LEND Lease has denied claims it shifts profits from Australia through tax havens such as Luxembourg in its submission to the Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax Avoidance. Lend Lease was named last year in the “Lux Leaks” scandal, in which former employees of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Europe blew the whistle on… – Continue reading
More than half of Australia’s trade is money being sent offshore by companies to their overseas arms – with almost a third going to Singapore and Switzerland. Australian companies sent more than $100 billion to related parties in the low-tax nation of Singapore and another $15.6 billion to “hubs” in… – Continue reading
Technology giants Apple and Google have said in their submissions to the federal inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that they support international changes to global tax rules to stop profit shifting, but have warned of the risk of Australia acting alone, saying it would cost heavily in local jobs and… – Continue reading
Google has told the Australian parliament that it would prefer issues around taxation of multinational corporations to be dealt with by the G20 or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), rather than have individual countries attempt to go it alone. The Australian government is attempting to tackle profit… – Continue reading
HONG KONG — China’s tax officials plan to step up efforts to collect taxes from multinational corporations in the latest of a series of moves in the last year, mostly against Western companies. The activities have included police raids on the headquarters of companies’ China operations and heavy fines under… – Continue reading
The IRS issued two New Releases this week that restate its focus on offshore tax evasion. The first was January 29, 2015 which followed the First International Criminal Tax Symposium. “The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) co-hosted a three-day International Criminal… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office is pushing ahead with a controversial plan to allow the country’s biggest corporations to audit themselves through their own private auditors, despite mounting public anger over corporate tax avoidance. An ATO spokesman said 56 public companies with a turnover of between $100 million and $5 billion… – Continue reading
Introduction The taxpayer, Seven Network Limited, has won a recent decision (22 December 2014) in the Australian Federal Court, Seven Network Limited v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (2014) FCA1411, which is significant to all broadcasters, particularly involving the delivery of live sport and other entertainment. Briefly, the key issue raised… – 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
Apple’s Australian net profit after tax for the 2014 financial year increased, despite the company paying more tax. In documents filed to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cupertino-based tech giant reported that net profit after tax for the group during the 2014 financial year was AU$171.5 million,… – Continue reading
Summary:Apple has reported that it paid AU$80.3 million in income tax during 2014, up from the AU$36.4 million that was paid during the 2013 financial year. This is despite the company paying more than double in income tax for the year. During 2013, Apple had only paid AU$36.4 million compared… – 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
Prepared to take tax evaders to court. The Australian Tax Office has investigated 25 international technology companies over the past 18 months for tax avoidance as part of its ongoing crackdown on elaborate cross-border tax structures and profit shifting. The federal government late last year gave the ATO extra resources… – Continue reading
New Zealand First is concerned the Uber ride service and multinational companies like it are using elaborate tax shelters to rip off hard working Kiwi taxpayers. The Party will be closely following the government’s newly announced review of small passenger services. “Why is it when a multinational with a track… – Continue reading
For as long as leaders from low-income countries are excluded from the solution, tax avoidance will inflict costly and sometimes life-threatening consequences on millions of individuals Politicians have been all-too-eager to label 2014 a milestone year for action on tax avoidance, with many of the world’s leading economies having introduced… – Continue reading
In the world of offshore asset protection and personal finance, you regularly come across the claim that there are only two countries that actively tax their residents’ worldwide income: the United States and Eritrea. All other countries only tax income earned at home. That’s apparently no longer true. It turns… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
THE taxman has checked up on more than 3000 of the super rich it says dodged more than $1.3 billion in tax last year. So far, it says it has recouped half that money. The Australian Taxation Office said that in 2013-14 it did compliance checks on 2440 of the… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — Australia is set to become the newest entrant to the Islamic debt market this year as a solar-power joint venture seeks to sell a debut sukuk in Malaysia’s offshore tax haven of Labuan. SGI-Mitabu, run by The Solar Guys International and Mitabu Australia Pty, has revived a plan… – Continue reading
The Greens are offering the Federal Government support to introduce a two-tiered corporate tax system in Australia, as long as it acts on tax avoidance and profit shifting. The Government is hoping a small business tax cut of at least 1.5 per cent will help to refocus the economic debate… – Continue reading
Holley Nethercote commercial & financial services lawyers David Court, a partner at Holley Nethercote Commercial and Financial Services Lawyers was recently interviewed by an international publication regarding the implementation of FATCA in Australia. Below are some of David’s thoughts – How have you approached FATCA? What’s your biggest challenge? What… – Continue reading
We will probably never know their names, but one thing we do know – one in 20 of the richest people in Australia tried to evade paying their fair share of tax in recent years. By what authority do we know this? By none other than the Australian Taxation Office…. – Continue reading
Four days out from Christmas, Blind Citizens Australia (BCA), Deaf Australia, Homelessness Australia and Down Syndrome Australia learned they were to be subject to federal government funding cuts. New Social Services Minister Scott Morrison assured concerned parties that frontline services to the disabled would not be cut, just grants to… – Continue reading
The conditions for becoming tax-resident and tax non-resident vary from country to country and depend on such things as length of stay, type of accommodation, location of family, and nationality. In most tax systems, presence of an individual in a country for 183 days or more in any 12-month period… – Continue reading
[HONG KONG] Asia could set another record for international bond issues in 2015 if Chinese companies continue to borrow offshore at the same voracious pace they did this year, while bankers expect a heavy redemption schedule and larger pipelines from India and Indonesia to lift activity. Barclays is forecasting volumes… – Continue reading
The OECD is urging governments to tackle interest payments made by multinationals and their subsidiaries as part of a global crackdown on profit shifting. The aim is to also stop companies artificially loading debt in no-tax or low-tax jurisdictions to reduce their tax bills. It comes as the government backs… – Continue reading
Two Australian mining companies will be forced to disclose how much tax they pay in every country around the world by new transparency laws introduced in Canada. Paladin Energy and OceanaGold, both dual-listed in Australia and Canada, will have to comply with new Canadian laws requiring all oil, gas and… – Continue reading
In a blow to Bitcoin’s international presence, Australia has confirmed it will keep its controversial sales tax policy for certain Bitcoin transactions. Following the Australian Tax Office (ATO) issuing the initial legislation earlier this year, considerable community opposition arose, with domestic exchange Coinjar even forced to relocate to the UK… – Continue reading
Where do things stand with the government’s efforts to combat corporate tax avoidance and evasion, one of its priorities as G20 chair in 2014? The headlines suggest a contradictory stance. The latest headline is that Treasurer Hockey ‘backflips on tax laws to target multinational profit-shifters’. This refers to the announcement… – Continue reading
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), in its latest economic survey of Australia, recommends a change to the tax mix including increasing the GST (Goods And Services Tax) by 50% or more. “Make greater use of efficient tax bases such as the Goods and Services Tax and land… – Continue reading
December 17: The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) today finalised the transfer pricing ruling TR 2014/8, outlining the Commissioner’s views on the application of the recordkeeping provisions in Subdivision 284-E of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Subdivision 284-E). Taxpayers need to adequately address the requirements of Subdivision 284-E… – Continue reading
A new standard that would help stamp out tax evasion by forcing multinationals to give governments details about their tax affairs has been uncosted by Treasury, the latest budget update shows. Under a plan agreed to at the G20 finance ministers meeting in Cairns held earlier this year and then… – Continue reading
With the economy slowing, how will Treasurer Joe Hockey meet his target of doubling tax revenue collected from super funds by 2018? Joe Hockey’s budget update shows that he expects to collect enough money from taxes on superannuation that it will offset the loss of revenue from other taxes. The… – Continue reading
A secret deal with the Swiss government negotiated by media group Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd when James Packer was chief executive set a tax rate of less than 2.15 per cent on PBL’s intra-company loans. “We do have good news for you!” Ernst & Young Swiss partner Markus Huber wrote… – Continue reading
Financial institutions around the world including those in Asia are struggling to stay compliant with local privacy regulations that restrict the sharing of client data, whilst at the same time trying to meet the demands of costly FATCA reporting requirements. FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which came into… – Continue reading
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting The Walt Disney Co. generates $18.2 billion per year in economic activity in Florida and and is responsible for more than one in every 50 jobs in the Sunshine State, according to a study the company paid for in 2011. But here’s something Disney won’t… – Continue reading
Australia’s GST rate is now half the average of the developed world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, building the case for the issue to be looked at as part of the federal government’s upcoming tax review. In an interview with Fairfax Media the OECD’s head of… – Continue reading
Peter Mac Swedish “flatpack” furniture manufacturer IKEA has suffered a number of blistering mass media attacks for business practices that reduce their Australian tax liabilities to a tiny fraction of the company’s profits here. The criticism is certainly justified. Most ordinary working taxpayers, as well as companies that don’t engage… – Continue reading
A new leak of confidential documents expands the list of big companies seeking secret tax deals in Luxembourg, exposing tax-saving maneuvers by American entertainment icon The Walt Disney Co., politically controversial Koch Industries Inc. and 33 other companies. Disney and Koch Industries, a U.S.-based energy and chemical conglomerate, both created… – Continue reading
Thousands of rich Australians have come forward to declare billions of dollars in untaxed assets and income stashed in bank accounts in Switzerland and in other countries. The rush comes as what the Australian Taxation office says is the last tax amnesty it will ever offer comes to an end…. – Continue reading
DAVID Murray’s financial system inquiry has left Australia’s big four banks at the whim of constantly changing global capital rules, analysts say. “By targeting a dynamic benchmark, there is a risk the Australian banking system enters a global ‘race to the top’ of capital levels,” said UBS analyst Jonathan Mott,… – Continue reading
President Putin’s surprise amnesty allowing Russians with cash stashed abroad to bring it back home with no penalty may be a windfall, but then maybe not. The US, Mexico, Italy, Kazakhstan, and many others have tried it with varied success. When financial crises hit, governments have tried to reel in… – Continue reading
RETAIL billionaire Solomon Lew is threatening to ship Australian online orders from New Zealand to sidestep the GST in light of the Federal Government’s failure to axe the tax-free threshold for overseas purchases. The Premier Investments chairman has also slammed Australia Post for setting up a US mail forwarding service… – Continue reading
The United States won’t give up its right to tax multinationals, and nations will go to war soon with countries like China on taxing rights, a US tax head says. Grant Thornton’s national managing partner of tax in the United States, Randy Robason, is in Australia this week for a… – Continue reading
At its recent meeting in Sydney, the 44th Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research agreed greater regional cooperation on tax issues. It will now create a new task force to enable the region to discuss and keep up to date on international developments and issues including base erosion… – Continue reading
If you want to know how your local school is performing, you can check the My School website for data on its results, funding, enrollments and more. If you want to be sure about a company you’re doing business with, you can search ASIC’s registers for details of its ownership,… – Continue reading
December 1: The Inland Revenue last week released its annual compliance guide for taxpayers and reports on progress with respect to the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) work and time frames, for New Zealand consultation on possible domestic law changes to address BEPS concerns. The 2014/15 compliance guide… – Continue reading
Summary: The Australian Taxation Office’s treatment of bitcoin and other digital currencies could see businesses operating in the space close up shop or move offshore, a Senate Committee hearing has heard. Leon Spencer By Leon Spencer | November 27, 2014 — 01:15 GMT The Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) decision to… – Continue reading
An Australian parliamentary committee on Thursday (Nov 27) recommended strengthening rules on foreign investment in the country’s booming housing market, calling enforcement of the current framework “severely lacking”. SYDNEY: An Australian parliamentary committee on Thursday (Nov 27) recommended strengthening rules on foreign investment in the country’s booming housing market, calling… – Continue reading
