Bad news for the world’s favourite search engine. On Tuesday, the Indian tax office gained an upper hand in its six-year-long battle with Google India in a ruling that would set a precedence for some of the other multinational companies. The rift owes its origin to the arrangement and fund… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The NAB is presently examining all cases of offshore companies, including those unearthed by the Panama Papers to ensure across-the-board accountability. NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal told The News here on Monday that he was presently studying the cases of offshore companies to see what wrong had been… – Continue reading
Heads of the Armenian and Iranian tax entities met for the first time in Yerevan on Monday and expressed their willingness for deepening cooperation. The two sides also discussed updating the 1998 double taxation treaty. “It is time to edit the current agreement in line with the latest developments in… – Continue reading
Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) is clamping down on foreign workers failing to declare their earnings in the country. Earlier companies were encouraged to report details of foreigners they have on their payroll to the Bangladesh Investment Developments Authority (BIDA), as currently required by law. Foreign individuals should pay… – Continue reading
Paul Chan Mo-po says the city must protect against unforeseen market changes at a tax forum that also featured a warning about the city’s international tax compliance There are no plans to cut Hong Kong’s corporate taxes across the board because the government needs to reserve funds to protect the… – Continue reading
Shadow assistant treasurer suggests companies consider the image their tax minimisation methods project Andrew Leigh, the shadow assistant federal treasurer, has said companies using offshore tax havens to “get around corporate tax” in Australia risk losing what they save in tax via damage to their reputation. Speaking to Guardian Australia… – Continue reading
Three companies are ultimately owned in the Cayman and British Virgin islands, raising questions about the tax implications of profits generated by solar assets Adani has spread its use of offshore tax havens to its Australian solar projects, providing another avenue that could allow the wealthy Indian family behind the… – Continue reading
Republic has implemented all four agreed standards under OECD’s tax/profit project An international body overseeing global tax practices has said that Singapore’s tax incentives meet the international standards on countering corporate tax avoidance. The Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) said in a report yesterday that it had reviewed 164… – Continue reading
On 1 July 2017, the “Administrative Measures on Due Diligence of Non-resident Financial Account Information in Tax Matters” (the Measures) came into effect. The Measures were jointly promulgated in May 2017 by the State Administration of Taxation (SAT), the Ministry of Finance, the People‘s Bank of China, the China Banking… – Continue reading
According to the SFIO report, IQ Bridge Limited, Mauritius, and its Indian subsidiary, IQ Bridge Limited, Bangalore, controlled by Mallya and the UB Group, held 15 lakh and 52 lakh equity shares respectively in Kingfisher Airlines before its merger with Deccan Aviation. A PROBE by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office… – Continue reading
Imagine a world where Indian tax authorities can look at a document to see whether a multinational company is paying taxes commensurate to the profit it generates in India. The genesis of such a world lies in OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project. Back in 2015, the Organisation for… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — The Philippine government plans to target additional companies in its crackdown on tax evasion, said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez “We are on a roll, and this is part of the president’s program to make our country more law abiding,” Dominguez told Bloomberg Television’s Kathleen Hays in an interview… – Continue reading
The Japanese and Danish governments announced on October 11 that they had signed a new agreement for the avoidance of double taxation in Tokyo. The Japanese Ministry of Finance said: “This Convention wholly amends the existing Convention, which entered into force in 1968, by revising the taxation on business profits,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Inclusion of consultancy services under Construction PEs, foreign firms engaged in construction activities in the country, is likely to impact the real estate sector, says a PwC report. PE (Permanent Establishment) is a fixed place of business which generally gives rise to income or value-added tax liability in… – Continue reading
Denmark’s top lender, Danske Bank, played an “organised” role in a Russian money-laundering scam, French prosecutors have said. The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris said the bank’s branch in Estonia helped to move €15 million of “money from organised fraud and tax evasion” in Russia into France and other… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s government has begun public consultation on the automatic exchange of client information with two major – and rival – financial centers in Asia. The alpine nation is expanding its network of countries with which it will begin exchanging client data next year. The move is does away with the… – Continue reading
Singaporean lawmakers approved the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2017 on October 2, 2017, which provides for numerous changes to income tax policy. Discussing the bill in parliament, Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Finance, confirmed that the existing corporate income tax rebate for 2017 will be enhanced by raising… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Since last month, Indians with overseas bank accounts are receiving letters from offshore financial institutions, asking them to disclose ‘tax residency status’ before Christmas. If they don’t, banks holding these accounts would share whatever information they have on such account holders with the Indian government. Many account holders are… – Continue reading
FOREIGN companies can now transfer their registration from their original jurisdiction to Singapore. This will allow foreign companies to re-domicile to Singapore, instead of having to set up a subsidiary here, reducing operational disruption to the company. Such transfers are possible under the new inward re-domiciliation regime that took effect… – Continue reading
An estimated $3.5 billion in revenue from large corporates and multinationals is at risk to the economy, but through audit activity this will reduce to $2.5 billion, according to the Australian Taxation Office. On Wednesday the agency is releasing the first tranche of its long-awaited highly anticipated “tax gap” figures,… – Continue reading
New Delhi, October 11: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Wednesday revealed that the net direct tax collection up to September 2017 is Rs. 3.86 lakh crore. The amount is 15.8% higher than the net collection for a corresponding period of last year. The CBDT informed that the… – Continue reading
Private-bank assets held by StanChart in Channel island tax haven were moved to S’pore in 2015: report Singapore THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Monday declared its firm commitment to keeping the country’s financial centre clean and safeguarded from illicit activities. Singapore’s central bank and financial regulatory authority said… – Continue reading
Cisco Korea may have to share its key financial information starting next year as the government aggressively pushes to tackle the lack of transparency and tax-dodging practices by foreign enterprises, according to industry sources, Tuesday. “Though there still is much to be seen about the application of the revision, it… – Continue reading
Under Israeli tax law, New Immigrants are entitled to various tax benefits, including an exemption from taxation with respect to non-Israeli sourced income. Due to these benefits, many taxpayers have argued that since they immigrated to Israel, they are entitled to Israeli tax residency certificate, even though they have not… – Continue reading
India’s Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on October 6 announced that it entered into two unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) in September. The new APAs bring the number of such agreements signed to date to 177, comprising 164 unilateral APAs and 13 bilateral APAs. During the current financial year,… – Continue reading
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s parliament approved contentious taxes needed to finance a public sector pay rise on Monday and Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri warned the alternative was a collapse of the Lebanese pound in six months. “Without taxes it would have been better in popular terms, but six months later… – Continue reading
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 7: The Ministry of Finance has sent the first official list of names of Americans and Kuwaitis who also hold the US citizenship to the US Department of Revenue in compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) based on agreement signed between the countries, reports… – Continue reading
Over 100 jurisdictions indicated they will sign up to a global framework for the exchange of tax data (CRS) at the start of 2016, but these won’t take effect in Singapore and Hong Kong until 2018 Regulators in Europe and Asia are believed to be investigating Standard Chartered – one… – Continue reading
Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 5) Bill 2017 (Amendment Bill) was gazetted today (October 6). The Amendment Bill seeks to pave the way for Hong Kong’s participation in the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and to align the Inland Revenue Ordinance (IRO)… – Continue reading
Multinational companies establishing their regional operating headquarters (ROHQs), a subsector under the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector, in the country starting January 2018 will no longer be entitled to tax incentives under the current Senate Bill on tax reform. Senate Bill No. 1592 or the proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration… – Continue reading
New Delhi [India], Oct.6 (ANI): In keeping with India’s commitment to implement recommendations of 2015 Final Report on Action 13, titled “Transfer Pricing Documentation and Country-by-Country Reporting”, the Department of Income Tax has invited comments from stakeholders and the general public. It has said that these comments and suggestions on… – Continue reading
AMMAN — The major objective behind amending the Income Tax Law is not to expand the taxpayer base but to primarily address tax evasion and improve tax compliance, a senior official said. The official, familiar with the changes under way to the Income Tax Law, cited Prime Minister Hani Mulki’s… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked on Wednesday that the motive behind hiding an offshore company is to hide wealth. He made the observation while hearing a disqualification petition against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Jehangir Tareen. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and… – Continue reading
SAN JOSE- Manuel A. Gonzalez Sanz, Costa Rica‘s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, has met with Mohammed Sharaf Al Hashemi, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Economic and Commercial Affairs, at the ministry in capital San Jose. During the meeting, the UAE and Costa Rica signed… – Continue reading
The Russian President and the Japanese Prime Minister signed the Convention for the Elimination of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and the Prevention of Tax Evasion and Avoidance (the “Convention”) on 7 September 2017. The Convention will replace the existing treaty signed in 1986 by the Soviet… – Continue reading
Parliament yesterday passed changes to the law to allow more people to get property tax notices digitally. This is part of Singapore’s move to becoming a Smart Nation, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law Indranee Rajah told MPs. Existing regulations require taxpayers to explicitly consent before the Comptroller… – Continue reading
The Federal Tax Service (FTS) removes the British Virgin Islands (BVI) from the black list of ‘tax havens’. This change will affect the interests of Russian owners of the local companies. Leaving BVI for another offshore may help them keep their secrets, but not forever. Removal of the BVI from… – Continue reading
On the back of the Indonesian government’s issuance of its new controlled foreign company (CFC) regulation on July 26, many Indonesians are likely to sell their foreign shell companies because of the enforcement of double tax payments. The CFC regulation authorizes the government to charge a dividend tax on foreign… – Continue reading
International pension plans involve complex questions of structuring and compliance International Pension Plans (IPPs) are pension plans sponsored and funded by an employer, for employees assigned to work outside their home country, who are expected to receive IPP benefits while they are resident in their home country, or in another… – Continue reading
Gulf states are planning to introduce value-added tax starting next year following the hit faced by the energy-rice countries due to a drop in oil prices. Gulf states are planning to introduce value-added tax starting next year following the hit faced by the energy-rich countries due to a drop in… – Continue reading
Removal of withholding tax on G-Sec income effectively frees foreign investors paying any taxes New tax law proposes to remove 10% withholding tax on G-Secs but makes such income liable for income tax up to 24% This likely to result in sizeable leakage of tax revenue to govt. as G-Secs… – Continue reading
ECONOMYNEXT – Foreign investors in Sri Lanka’s rupee bonds may not have to pay taxes after April 2018, Deputy Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said, amid some uncertainty in markets how a new Inland Revenue law will be interpreted. Sri Lanka lifted a 10 percent withholding tax government bonds from… – Continue reading
NAIROBI (Xinhua) — Kenya and China on Thursday signed an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation that aims to boost bilateral commercial ties, Kenyan officials said. Cabinet Secretary in the National Treasury Henry Rotich told a media briefing in Nairobi that the deal will create certainty to the tax… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: The taxmen of the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) and Royal Malaysian Customs Department have set their sights on the digital economy. Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah pointed out last week that some foreign-owned digital economy players like Google, Uber and Facebook are currently not… – Continue reading
Finance has no clue about number of people covered KUWAIT CITY, Sept 24: Unconfirmed statistics indicate there are about 13,000 Kuwaitis holding US citizenship and they have the option now to file bank and tax statements and benefit from the tax reconciliation program or make a formal request to the… – Continue reading
In a sharp censure to those who charge that the present government has slapped the citizenry with the highest possible taxes while taking away the concessions, the country’s State Minister of Finance said Sri Lanka is a tax haven in comparison to most other economies in the region and beyond… – Continue reading
KARACHI: The tax authorities have kicked off a planned program under which they share foreign individuals’ financial-account information with the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), sources said on Saturday/ The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), issued a notification regarding the schedule for exchange of… – Continue reading
Securities regulator SEBI has lifted the trading ban on 14 entities which were alleged to have misused the stock market platform for money laundering and tax evasion as it did not find any “adverse evidence” against them. The Securities and Exchange Board of India order was in the case related… – Continue reading
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said tax incentives would help Hong Kong compete with other fund management centres The government will examine the existing tax concessions applicable to the fund industry to make Hong Kong into a diversified and competitive international fund management centre against its global counterparts, said the… – Continue reading
BHP is willing to head to court to fight the Australian Taxation Office on a more than $1 billion tax bill over its Singapore marketing hub. The world’s largest miner has continually defended its Singapore marketing hub, where it is accused of routing profits, and says it is confident of… – Continue reading
