INTRODUCTION In the context of changes in the international system of taxation of the company in the choice of jurisdiction for the implementation of operational activities closely fit to the question of economic feasibility, to protect their interests. The strategic location of Cyprus, the presence of the country’s full membership… – Continue reading
The government of Finland is planning to be the first European country to provide to each adult citizen a basic income, replacing its existing welfare, social security, and unemployment payments. A pilot program is planned for November 2016, to be implemented by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution. The replacement of… – Continue reading
In a previous article we have discussed that you might be entitled to reclaim withholding tax on your foreign investments in Russia (including ADRs, GDRs). For transactions where the ultimate beneficial owner is not declared prior to the payment of income, local Russian custodians apply 30% withholding tax on dividends1… – Continue reading
Police last week raided the Nicosia offices of the law firm representing the Hermitage Fund, embroiled in the largest fraudulent tax rebate case in Russian history, the Cyprus Mail has learned. On Friday, two senior Russian interior ministry officials along with local police officers searched the Nicosia offices of a… – Continue reading
Sean Connery has not played James Bond for years, but is still a public figure prosecutors might like to attack. He was cleared, but Mr. Connery’s wife, Micheline Roquebrune, has been charged with taking part in an alleged plot to defraud the Spanish treasury of millions in taxes. It is… – Continue reading
WELCOME to Switzerland. A mountainous country where nothing comes cheap but many of the world’s filthy rich come to grow their fortunes. The ongoing relationship between the wealthy and Switzerland looks set to only strengthen as the super rich get richer, according to a report released on Friday. That’s despite… – Continue reading
The Kenya-South Africa double taxation agreement comes into force from January 1. An announcement in the November 19, South African government gazette says the agreement applies for taxes withheld at source. “A resident of Kenya will not be taxed on any South African business profits, unless it carries on business… – Continue reading
Deutsche Bank AG’s Swiss unit agreed to pay $31 million to receive a non-prosecution agreement in a U.S. probe of banks in Switzerland that helped Americans evade taxes. The accord announced Tuesday by the Justice Department is the third-largest of 57 reached this year with Swiss banks. The firms, which… – Continue reading
The creation of the Group of Twenty (G20) was believed to serve as a remedy to the harsh realities of the world today. The initial formation of the Group of Seven G7 could do little to avert pertinent challenges both the developing and the developed nations face frequently. So a… – Continue reading
On 18 June 2013, the Progressive led government issued a press release titled, “Cayman’s Action Plan Includes Beneficial Ownership”. The press statement came on the heels of the UK taking over the Presidency of G8, at the 17-18 June 2013 G8 Summit in Northern Ireland. The most interesting part of… – Continue reading
On November 17, 2015 Russia and Singapore signed a Protocol revising the existing Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income (Hereafter: the Protocol)…. – Continue reading
Compare this to the 2601 tax-related incarcerations in 2014 in the US. Jail for tax evasion is common in that country. The most well- known case is that of the gangster Al Capone who spent 7 years in jail as far back as 1932 to 1939. In recent years, actor… – Continue reading
The Isle of Man’s role as an offshore finance centre will come under the spotlight on television following a Welsh town’s experiment in how to avoid paying UK tax. Independent traders in Crickhowell, led by the salmon smokery, the local coffee shop, the adventure clothes shop, the optician, the book… – Continue reading
On November 13, 2015 the UK HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) published a policy paper setting out planned negotiations on Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) and Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs). According to the policy paper HMRC will begin negotiations on double taxation agreements with: • Nepal • Romania • Trinidad… – Continue reading
By the summer of 2015 more than 90% of Russian banks joined the FATCA Now they need to how to implement the next steps (grant to the March 30, 2016 data on US tax residents), and prepare for the future requirements of FATCA. To send the required information to the… – Continue reading
Leaders of world’s major economies gather in Turkish city of Antalya Leaders of the world’s major economies gather in the Turkish city of Antalya this weekend for the tenth annual G20 summit. The summit takes place at a sensitive moment in international affairs. The war in Syria and the resulting… – Continue reading
The National Association of Estate Agents is awaiting a response from the government to its demand for four changes to sale and purchase processes in a bid to combat money-laundering. In one of the association’s first major statements on the issue since the Channel 4 From Russia With Cash documentary,… – Continue reading
Moscow. November 10. The Finance Ministry has prepared proposals aimed to strengthen Amnesty of capital, which is now actually fails, reports the newspaper “Kommersant”. The law on the voluntary Declaration by individuals of assets and accounts, is known as the law on the legalization or Amnesty of capital, earned from… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The forthcoming G20 summit will not be only about the global economy. Host Turkey has said the world’s top 20 nations will have to debate the world’s biggest political and security crisis of the day, Syria, and the mass migration of refugees. According to local media reports, the… – Continue reading
Leave.EU, supported by Ukip and financed by a multimillionaire, vies to lead Britain’s exit from Europe A leading campaign group seeking to take Britain out of the European Union was set up by an offshore company that offers tax avoidance services to “high net worth individuals”, the Observer can reveal…. – Continue reading
The opaque governance structure of sports federations makes them less accessible to independent oversight and therefore more prone to corruption, the deputy managing director at Transparency International, a global anti-corruption movement, told Sputnik. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Earlier this year, separate investigations by US and Swiss prosecutors uncovered deep-rooted corruption… – Continue reading
A Financial Action Task Force (FATF) delegation visits Israel this week to consider Israel’s application for membership. “Israel is working tirelessly to upgrade its standing as a regional leader in the struggle against money laundering and financing of terrorism through persistent regulatory changes and a more effective regime. Up until… – Continue reading
Russia’s Ministry of Finance has given its reaction to the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) reports. The Director of the Department for Tax and Customs Policy at the Ministry of Finance, Ilya Trunin, said in a televised interview for Russia 24 that, in 2014, Russia adopted several new… – Continue reading
Switzerland stands on a provisional Russian tax havens list: The document lists 119 countries and territories which do not ensure the exchange of tax information with Russia Russian authorities consider. If the document actually come into force as planned in the form of a regulation, threaten Russian investors in Switzerland… – Continue reading
The tax authorities continue to abide by the principle of “what is not forbidden is allowed”, using contradictory norms of the Russian Tax Code to their advantage. As a result, there is a surge in tax audits by territorial tax authorities during which they check whether prices charged in transactions… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance yesterday held a press conference to explain causes on state budget balance that the public currently raise concerns about. Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan said that the ministry would focus on collecting tax debts, fighting against transfer pricing and inspecting businesses over their financial obligations,… – Continue reading
David Cameron threw the proverbial cat among the pigeons in July when, with a steely glare at the UK property industry, he warned that the UK must not become “a safe haven for corrupt money from around the world” and that “there is no place for dirty money in Britain”…. – Continue reading
Several close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin may have benefited from Deutsche Bank AG trades that are now coming under the glare of U.S. prosecutors, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Germany’s biggest bank properly vetted as much as $6… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is behind the new measures to automatically exchange tax information between nations and manage the differences on how tax issues are dealt with. Top ten countries The contractor management specialist CXC Global has identified the ten countries with the most aggressive approach… – Continue reading
Staff Correspondent The National Board of Revenue on Monday started negotiations with Bhutan to sign an agreement on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion and capital flight from the country. A five-member delegation led by NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman has been carrying out the first round… – Continue reading
To solve the problem of the haze afflicting Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, extraterritorial action is needed to quench the forest fires in Indonesia that are generating the haze. A cross-border solution is a necessary answer even if it raises questions of national sovereignty. The Singapore Government should implement laws that… – Continue reading
The Government has expressed a commitment to improving levels of UK corporate transparency but a recent Private Eye article [1], documenting the extent of ownership of British Land through offshore entities, shows just how far there is to go. By far the most common reason for owning UK property through… – Continue reading
The Russian government has approved legislation that would conceal property owned by state officials and would hamper anti-corruption investigations, Transparency International (TI) warns. The move to make the state property registry secret is not yet law – it still has to go before parliament. TI, an anti-corruption watchdog, said the… – Continue reading
The location of a holding company is a significant consideration in any international corporate structure. Choice of jurisdiction for a group holding company (‘Holdco’) is relevant both from the point of view of tax optimisation (maximising withholding tax free dividend, interest and royalty flow up through the group and minimising… – Continue reading
Tax evasion is a massive global industry. Of every hundred dollars people put in bank accounts and investments, eight are socked away in tax havens such as Switzerland and Singapore, according to work by the UC-Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman. While only the very wealthy can afford to play this international… – Continue reading
Tax treaties serve to reduce or eliminate double taxation which, if unrelieved, would be a significant barrier to cross-border trade and investment. At the same time, there was need felt to protect against granting of treaty benefits in inappropriate circumstances. In this background, the work of the OECD and G20… – Continue reading
With a slim new book that has the feel of Piketty’s bestselling Capital in the 21st Century, Zucman, a 28-year-old University of California-Berkeley economist, is taking his own swing at global capitalism. His target: tax havens that he says hide $7.6-trillion — about 8% of the world’s net financial wealth…. – Continue reading
(CNS Business): A number of lawyers in Cayman have been recognised for their excellence in the field of asset recovery, which is an area providing a buoyant stream of work, despite the relative slowdown in cases connected with the global financial crisis. The Who’s Who Legal guide to Asset Recovery… – Continue reading
Look out, Thomas Piketty. Here comes Gabriel Zucman. With a slim new book that has the feel of Piketty’s bestselling “Capital in the 21st Century,” Zucman, a baby-faced 28-year-old University of California-Berkeley economist, is taking his own swing at global capitalism. His target: tax havens that he says hide $7.6… – Continue reading
NEW YORK: Noting that progress on a bilateral investment treaty with India has been “slow”, a senior US trade official has said in the absence of progress on economic reforms by India to ensure ease of doing business, the likelihood of getting to such a treaty is “low”. “Frankly, it… – Continue reading
Multinational companies are facing far more expansive and complex audits by tax authorities fighting over the same pot of profits as budget deficits continue to increase, reports BD Live. An inevitable outcome of efforts globally to prevent tax bases from erosion is double taxation and increased disputes over adjusted assessments… – Continue reading
Intangible assets in the oil and gas industry have become incredibly valuable. Taxpayers need to understand how to manage compliance to mitigate their transfer pricing risks What do recent Western economic sanctions against Russia; the US’ growing energy independence; and ultra-deepwater oil and gas (O&G) discoveries off the coast of… – Continue reading
China is promoting foreign direct investment at 23 national industrial parks in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region by providing tax incentives to investors in a bid to boost the economy and turn Xinjiang into a core zone for trade, investment, and logistics on the Silk Road economic belt of the… – Continue reading
A Russian nuclear energy official pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on Monday in connection with his role in arranging more than 2 million in corrupt payments to influence the awarding of contracts from the Russian-state owned nuclear energy company to businesses in the U.S. Mikerin “admitted that… – Continue reading
Funds Discovered in Kolomoyskyi’s Cyprus Kitty Investigative reporters have discovered that IMF bailout funds intended for Ukraine have mysteriously found their way to a Cyprus bank account controlled by notorious Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi. A huge chunk of the $17 billion in bailout money the IMF granted to Ukraine in… – Continue reading
Ireland has made “little or no” effort over the past four years to create a corruption-free playing field for global trade, violating its “obligation to combat cross-border bribery”, reports the Irish Times. The Transparency International Exporting Corruption report, released on Thursday, found that Ireland, along with countries such as Russia,… – Continue reading
International finance centers play a significant role in Russian foreign direct investment (FDI). For example, in 2012 it was observed that 11 of the 40 main recipients of Russian FDI were IFCs. Of these finance centers, the largest recipients were the BVI, the Cayman Islands and Cyprus. Despite the popularity… – Continue reading
With the UK announcing new tax rules for foreigners living in the country, the government has been careful not to damage the country’s appeal to wealthy foreigners. The “non-dom” tax status “plays an important role in allowing those from abroad to contribute to our economy”, says George Osborne, the UK’s… – Continue reading
A Romanian court has rejected an appeal by the general manager and six executives of a subsidiary of Russian oil company Lukoil who have been indicted on tax evasion and money laundering charges. The Court of Appeal in Ploiesti dismissed the appeal made by general manager Andrey Bogdanov, a Russian… – Continue reading
Romanian prosecutors have completed its investigations into the alleged fraud committed at a local Lukoil refinery and on August 4 indicted the Russian-owned Petrotel refinery, its Russian director-general and five other officials. Prosecutors estimate the losses to the state at RON 7.6bn (€1.76bn), and have seized shares and bank accounts… – Continue reading
