Eleven Thai restaurateurs failed to declare $12 million cash income, drove luxury vehicles, had designer handbags and Rolex watches, prosecutors allege. At the High Court in Wellington on Monday, the 11 pleaded not guilty to 64 charges of evading or attempting to evade income and GST tax, filing false tax...
IN 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025 was adopted as part of the ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together plan. This collaboration charts the broad trajectories of ASEAN economic integration from 2016 to 2025. It aims to strengthen and reinforce by 2025 these five AEC characteristics: 1. A highly...
Baker McKenzie (Thailand) discuss how the proposed trust law aims to bring more wealth back to the country as both Thai and overseas assets (including real estate properties) can be used to set up a trust and promote Thai private banking business. Preserving a faily business for the next generation...
COMMERCIAL banks and financial institutions across the country are required to implement a new international financial reporting standard from the beginning of 2020, according to the National Accountancy Body (NAB). Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, Commerce permanent-secretary and chairman of the NAB, said that the body agreed at a recent meeting on the...
A regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies has come into effect by royal decree in Thailand, the Bangkok Post reported Sunday, May 13. The 100-section law, published yesterday in the country’s Royal Gazette, defines cryptocurrencies as “digital assets and digital tokens,” and brings them under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Thai Security...
Capital gains taxes will always remain a controversial topic. This is especially true in Thailand, by the look of things, as the cryptocurrency community wants the nation’s Finance Ministry to rethink its guidelines in this regard. For most people, this is also an effort to create a more lenient ecosystem...
Cambodia has signed a double taxation agreement with Vietnam that protects each country’s nationals from dual taxation, according to a news release from the General Department of Taxation released on Tuesday. The agreement was signed on Saturday on the sidelines of the Greater Mekong Subregion Summit held in Hanoi. Chou...
Thailand’s awaited tax framework for cryptocurrencies has been announced this week by the Thai Finance Minister, local news outlet Nikkei Asian Review reported Friday, March 30. Apisak Tantivorawong reported during a March 27 cabinet meeting that crypto trades will be taxed with a 7 percent value added tax (VAT), and...
The double tax avoidance agreement (DTA) between Cambodia and Singapore came into effect this month, helping clarify taxation rights on all forms of income arising from cross-border business activities, while minimising double taxation. On January 1 the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) issued an announcement stating that the DTA...
THE Cabinet yesterday approved a draft bill aimed at preventing the transfer of assets and profits for the purpose of avoiding tax liabilities. Also approved yesterday were proposals requiring that juristic persons with interconnected transactions of more than Bt30 million a year send the authorities a clarification report and a...
THE CABINET yesterday gave the green light to a draft agreement on the exemption of double taxation between Thailand and Cambodia. It aims to back this up with a similar deal with Brunei as part of Thailand’s effort to complete cooperation on this and other economic initiatives with all the...
Thailand has lost income worth Bt4.311 billion due to tax evasion on luxury cars, according to an investigation of 259 luxury cars, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) deputy chief Korrawat Panprapakorn said on Friday. The DSI is forwarding information from Italy to the Customs Department to assess unpaid tax for...
The Philippines is set to sign a double taxation agreement (DTA) with Brunei while eyeing to start negotiations with three other Asean countries as part of its commitments under the regional integration framework. Internal Revenue Assistant Commissioner Marissa O. Cabreros told the Inquirer yesterday that the Philippines’ DTA with Brunei...
Representatives from the tax authorities of Cambodia and Thailand have agreed in principle to speed up a proposed double taxation agreement that would protect their nationals from dual taxation and encourage bilateral investment. The agreement was made last week during a two-day consultation workshop in Bangkok for tax officials from...
The Thai Revenue Department announced earlier this month that new legislation effective from April 2 increases penalties for those taxpayers committing tax fraud or evading their tax liability. In a statement accompanying the enactment of the Revenue Code Amendment Act (No.45) B.E. 2560, the Department revealed that such fraudulent activity...
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) initiated the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project in 2013 to address perceived gaps in international tax rules causing a loss of revenues for governments of about US$100 billion to $240 billion (Bt3.5 trillion to Bt8.4 trillion) annually. The OECD’s BEPS...
WITH THE PROPOSED transfer-pricing law now under review by the Council of State, the landscape for transfer pricing is expected to undergo a major facelift once the law is enacted. One significant change would be the requirement for taxpayers to disclose their transfer-pricing information when they file their year-end tax...
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement Amended between S. Korea and India The Korea Shipowners’ Association announced on January 24 that the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between South Korea and India was amended so that South Korean shipping companies’ shipping income generated as a result of their maritime transport services provided for...
The creation of a new United Nations tax body to clamp down on tax dodging, which experts say could cost developing countries more than $200 billion a year in missed revenues, will be a key priority of the Group of 77 and China under Ecuadorian leadership, according to the country’s...
Practitioners in the managed funds industry are calling for a zero-rate for withholding tax in Australia amid the government’s proposals for new tax concessions to boost it, saying the proposed measures don’t go far enough. The government released a consultation paper Nov. 3 on non-resident withholding taxes for pooled funds—or...
The Philippines is eyeing to seal tax treaties with all nine other Asean member-states, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). The country already has effective double taxation agreements (DTAs) with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, BIR Assistant Commissioner Marissa O. Cabreros noted in a presentation at last...
India and New Zealand also vowed to press for successful negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). India and New Zealand decided to amend the bilateral tax treaty and expressed commitment to work towards a comprehensive free trade agreement with a view to boost economic ties on Wednesday. The...
The Armenian Parliament has ratified today two agreements to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion with respect to taxes on property and income with Serbia and Slovakia. According to Deputy Minister of Finance Armen Hayrapetyan, the document on the mutual avoidance of double taxation on property and income with...
An extensive tax treaty that would shield Chinese businesses operating in the Kingdom from double taxation, and vice versa, has been drafted and is expected to be approved imminently, according to a senior Cambodian tax official. Experts said yesterday the double taxation agreement (DTA) would create a clear legal framework...
THAI MULTINATIONAL companies will be impacted on their cross-border business activities due to rapidly evolving tax laws in Europe and Asia-Pacific. For instance, the European Union (EU) achieved a groundbreaking result on June 20 by agreeing to a package of tax measures to combat corporate tax avoidance, which will be...
A new double tax treaty between France and Singapore will be of particular help to French companies operating in Singapore, especially in the construction industry, an expert has said. Franck Lagorce, an expert in French tax at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-law.com was commenting following an announcement from...
THE DOUBLE taxation treaty (DTA) between India and Thailand has been successfully renegotiated and agreed to by both states and will come into force in January next year. The key highlights include a reduction of withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties. Article 10 reduces the dividend withholding tax to...
African governments should embrace meaningful bilateral investments agreements to foster sustainable economic growth on the continent. The call follows a report by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on investment policies and bilateral investment treaties by Africa, indicating a huge gap between most of signed treaties and their actual...
THE digital economy has increased opportunities for digital commerce companies to reap substantial sales from a country without establishing a taxable presence in that country. Existing permanent-establishment (PE) rules in both domestic laws and tax treaties require some type of physical presence before a PE is established in another country....
THAILAND HAS no plan to adopt any time soon the three-tiered approach to transfer-pricing documentation recommended by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, large Thai multinational enterprises (MNEs) with subsidiaries operating in countries that are members of the OECD and/or Group of 20 will find that they will...
Thailand and the United States signed an historic tax agreement today to promote tax transparency between the two nations. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), enacted in 2010, aims to combat offshore tax evasion and improve transparency on accounts held by US taxpayers in foreign countries. Under the agreement...
The revived Asia Tax Awards will feature categories for companies, firms and individuals. The Asia Tax Awards are back! More than five years after they last took place in November 2010, the Asia Tax Awards will be held once again on Thursday May 5 2016, following the Asia Tax Forum,...
The Philippines should compel Thailand to abide by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ruling on the cigarette-tax case, after Bangkok slapped tax-evasion charges against Philip Morris Thailand (PMT), a legal expert said over the weekend. Lawyer Anthony Abad, who was part of the Philip Morris Philippines legal team that won...
India’s biggest source of FDI is India itself, money departing on a short holiday to a tax haven and then routed back as FDI. Will the government muster up the political will to clamp down on the tax-allergic business elite? This could be a bumper year for the ever-lucrative tax...
BANGKOK—Thai prosecutors charged the Thailand subsidiary of global tobacco giantPhilip Morris International Inc. with tax evasion for allegedly under-declaring the value of cigarettes imported from the Philippines. The Office of the Attorney General said in a statement Tuesday it has filed a complaint with a Thai court after a long-running...
Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs) are jurisdictions, usually self-governing, which because of their low tax regimes, have specialized in providing commercial services to corporations and individuals, whether or not they are normally resident in that jurisdiction. The better-known offshore financial centres are small and sparsely populated countries or islands, and are...
HAVE YOU worked on an overseas project for a Thai employer where you’ve had to stay in an overseas assignment for 183 days or more in a year or over two consecutive years? If so, how should you handle any double taxation? While it’s important to pay tax correctly, you...
THE COMMERCE Ministry’s Business Development Department will this year expand its investigation into the use of Thai nationals as nominees for foreign-controlled companies in nine provinces where it suspects the illegal practice is widespread. This year, three additional provinces will be monitored – Krabi, Trat (Koh Chang), and Chiang Rai....
Thai consumer goods group TCC Holding Co. Ltd has completed its acquisition of the Vietnamese operations of Metro for 655 million euros (US$704.1 million). TCC’s subsidiary TCC Land International Pte. Ltd. takes over Metro’s 19 stores and related real estate portfolio in Vietnam, the German company said in a press...
According to a research report titled “Illegal Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2004-2013”, recently published by the Washington based research institute Global Financial Integrity (GFI), Bangladesh stands 26th in the list of 149 developing nations, in terms of flight of capital including money laundering (The Daily Star, December 10, 2015)....
Initiated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2013 and endorsed by the G-20, the OECD’s “Action Plan to Address Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)” includes 15 key areas to encourage more transparency, better reporting and more cooperation between countries in which multinational companies operate. On October...
Thailand’s vote this past May to implement a new transfer pricing law is expected to come into effect in the early part of the new year. Transfer pricing refers to the sale of goods or services between branches of a company or subsidiary companies to a parent enterprise, and most...
Looking back at tax developments over the past year, we’ve seen some promising incentives granted by the government and other developments that have caused taxpayer anxiety. One contentious issue involved transfer pricing, which we discussed in a previous column (“Transfer Pricing Loopholes Likely to be Closed Soon”, June 2). The...
Global taxpayers can expect to pay more tax in the years ahead. Many governments worldwide continue to update their tax legislation and expand their tax systems to repay debt and pay for increased social welfare, even as the memory of the last global financial crisis lingers. These are the conclusions...
In order to encourage the growth of international trade including that of financial services, successive Maltese governments have sought to conclude double tax treaties with important trading partners as well as with emerging countries. This policy is expected to continue in the future. To date, treaties are in force with...
British oil and gas contractors are amid a huge financial upheaval as a combination of job cuts and tax changes threaten their well-paid lifestyle. Thousands of contractors in the oil and gas industry worldwide have lost their jobs as companies look to protect their cash by sacking staff. The oil...
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...
THE CABINET has approved the Finance Ministry’s proposal for more tax incentives to facilitate the creation of International Headquarters and International Trading Centres in Thailand. IHQs and ITCs in the Kingdom currently enjoy both tax and non-tax benefits, including complete income-tax exemption for out-out transactions, while in-out transactions will be...
SOON, THAILAND will no longer have mere transfer-pricing guidelines in the form of Departmental Instruction Paw 113/2545, but will instead put into effect a transfer-pricing law, the draft of which was approved by the Cabinet in May. Taxpayers will of course be required to abide by the new law. There...
Bangladesh is set to sign an agreement with Bhutan to avoid double taxation to boost investments, trade and facilitate information exchange between the two Saarc nations, the National Board of Revenue said in a statement. A team led by NBR Chairman Md Nojibur Rahman is now in Thimpu to take...
