “A move towards digitisation, an increase in the number of tax assessees and tax returns filed...
The Indonesian government on Tuesday issued a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to end bank secrecy in the country, with officials of tax offices allowed to directly access bank accounts owned by both Indonesian citizens and foreigners. Perppu No. 1/2017 on financial information access for taxation purposes was signed...
Lebanon became the 111th jurisdiction to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters on May 12, 2017. The OECD describes the Convention as the most powerful instrument for international tax cooperation. It provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on...
The CBEC will be rechristened as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and will supervise GST and Customs activities and provide the government policy inputs. Ahead of the planned GST rollout from July 1, the government is strengthening the body responsible for detecting tax evasion and will...
The global campaign against money laundering combined with the Panama Papers made the Caribbean islands of sun, sand and offshore banking a near no-go zone for the world’s biggest banks. So the British Virgin Islands has a solution: a bank to service offshore companies, many of them from China, locked...
India has called for enhanced international cooperation to address illicit cross- border financial flows, tax evasion and “hawala” transactions as it stressed that the world’s governance architecture for cooperation in taxation has not kept pace with globalisation. “Raising awareness on the important issue of International Cooperation on Tax matters is...
Malaysian individuals and entities that have bank accounts overseas will soon see their financial information being shared with other countries and tax authorities in an effort to boost global transparency and tax compliance. This requirement is part of the automatic exchange of financial account information set out by the Organisation...
The governments of Japan and Russia on April 28 announced they have agreed the text of a new double tax agreement that would replace the 1986 pact between Japan and the former USSR. In a statement following a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Moscow, the Japanese Finance...
This article is the first of a series of articles that looks at tax aspects of the UK company which make it an attractive international business company, or “IBC”. This generic label, and its acronym, are normally associated with the BVI company, and its international competitors. An essential feature of...
Tokyo: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday assured that the Goods and Service Tax (GST) will be implemented on July 1, and there will be no significant change/increase in the price of goods, even as some services may encounter marginal hikes. When the GST comes into the picture, the sectorial...
Only a few days left for this financial year to end and tax filing deadline is striking the calendar. Indian Government has already taken many initiatives to simplify the tax filing process by introducing new ITR forms, online filing facility etc. Yet many taxpayers tend to make silly mistakes while...
Kuwait became the 110th jurisdiction to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters on May 5, 2017. The OECD describes the Convention as the most powerful instrument for international tax cooperation. It provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on...
NEW DELHI: A complex web of 393 shell companies used for allegedly diverting funds unscrupulously to the tune of Rs 2900 crore has been unearthed by the CBI during its probe into such cases over the last three years. CBI sources said the shell companies were allegedly being used by...
Over $2.6 trillion is held as untaxed cash in offshore accounts by top US companies like Apple, Google, IBM, Pfizer, Pepsi and Coke, McDonald’s etc. according to a report by the Washington-based Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP). This is the highest-ever hoard held offshore by American companies and...
NEW DELHI: India’s apex body for direct taxes has proposed new rules for bringing the value of unquoted shares on a par with the fair market value of underlying assets, seeking to prevent tax avoidance by firms that use the historical acquisition cost to set the price of unlisted stock....
NEW DELHI: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority has clarified that NPS accounts of investors who have not submitted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) self certification will not be blocked. The clarification, sent to the registered email addresses of NPS investors on Thursday, comes as a relief...
KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated audit of all those taxpayers who have made offshore transactions during the last six years, sources said on Tuesday. “All corporate and individual taxpayers, who have made offshore investments, have been selected for audit to check the tax concealment,” an official...
A newly published federal draft law introduces Russia to a three-tiered approach to transfer pricing documentation and brings Russian regulations in this area in line with the OECD minimum standards under Action 13 of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan. The draft law, published by the Ministry...
