The French and Luxembourg governments have signed a new amendment to the French-Luxembourg tax treaty that will significantly impact the investment structures involving Luxembourg vehicles holding French real estate assets. This amendment, signed early in September, will come into force once the ratification process by the respective parliaments of both… – Continue reading
The Government of Canada has been moving ahead with its plans to solve the deficit by cutting services to Canadians and yet, there are billions of dollars in taxable assets illegally hidden by some Canadians in overseas tax havens. Overseas tax evasion is a serious problem requiring assertive action not… – Continue reading
Nokia, Skype and Minecraft-maker Mojang have more in common than just the fact that they are among Microsoft’s biggest acquisition targets in recent years. They are all also based outside the U.S., and that’s no coincidence. As the debate over so-called inversions heats up and critics — from President Obama… – Continue reading
The Obama administration’s new rules intended to stem the tide of inversions, in which U.S. companies reincorporate abroad to dodge taxes at home, won’t be completely effective because they don’t address the high corporate tax rate in the U.S. that compels such behavior, say tax experts and analysts. The rules announced… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department today came out with a series of arcane new tax regulations in the hopes of stemming corporate inversions. Inversions happen when U.S. companies merge with a foreign company while usually retaining U.S. operations. Their purpose is to avoid punitive U.S. double taxation on income earned overseas. The… – Continue reading
Twitter is funnelling much of the revenue it generates in Britain through an offshore sales structure, newly published annual accounts suggested today. Twitter UK has filed abbreviated 2013 accounts for a small company under Companies House rules, which are usually applicable to a business with an annual turnover of less… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Sept 23, (Agencies): Tough new US rules on corporate “inversions” on Tuesday sent a chill through the market for the tax-avoidance deals, both pending and potential, with share prices falling sharply in nearly a dozen companies on both sides of the Atlantic. As investors sold stocks involved in inversions,… – Continue reading
Inversions are technically a financial transaction where a corporation from one country, say the United States, merges with a company in a foreign country, say Ireland. Nothing changes in the United States from a business point of view, except that the value and financial sustainability of the corporation goes up significantly. Why… – Continue reading
On 30 June 2014, the British Virgin Islands (“BVI“) government signed a Model 1B (i.e. non-reciprocal) intergovernmental agreement with the United States (the “US IGA“). The US IGA provides a framework for the implementation of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA“) in the BVI. The BVI government had,… – Continue reading
Three years ago, Russia adopted new transfer pricing legislation. The new rules became effective on Jan. 1, 2012. They are in line with international standards (OECD Guidelines on Transfer Pricing), but their concept was, and still is, quite new for the Russian tax authorities. Thus the rules provide for a transition period until 2017: For the years 2012… – Continue reading
Last week the Tax Foundation released its annual International Tax Competitiveness Index for 2014. The United States ranked 32 out of 34 OECD countries surveyed. Only Portugal and France got lower competitiveness scores, and not by much. As if that were not bad enough, the competitiveness score is only half… – Continue reading
High-tax countries unable to compete with tax havens have instead opted to subjugate them Rivalry between governments to attract capital and labour can lead to pro-growth policies. That this comes from the power of people to “vote with their feet” has been known for long. For instance, it was the… – Continue reading
India’s desire to have a global system, which will ensure tax-evaders will have no sanctuary anywhere, received a shot in the arm when finance ministers of G-20 nations took a concrete step in this regard. At their meeting in Australia on Sunday, they endorsed a plan to exchange tax information… – Continue reading
THE UK is the first of 44 countries to commit to the new country-by-country reporting model, the Treasury has confirmed. Put forward by the OECD last week as part of a wider movement against tax avoidance by large corporations, UK-based multinationals will have to report to HMRC where they make… – Continue reading
In recent years, Russian tax legislation has adopted many modern international tax concepts and practices. Most notably, transfer pricing rules, consolidated groups of taxpayers, easy electronic communications between taxpayers and tax authorities have all become part of standard working practice. However, there is always room for improvement. The current global economic and political situation dictates that new initiatives… – Continue reading
Reports that Lonmin was evading tax were denied by a spokeswoman on Monday, after calls that the company should be investigated. “It is completely false, we are busy preparing a statement,” spokeswoman Sue Vey said. Vey said she was not sure when the statement would be released. Earlier, Sars spokesman… – Continue reading
A lack of anti-avoidance tax law and cuts to public services are contributing to the UK’s yawning tax gap. New research by Tax Research LLP, on behalf of the Public and Commercial Services Union, shows that the tax gap – defined as “the difference between the tax that should be paid in the UK if the taxsystem worked as parliament and… – Continue reading
In a move tied to budgets, Canada’s Revenue Agency is cutting its top staff focused on international tax evasion. Cuts to experienced personnel who ferret out aggressive tax planning appear to be deepest, despite comments by MP Gerald Keddy that “the CRA is not reducing the number of auditors, nor… – Continue reading
Labour could stop controversial cab-on-demand app Uber from operating in Britain over concerns about its tax arrangements. Shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh warned that Labour would not tolerate “tax avoidance on a large scale”, describing Uber’s tax arrangements, being based offshore, as “interesting”. She also seized on the fact that… – Continue reading
The beautiful part is the administration did it without Congress. Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?” among other books. Well, would you look at… – Continue reading
Scotland would not be alone in having its own tax rate from April 2016 – and holding onto the resulting revenues – if UK company directors had their way. According to a survey by the Institute of Directors (IoD), more than two-thirds of managing directors favour tax powers being devolved… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Moving against tax avoidance by corporations, the Obama administration took several actions on Monday to curb “inversion” deals that allow companies to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad. The Treasury Department announced new rules, effective immediately, that will reduce the tax benefits available to companies that have… – Continue reading
Plans to curb tax avoidance will hit Ireland. Most countries are set to force multinationals to pay more tax and as the political controversy grows, our own role in these activities will come under ever increasing scrutiny On Tuesday the OECD, the Paris-based club of the world’s richest economies, published… – Continue reading
Archaic rules mean the world sees us as a tax haven Think of tax havens and you’ll probably think of Switzerland, Isle of Man and Luxembourg but for the rest of the world, they think of us. You see the UK’s quirky and ancient laws mean we have rules that… – Continue reading
CAIRNS/AUSTRALIA: India may have scored a big win in its efforts to receive information on black money stashed away overseas as the G20 grouping of nations is set to endorse on Sunday a framework for automatic exchange of information on bank accounts, putting an end to global bank secrecy. A… – Continue reading
The German-Irish Chamber of Commerce is based in discreet but elegant offices on Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. It has a much lower profile than the American Irish Chamber of Commerce, but in many ways it is just as important. Ties with the US are hugely important for obvious reasons. There… – Continue reading
POLITICIANS in the rich world like to splutter about the ever more elaborate dodges that big multinational firms undertake to minimise their tax bills. But doing something about them is trickier. America’s Congress is struggling to agree on ways to stop companies “inverting”—switching domicile to reduce tax bills (see article)…. – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday ruled out possibility of the recovery of billions of dollars stashed in Swiss banks any time soon. ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday ruled out possibility of the recovery of billions of dollars stashed in Swiss banks any time soon. The minister… – Continue reading
GORDON BROWN AND DAVID CAMERON HAVE PROMISED GREATER DEVOLUTION OF TAX AND WELFARE POWERS TO SCOTLAND. With the amount of coverage for the Scottish vote today it can’t have gone unnoticed that Scotland is remaining a part of the UK – for now. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t… – Continue reading
Having recently blasted corporate tax evaders, the deputy president now has egg on his face after Lonmin’s Bermuda tax avoidance tactics surfaced. Evidence before the Marikana commission that Lonmin moved millions in platinum revenue from South Africa to tax-free Bermuda is likely to prove embarrassing for ANC deputy president Cyril… – Continue reading
Clients of UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s largest bank, have led a five-fold surge in the number of Canadian residents reporting hidden offshore income over the past eight years. Almost 6,000 taxpayers came forward in the past 12 months as part of the Canada Revenue Agency’s voluntary disclosure program to report… – Continue reading
Yesterday saw the release of the first set of deliverables under the OECD’s project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). These constitute the “building blocks” for an internationally agreed and co-ordinated response to government and media concerns in recent years about the perceived way in which shortcomings in relevant… – Continue reading
The Russian Ministry of Finance has published an updated version of the draft controlled foreign company rules (hereinafter – “CFC”) on the 2nd of September (hereinafter – ‘the new Draft’). The previous drafts were covered in detail in our press releases of 24 March and 5 June. The new Draft… – Continue reading
TORRIDGE and West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox has said he invested in an alleged tax avoidance scheme in good faith. A leading national newspaper claimed that Mr Cox is one of a number of top officials and celebrities investing in Phoenix Film Partners LLP. HM Revenue & Customs has moved… – Continue reading
The global arms race has been replaced by a corporate tax race. Countries call for disarmament while building up their armouries. Britain is the worst offender. It led the calls for a level international playing field on corporation tax to stop multinationals from choosing where to pay tax. However, the… – Continue reading
The OECD wants to force businesses to declare their turnover and number of employees in each country where they are active. Among the multinationals targeted are digital giants Google, Apple and Amazon. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has announced an international action plan called “Project BEPS”, to target… – Continue reading
UBS AG, the world’s biggest manager of money for the rich, has become the test case for French President Francois Hollande’s tax-evasion crackdown. The Swiss bank is set to learn from a Paris appeals court on Sept. 22 if it must post a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) bond to cover… – Continue reading
THE CLAMPDOWN on tax avoidance by multinational corporations has been bolstered by a series of recommendations made by the OECD. Companies including Google, Amazon and Starbucks have been in the firing line for their use of offshore jurisdictions to drive down their UK tax liabilities. In particular, the companies have… – Continue reading
Take That pop star and former X Factor judge Gary Barlow has apologised to his fans for his involvement in an illegal tax avoidance scheme. Barlow has posted an open message on Twitter saying he is sorry for any offence he may have caused and stating he has appointed new… – Continue reading
Luxury brand came under investigation after routing €680m through its Irish unit Apple and Google are names regularly cited when it comes to using Ireland for aggressive tax planning, but the practice is open to a much wider range of businesses. Bulgari, the Italian jewellery giant whose products were made… – Continue reading
Cyprus has accepted a key condition put forward by India on effective exchange of information on tax avoiders Cyprus has accepted a key condition put forward by India on effective exchange of information on tax avoiders, hoping its move, which comes amid continuing talks on amending their mutual tax treaty,… – Continue reading
As Switzerland’s long-cherished banking secrecy practices evaporate, the institutions in the world’s largest offshore tax haven are dramatically rethinking their business models in a bid to survive. Already reeling from the painful process of making amends for allowing foreign nationals to hide assets from the taxman back home, the secretive… – Continue reading
Cyprus transposed the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive1 into domestic legislation when it updated its tax laws in preparation for EU membership in 2004. The Income Tax Law and the Special Contribution for the Defence of the Republic Law provide a liberal system of double taxation avoidance, which also extends to non-EU countries,… – Continue reading
A member of FIFA’s financial watchdog panel has been temporarily suspended while implicated in the Cayman Islands corruption investigation. Canover Watson was questioned last month by police anti-corruption and financial crime units in his native Cayman Islands on suspicion of corruption and money-laundering. He denies wrongdoing. FIFA said audit committee chairman… – Continue reading
BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) — The Luxembourg branch of China’s largest lender, ICBC, has been appointed as a clearing bank for renminbi business in the European country, the Chinese central bank said on Tuesday. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) made the decision in accordance with a memorandum of understanding… – Continue reading
If the all-American fast food chain Burger King, with its thousands of restaurants in the United States, can claim to be a foreign company for tax purposes, our corporate tax system is in real trouble. The crisis of corporate inversions is now apparent even to those who aren’t connected to… – Continue reading
India has seemingly reached an impasse with both Cyprus and Mauritius over the re-negotiation of their respective double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAA). For the former, the disagreement relates to Cyprus’s status as a notified jurisdictional area (NJA) in India, whilst for the latter, it pertains to the update of their… – Continue reading
Remember the study last year that ranked our tax code right below Zimbabwe? Now, a new study by the Tax Foundation still ranks us near last. Zimbabwe wasn’t a part of this contest, since the new study looked only at the 34 countries making up the OECD. Still, we have… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3fbed922-3d51-11e4-871d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3Eo63WbfR The British Virgin Islands has long attracted Chinese companies looking to… – Continue reading
Strategy to stamp out avoidance by multinational groups to be unveiled today Ireland’s business tax regime is set to come under renewed scrutiny today as the OECD sets out the first phase of a plan to stamp out aggressive avoidance by big multinational groups. Moves by the OECD to overhaul… – Continue reading
