Category: Asia

Turkish gov’t to form special team to surveil, audit e-commerce

In order to tackle irregularities and unfair competition among e-commerce companies, Ankara is planning to form a special unit to track e-commerce activities and transactions in the country The Turkish government is planning to create a special unit of 200 people to track e-commerce activities in the country, Finance Minister… – Continue reading

Multinationals Fear Japan Reports Could Spur Outside Audits

Japanese multinational companies worry that filing their first country-by-country reports in 2018 will lead to a barrage of transfer pricing audits by developing countries. Companies are currently preparing their first country-by-country reports that must be filed with the National Tax Agency by the end of March 2018. Japan adopted country-by-country… – Continue reading

Republicans launch worldwide campaign in bid for territorial taxation

Letters calling for the elimination of FATCA, among other tax issues, will be presented to the White House in about two weeks’ time. A global political organisation with affiliation to the Republican Party has recently launched a petition and letter writing campaign in protest of “citizenship-based” taxation – partly in… – Continue reading

Indonesia to Trace and Tax Assets Kept Hidden During Amnesty

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s government has issued new regulations aimed at tracing and taxing the wealth of taxpayers who were not pardoned in the nine-month tax amnesty that ended in March. Around 972,000 taxpayers joined the amnesty programme and declared assets worth a total of 4,881 trillion rupiah (272 billion pounds)…. – Continue reading

Econ experts laud tax reform plan

MANILA, Philippines — The Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) has expressed support for the tax reform program being pushed by the Department of Finance, saying this will lead to better lives for Filipinos. “The comprehensive tax reform program lays a solid foundation for the government’s vision of inclusive growth, improved… – Continue reading

Kazakhstan Signs FATCA Agreement with US

Kazakhstan and the United States have signed a Model 1 FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), which will enable the automatic exchange of financial information on each country’s resident taxpayers to support tax enforcement efforts. The agreement was signed in Astana on September 11, 2017. Kazakh Minister of Finance Bakhyt Sultanov emphasized… – Continue reading

Tax evaders set to face action: CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra

CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra says income tax dept will soon conclude probe into financial dealings of about 100,000 individuals suspected of tax evasion New Delhi: The income tax department will conclude its investigations into the financial dealings of about 100,000 individuals suspected of tax evasion and persuade many other assessees… – Continue reading

Japan, Russia Agree New Double Tax Pact

The governments of Japan and Russia signed a new convention on the elimination of double taxation on September 7. The convention replaces the 1986 agreement between Japan and the former Soviet Union. It lowers withholding tax rates on cross-border income from trade and investment – in most cases to zero… – Continue reading

Brunei Signs OECD’s Multilateral Tax Compact

Brunei has become the 113rd signatory to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, signing the pact at the OECD headquarters on September 12. The Convention is touted by the OECD as “the most powerful instrument for international tax cooperation.” It provides for all forms of administrative… – Continue reading

China issues guidelines to curb money laundering, terrorism financing and tax evasion

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s state council issued guidelines on Wednesday on improving supervision to curb money laundering, terrorism financing and tax evasion. China will step up monitoring of abnormal cross-border capital movements to crackdown on cross-border financial crimes, the state council said in a statement on its website, adding that… – Continue reading

New Sri Lanka tax law tightens transfer pricing loopholes

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s new tax law has provisions that more effectively block companies from trying to dodge taxes by using techniques like transfer pricing, an expert said. The Commissioner-General of Inland Revenue (CGIR) has been given the power to re-examine sch transactions if they are seen to have been… – Continue reading

I-T steps up drive against cash abroad; charges fixed against 5 businessmen

Dept starts prosecution against 5 people with Rs 5k cr of unaccounted wealth in British Virgin Islands. The income-tax (I-T) department has established charges against five persons with unaccounted foreign assets of Rs 5,000 crore in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a Caribbean tax haven. Investigations are on in more… – Continue reading

Panama probe: First prosecutions are taken to court for off-shore tax evasion

While at the beginning of the year (The Indian Express, March 16, 2017) the number of requests sent by India stood at 283 cases, it has now crossed 300. And while the number of replies received from among these 13 jurisdictions stood at 165, that figure has now crossed 240…. – Continue reading

Japan, Estonia Sign Double Tax Treaty

Japan and Estonia signed a convention to eliminate double taxation on cross-border trade and investment on August 30. The treaty sets out the taxing rights of both countries on cross-border income deriving from investment or trade between the two. It also provides for assistance in the collection of tax and… – Continue reading

CBDT signs 4 more Advance Pricing Agreements

The APA scheme endeavours to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance. New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has entered into four more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), pertaining to… – Continue reading

Use data effectively to exceed revenue target for IT, urges Finance Ministry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked tax officers to use data analytical tools to proactively track and determine undeclared income and wealth and highlighted the need to strengthen data analytics and investigation wing of the tax department. gst cbdt Tax officials have been urged to “utilise data effectively” such that… – Continue reading

India slaps tax demand on Hutchison for Vodafone deal

India’s income-tax department has raised a tax demand for Hutchison’s capital gains during its sale of India mobile business to Vodafone in 2007 India’s income-tax department has now trained its guns on Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL) in connection with its alleged capital gains during the US$ 11-billion… – Continue reading

Changes to tax laws in sight for MNCs as the authorities adopt BEPS

MULTINATIONAL corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia will soon be seeing more tax law changes coming their way as the authorities get down to tackling base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). This follows efforts by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), approved by G20 leaders, to formulate a 15-step action… – Continue reading

Singapore sees tax revenue up 5 pct in 2016/17 financial year

SINGAPORE, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) — The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) publicized its annual report on Thursday, showing it collected 47 billion Singapore dollars (about 34.53 billion U.S. dollars) in tax revenue in Financial Year 2016/17, up 5 percent from the past financial year. IRAS attributes the revenue collection… – Continue reading

Microsoft Reaches Tax Agreement with Australia

Microsoft says iicrosoft says it has settled an Australian tax audit, a deal that follows criticism of the company’s practice of lowering its local tax payments by routing sales made to Australian customers through Singapore. The settlement was disclosed by Daniel Goff, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of worldwide taxes, in… – Continue reading

I-T Department open to reducing withholding tax for foreign companies: Official

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department is open to lowering the withholding tax rate for foreign companies which have income in India, a senior official said today. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra also urged firms and MNCs operating in India to pay their due share of… – Continue reading

CBDT head says tax information from countries pouring in, firms can’t escape anymore

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra on Wednesday said that the tax exchange agreements with other countries was resulting in information pouring in at a fast pace, thus there was no escaping for the multi-national companies (MNCs) from fair taxation. “We have got wide (tax) information from… – Continue reading

Multinational giants accused of shifting Australian revenue offshore

Four of the world’s largest companies have been under investigation by Australian tax authorities, amid new evidence from US executives about how Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft are shifting money to offshore tax havens. Appearing before a highly anticipated public hearing into corporate tax evasion, the executives endured questions about… – Continue reading

Successfully Resolving Contentious Offshore Claims with the IRD: Concepts and Strategies

A Territorial Tax System Since the introduction of business taxation in 1948, Hong Kong has adopted a territorial tax system. Unlike most other advanced jurisdictions, Hong Kong does not tax worldwide income on the basis of residence, but only seeks to charge Hong Kong source profits. Profits tax is governed… – Continue reading

IRD moves to audit maximum 25,000 income tax files to detect evasion

The Internal Resources Division (IRD) has issued a directive to audit maximum 25,000 income tax files of both individuals and corporate taxpayers to detect tax evasion and concealment of actual income, officials said. The income tax authority has received the directive from the IRD not to exceed this number of… – Continue reading

Indian authorities investigate Amitabh Bachchan’s name in Panama Papers

Indian income tax department started probe into Amitabh Bachchan’s overseas transactions in the light of his name in Panama Papers. The I-T department sent officer to the British Virgin Islands in order to collect his financial information. The authorities received criticism for lack of action against the Bollywood actor after… – Continue reading

Pakistan Sees Leap In Taxpayer Numbers

Launching the taxpayer directory for the 2016 tax year, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, revealed that government efforts to broaden the country’s taxpayer base have been successful. The number of registered taxpayers, he said, has increased by nearly 50 percent from four years ago, when the first “directory” was released…. – Continue reading