KATHMANDU, Jan 30: Nepal and Bangladesh on Thursday agreed to sign Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). Issuing a statement on Thursday, Inland Revenue Department (IRD) said the fourth round of meeting for DTAA held in Kathmandu took the decision. Director General of Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Chudamani Sharma and Head… – Continue reading
The IRS recently announced an expansion of the list of banks and advisors that trigger the highest penalty bracket within its Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program. The addition of Sovereign Management & Legal, Ltd. and Bank Leumi to the increased penalty list will have repercussions in Asia, Israel and the United… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Transfer pricing litigations involving Multi National Companies (MNCs) has to be looked at separately and individually and final decision on cases will be taken on merit, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said. “You cannot generalise in that regard because every case has to be look at… – Continue reading
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has posted tax investigators to foreign embassies to lead a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) crackdown on suspected tax evasion. The Asia Pacific financial centres of Hong and Singapore are two of the main targets, according to industry experts. The move follows claims… – Continue reading
The Maldives’ biggest bank is opening a Shari’ah-compliant unit, a move the government sees aiding its goal of becoming South Asia’s offshore Islamic finance hub. Bank of Maldives Plc began offering retail deposits that comply with the religion’s ban on interest on 22 January to be followed by finance for… – Continue reading
Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man for the past seventeen consecutive years with a reputed personal wealth of $33 billion, surprised analysts at the start of 2015 by announcing the restructuring of his vast business empire. His plans to merge all non-property assets of his two companies Cheung Kong Holdings… – Continue reading
The United States Department of Justice secured a conviction against a St. Louis man accused of not reporting foreign bank accounts in Switzerland and Singapore. Raju Mukhi, age 67, was indicted last year on charges of willful failure to file an FBAR and filing false tax returns. Offshore accounts with… – Continue reading
This story has been updated. At her confirmation hearing Wednesday, attorney general-designate Loretta Lynch said she has been “very aggressive” in pursuing white-collar crime. “At the outset, no individual is ‘too big to jail.’ And no one is above the law,” said Lynch. Yet according to a new report from… – Continue reading
London is a global haven for criminal financial activity – with billions of pounds laundered through British banks each day, according to the head of the UK’s National Crime Agency. “Many hundreds of billions of pounds of criminal money is almost certainly laundered through UK banks and their subsidiaries each… – Continue reading
Billionaire retailer Gerry Harvey has accused Australia’s powerful business lobby groups of failing to represent ordinary tax-paying businesses and instead pushing the interests of profit-shifting multinationals. Speaking after the release of Apple’s Australian accounts, which revealed the tech giant had paid just $80 million in tax despite reaping $6 billion… – Continue reading
Hong Kong’s Government should use greater-than-expected revenue receipts to implement measures to enhance the city’s international competitiveness in the 2015/16 Budget, according to a KPMG survey of senior Hong Kong-based business executives. It is foreseen that the Government will be in a position of increased fiscal strength at the end… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: In what will be widely perceived as a sentiment booster for investors, the government has asked the I-T department to apply the principle behind a tax ruling involving Vodafone Group to all similar transfer pricing cases, an official letter seen by Reuters showed. Reacting to the news, Dinesh Kanabar of KPMG India told ET Now,… – Continue reading
In a move that will likely soothe investors’ frayed nerves, the government on Wednesday decided not to appeal a Bombay High Court ruling in favour of Vodafone in a Rs. 3,200-crore tax dispute over a share transaction involving a local subsidiary. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government wants… – Continue reading
The existence of 1MDB’s RM7 billion in the Cayman Islands and its return to Malaysia must be verified. KUALA LUMPUR: Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli urged Bank Negara Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, in a statement on Wednesday, to invoke the Anti Money Laundering Act and ensure that a reported RM7 billion… – Continue reading
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Taiwan is keen on broadening the scope of cooperation with Brunei beyond the areas of oil, gas and organic chemicals. According to Albert Huang, representative at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei, the two parties can explore other trade opportunities. Taiwan is interested to… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has exempted Regional Rural Banks with assets less than USD 175 million to register with the US Internal Revenue System under FATCA. It also said that if RRBs, taken together with related entities, do not have assets over USD 500 million, they need not register with… – Continue reading
Money from charity games featuring Barça star was sent to Curaçao, Civil Guard says Messi charity games investigated for link to drug traffickers Charity soccer matches organized under the name of Argentinean star Lionel Messi in four countries in 2012 and 2013 raked in hundreds of thousands of euros that… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday asked the government to implement the General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) from April 1, 2016 instead of April this year. The government had earlier proposed imposing GAAR from April 1, 2015, for those claiming tax benefit of over Rs 3… – Continue reading
INTRODUCTION The Hon’ble High Court of Bombay has recently in the case of an Indian unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, categorically held that issuance of shares by an Indian Company to its foreign parent is not exigable to transfer pricing provisions as there is no income arising there from…. – Continue reading
With a fast-growing pool of Chinese yuan and a close trade relationship with China, in the long term the nation has the potential to become a leading offshore yuan center, foreign banks said in Hong Kong. The internationalization of the yuan is to continue this year, with more regions or… – Continue reading
US sanctions on companies in third countries, ease of doing business and intellectual property rights were among a dozen issues that figured at the India-US CEO Forum where US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also present. US sanctions on companies in third countries, ease of doing… – Continue reading
Fatca registration, which is mandatory, could reveal technical violations of three other American laws, with penal consequences The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) might be a bigger headache for the Rs 11 lakh-crore-mutual fund (MF) sector than earlier believed. Fatca is an American legislation, under which financial institutions (FI)… – Continue reading
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has released the draft of the proposed new Foreign Investment Law to solicit public opinions. The proposed law will significantly reduce barriers to foreign investment, while increasing scrutiny of foreigners trying to evade the regulations on investing in restricted industries. The draft law proposes five… – Continue reading
This edition of the Tax-News monthly feature takes in noteworthy events in the international tax arena, including attempts to inject new life into the campaign for comprehensive tax reform in the United States, and developments in the areas of free trade, indirect taxation, BEPS and tax transparency and compliance. US… – Continue reading
IN THIS second installment of the series on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) 2014 deliverables, we will discuss the recommendations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on how to neutralize the effects of Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements. A Hybrid Mismatch Arrangement refers to an arrangement whereby companies,… – Continue reading
BENGALURU: US President Barack Obama’s visit to India could help unlock over $10 billion stuck in tax disputes between India and various countries. The move will largely benefit American technology companies as a big chunk of the disputes involve software development and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sectors. India’s competent authority Akhilesh… – Continue reading
BENGALURU: US President Barack Obama’s visit to India could help unlock over $10 billion stuck in tax disputes between India and various countries. The move will largely benefit American technology companies as a big chunk of the disputes involve software development and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sectors. India’s competent authority Akhilesh… – Continue reading
SHANGHAI] China’s yuan weakened on Friday after the central bank fixed its midpoint 0.2 per cent weaker, the biggest single-day weakening in 10 months, in response to the fresh round of quantitative easing (QE) announced by the European Central Bank overnight. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a new chapter in the US Internal Revenue Code. Chapter 4 was added by the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. It seeks to identify US taxpayers having accounts at foreign financial institutions (FFIs) and attempts to enforce reporting of those… – Continue reading
Fiji has proposed a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Sri Lanka. The Fijian Attorney-General and Minister for Finance, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, confirming this said a draft agreement will be sent to Sri Lanka to initiate the discussions. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum met with the Sri Lankan Minister for External Affairs Mangala Samaraweera this… – Continue reading
NEGOTIATING A DOUBLE Taxation Agreement (DTA) with Israel was a major talking point when that country’s Ambassador to Barbados, Mordehai Bivas, paid a courtesy call on Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean at her Culloden Road headquarters. Senator McClean told the Ambassador: “One of the things… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The government may prosecute those accused of evading taxes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of a wide ranging crackdown on black money. Further, non-declaration of foreign bank accounts and assets may also be made a criminal offence, according to people who have been… – Continue reading
BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) — The internationalization process of China’s currency has made a new stride forward during the ongoing World Economic Forum annual meeting, with Beijing and Bern inking a deal to expand financial cooperation. Under the agreement, signed Wednesday in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, China gives… – Continue reading
New Delhi, Jan. 23: India and the US have failed to make much progress in the totalisation pact that addresses the the problem of the double payment of social security taxes by Indian software professionals in America, dampening expectations surrounding President Barack Obama’s visit this weekend. Top officials said discussions… – Continue reading
Industry body Assocham has urged the Government to clarify that MAT will not be levied on foreign companies that do not have any branch or a permanent establishment in India. Such a clarification is needed for incomes sourced out of India by such foreign companies, the chamber said in a… – Continue reading
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Bombay High Court to decide the appeal of Vodafone India Services’, the Indian arm of Vodafone Group Plc, on merits and without being influenced by its earlier findings in a case related to R8,500-crore transfer-pricing tax dispute. A bench headed by justice AR… – Continue reading
The income tax department has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to a tax tribunal to consider certain facts relating to the taxable income of Vodafone India Services for the 2007-08 fiscal. This relates to the sale of its calls centre business and an alleged exercise of call options in… – Continue reading
India has worked out a bilateral tax agreement with the United States, which could be signed during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit, that would boost foreign investment and ease investors’ concerns raised by high profile cases against Vodafone and Shell. The pact, which industry executives say would specifically target the… – Continue reading
Premier Li Keqiang (Left) meets with Simonetta Sommaruga, president of the Swiss Confederation, in Davos, Switzerland, Jan 21, 2015.[Photo/english.gov.cn] China will give Switzerland an investment quota of 50 billion yuan ($8.05 billion) under its Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) scheme to support the establishment of the Zurich offshore renminbi market,… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank today reviewed rules for foreign investment by proprietary companies and partnerships, introducing caps on such investments among other measures. The amount to be invested should not exceed 10 per cent of the average of last three years’ export realisation or 200 per cent of the net-owned… – Continue reading
With the city-state revising its earlier avoidance of double taxation agreement with France and signing a new one with Uruguay recently, a boost in cross-border trade is inevitable. Singapore (PRWEB) January 22, 2015 In what can be termed as two important milestones in Singapore’s trade relations with Europe and Latin… – Continue reading
In the first of this two part article, we outlined what businesses must do to comply with India’s transfer pricing laws, while stressing the key reforms introduced by the new government to bring certainty to the domestic tax system. Here, we discuss if and how India should respond to the… – Continue reading
The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is in the vanguard of a global movement towards the automatic exchange of information on tax matters. The US enacted FATCA in 2010 to tackle the problem of tax evasion by US citizens and residents who under-report or fail to report income… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: UK-based telecom company Vodafone Group will hold its board meeting in Delhi later this month, said two people aware of this. It will be the second such meeting in the country since Vodafone acquired its business in India. The meeting is an “ordinary” board meeting with “routine” agenda items,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India and the US have finalised a framework to resolve transfer pricing cases, some of them pending for five years, in what could end tax trauma for more than 50 American MNCs such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle by the fiscal year-end and send a strong signal to… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE (Jan 22): Keppel Corp posted a 6% rise in 4Q earnings to $726 million, or 39.9 cents per share. This was 6% above the $684 million recorded in 4Q13, led by higher pre-tax profit from most of its divisions. For the full year FY14, earnings fell 19% to $1.39… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Dabur promoter Pradip Burman, whose name has cropped up in the blackmoney list, was today once again stopped from going abroad by a Delhi court which said there was an apprehension that he could flee. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Devendra Kumar Sharma, rejected Burman’s application saying no… – Continue reading
Just as UK firms grasp the requirements of the US-led Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), China appears to be joining the ranks as another nation seeking to up its tax-take from citizens living abroad. China has announced plans to implement a law that is similar to Fatca. This legislation… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s software product startups plan to approach the finance ministry this week to get the ambiguity cleared in this Union Budget on the pending issue of whether software sold in the country should be classified as a product or service. Tax officials have been levying both value-added tax… – Continue reading
To comply with unconstitutional pseudo-treaties negotiated by the Obama administration without the consent of Congress or any semblance of constitutional authority, the IRS announced that it will be sharing private financial information on U.S. bank account holders with foreign powers. No warrant is needed for foreign governments or tyrants to… – Continue reading
