The organisation hails the capture of five more of its most wanted as “excellent news for all honest taxpayers”. Five of the UK’s top tax fugitives have been brought back to the UK to face justice following a global HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) initiative, the organisation has said. HMRC… – Continue reading
A US technology executive has rejected suggestions Ireland is merely seen as a tax haven for major American multinationals. McAfee senior vice-president, Patty Hatter, who previously worked with AT&T and Cisco, ranks as one of the most powerful female executives in California’s Silicon Valley. She insisted that the attractiveness of… – Continue reading
You’ll have to forgive Amazon for getting a little flustered when the British Parliament publicly blasted the company for “gaming the system” to dodge paying taxes. Amazon is an American company. They’re used to far more deferential treatment. Responding to how the company paid only $7 million in taxes despite… – Continue reading
Expat savers dealing with unfamiliar banks are unlikely to know how much of their cash is protected if the foreign bank goes bust. In Britain, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) safeguards up to £85,000 held by each person in accounts under a single banking licence. Each building society has… – Continue reading
I n July, the American pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, maker of the world’s top-selling drug – the arthritis treatment Humira – reached a blockbuster deal to acquire European rival Shire, best known for the attention-deficit medication Adderall. The merger was cheered by Wall Street, not for what the deal will do… – Continue reading
Ottawa (27 Aug. 2014)—Premiers and territorial leaders in Charlottetown for the Council of the Federation need to demand the federal government and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) stem the flow of Canadian money offshore because it is depleting revenues by at least $7.8 billion each year. Retrieving that money could… – Continue reading
An effort to control tax havens for those hiding their assets overseas has resulted in broad brush impacts on hard-working expatriate Americans living and working out of country. The previously delayed Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is now in full swing effective July 1, 2014. In an attempt to close a… – Continue reading
Pictet & Cie. Group SCA, Switzerland’s biggest closely held bank, increased assets under management six percent in the first half, as narrowing margins and a U.S. tax program led some competitors to sell or downsize. Managed assets grew to 319 billion Swiss francs ($348 billion) from 301 billion francs, Pictet said… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Switzerland will begin technical level negotiations in Bern on Tuesday for revision of ‘Swiss-Pakistan Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation’ to enable the treaty to create an environment for better trade and investment between the two countries. The three-day meeting is being held on the request… – Continue reading
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid and his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, signed a revised German-Israeli double taxation agreement in Berlin on August 21, 2014, according to a recent announcement from the German finance ministry. The convention, which was last amended in 1977, has been adapted to make it correspond to… – Continue reading
FRANCISTOWN: Government’s negotiations with other countries to sign Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) are underway to ensure investor benefits from tax holiday incentives continue, Boniface Mphetlhe of Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has said. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in MTI, Mphetlhe, was speaking on the topic of Botswana Investment… – Continue reading
VP Bank said it had now concluded that it no longer needed to take part in the programme. “Thorough internal investigations and external expert opinions showed that the conditions for continued participation did not exist,” the Liechtenstein-based bank said in a statement accompanying its half-year results. “VP Bank therefore withdrew… – Continue reading
An innocuously named species of transaction has inspired a political furor this summer. After a number of U.S. companies announced plans to move overseas in so-called inversion deals, Sen. Carl Levin proposed banning them outright. President Barack Obama called the companies unpatriotic. Because of the controversy, Walgreen Co. backed away… – Continue reading
Twitter is the latest major internet multinational to have opened up a Spanish subsidiary. But the popular micro-blogging site has followed in the footsteps of Google, Apple, Facebook and Linkedin, all of whom keep their Spanish corporate taxes down to the bare minimum by shifting their income to Ireland. Created… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON — Two top Republican lawmakers profited from a corporate tax-avoidance maneuver that the Treasury Department is seeking to curb. While House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, Mich., have resisted calls for a crackdown on companies adopting overseas addresses to pay lower taxes,… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is consulting on the design of a proposed new strict liability criminal offence for those who fail to declare taxable offshore income and gains. Under the plans, magistrates could be given the power to impose an unlimited financial penalty and a custodial sentence of up… – Continue reading
WEALTHY South Africans’ banking needs have changed in the past decade as exchange-control regulations have eased, and they have found themselves forging complex relationships with multiple global financial service providers. A wealthy South African might have a private bank and investment banking relationship domestically, as well as offshore banking and… – Continue reading
With all the talk about inversions and America’s Burger King Going Canadian, it’s easy to ignore even more prevalent tax savings by numerous American companies. Take Microsoft, which admits in its 2014 SEC filing that it avoids $30 billion in U.S. taxes. The trick? Keep about triple that amount, $93… – Continue reading
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has been in force for a month and still more countries are joining the tax network. So far, 101 countries and financial jurisdictions have either signed or agreed to join FATCA. FATCA is aimed at identifying US taxpayers with offshore bank accounts and investments. Overseas… – Continue reading
(Editor’s note: As the summer holidays wind down, we thought readers might appreciate a chance to revisit some of the stronger, and more controversial, items that have been published on this news channel since the start of what has been an eventful year.) Since the financial crisis, governments worldwide have… – Continue reading
David Glen, head of tax at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Scotland, analyses the effects independence will have on Scottish taxes. While it is obvious that a Yes vote will result in substantial change to the tax system, as Scotland begins to develop its own independent tax regime, perhaps what is less clear… – Continue reading
Potential inversion deal highlights dropping corporate taxes in Canada, now the lowest among 10 countries, with the U.S. in 5th place. Fast-food giant Burger King faced anger from both Washington and average Americans Monday, a day after it announced that it was in talks to buy Tim Hortons and relocate… – Continue reading
NEW YORK — There’s more than one way for a U.S. company to avoid taxes by claiming a foreign address. Consider the business founded in 1916 as General Plate Co., a maker of sensors and controls for everything from Fords and Frigidaires to the spaceship that first carried Americans to… – Continue reading
LONDON: Monaco, the tax haven on the French Riviera, is experiencing a luxury-housing boom that includes the world’s most expensive penthouse as developers prepare for an influx of millionaires and billionaires escaping higher taxes or a loss of banking privacy.A “flow” of new residents is emigrating from Switzerland, where financial-secrecy… – Continue reading
CFOs of multinationals need to prepare by assessing how much their companies engage in profit shifting to cut their taxes. Do you have responsibility, whether direct or dotted line, for the tax function in your company? Does your company have, or plan to have, operations outside the United States? If… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has launched an investigation regarding the income and property that members of the Greek Diaspora have in Greece. Greek-Australians have a deadline until December 2014 to voluntarily declare all their homeland assets in order to avoid being considered as tax evaders and paying the full… – Continue reading
Tax investigators pursuing instances of blackmoney stashed abroad by Indians have finally been able to circumvent the Swiss secrecy code by asking over 100 such account holders to submit on their own details of personal balances in these banks, brought under the tax net recently, for lesser penal action for… – Continue reading
Tax evasion is eating away at the heart of Romania and holding back the country, among the poorest in the European Union, in its efforts to catch up, analysts warn. The estimates for the costs of the so-called black or undeclared economy are huge: about one quarter of economic activity… – Continue reading
THE National Tax Policy (NTP) has identified double taxation as one of the major hindrances to the growth of the Nigerian economy. Double taxation has become an issue paramount to investors and top executives of multinationals as income is generally taxable both in source and residence countries. In order to… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: G-20, a group of developed and developing nations, is likely to press for adoption of “rapid timelines” by different countries for automatic sharing of information with a view to curb tax evasion. The issue of automatic sharing of tax information would figure prominently during the meeting of G-20… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is an important development in U.S. efforts to improve tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts.Depending on the amount of the aggregate value of their assets, US individuals are required to file Form 8938 – Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets… – Continue reading
Ireland can adopt ‘wait-and-see’ approach on tax breaks, says Department of Finance Ireland supports the EU review of all patent box regimes – under which certain member states offer tax breaks for intellectual property – and has decided to take a “wait-and-see approach” on the issue until guidance is provided… – Continue reading
PEOPLE with undeclared offshore tax liabilities are being urged to pay what they owe or face prosecution. The new criminal offence of failing to declare taxable offshore income is set out in a new Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) consultation paper. HMRC says people who do no declare their… – Continue reading
MONTREAL • Eugene Melnyk, the billionaire owner of the Ottawa Senators and founder of drug maker Biovail Corp., is waging war against the company that now controls his one-time business. Mr. Melnyk alleges that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is masquerading as a Canadian company to make use of this country’s… – Continue reading
Planting its European headquarters in Luxembourg has afforded Amazon significant tax advantages. That does not sit well in Britain, where members of Parliament from across the political spectrum have expressed outrage at the strategy. t would be hard to find anything better, unless, of course, you’re Cecil or Amazon. A… – Continue reading
The Delhi High Court upholds the non-taxability of gains from sale of shares of overseas entities by the Copal Group to the Moody’s Group. Interpretation of the indirect transfer tax provisions in a restrictive manner. 50% threshold for substantiality based on guidance by OECD/ UN material and Shome Committee Report… – Continue reading
Various reporters, editorialists and politicians are clamoring for Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, to release more of his tax returns — specifically, the detailed schedules that accompany the “top sheets” that he already has released. They probably will be disappointed, even if Mr. Rauner complies with… – Continue reading
TAX avoidance is always a hot topic, never more so than with the recent stream of famous individuals involved in the Liberty scheme. The fact that some of these 1,600 stars risk bankruptcy highlights just how serious these cases can be, and the financial and reputational value at stake. The media… – Continue reading
Legislation which will establish and govern Scotland’s first tax collection system in 300 years has been passed by the Scottish Legislation which will establish and govern Scotland’s first tax collection system in 300 years has been passed by the Scottish Parliament.21 Aug 2014 The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Bill… – Continue reading
Those committing tax evasion could face stricter consequences due to the change in government tax legislation, according to a top city accountant. Des Veney, Director of Haines Watts Chartered Accountants on Victoria Street, believes that as a result of the stern regulation, which came into effect earlier this month, UK… – Continue reading
Contractors can have their say on the taxman moving to criminalise people who fail to declare offshore income and gains, even if he cannot prove their intent was to defraud him. Under the ‘strict liability’ offence, convictions could hit a person whose taxable offshore income and gains were not correctly… – Continue reading
Education and Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons said yesterday the Registrar of Companies’ data on new company incorporations for the second quarter of 2014 continues to show a strong positive trend in the number of new company registrations. Results following the close of the quarter in June showed that the… – Continue reading
More private Swiss banks are suffering slumping profits, with a crackdown by the US authorities on tax cheats having a big effect. A study by consultancy firm KPMG and Switzerland’s University of Saint Gallen found that of the 94 they examined more than a third did not make any profit… – Continue reading
Reasons given by the bank for refusing to publish findings of an investigation into alleged tax evasion remain unconvincing When commodities giant Glencore publishes its half-yearly report on Wednesday, it is unlikely to mention what may be a significant victory for the firm. This relates to an investigation into allegations… – Continue reading
If I say that Spain is a country in love with bureaucracy, your response might be: “Really…I don’t believe you for a minute?!” Sarcasm is rarely better suited to a statement than here. Yes, unfortunately a good proportion (not all) of the 2.7 million Spanish civil servants need to move… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc’s Chief Executive Omar Ishrak has insisted that the company’s USD42.9bn deal to acquire Dublin-based Covidien Plc, and, thereby, move its tax residence from the United States to Ireland in a “corporate inversion,” is based on business logic and not corporate tax reduction. Medtronic is among a number of… – Continue reading
A new section 1305A of the UK Corporation Tax Act 2009 (CTA 2009) has been introduced by the UK Finance Act 2014 that applies to payments made from March 19, 2014 under avoidance schemes involving the transfer of corporate profits within a group. This new measure applies if: two companies… – Continue reading
Authorities in Gibraltar have slammed claims by a top Spanish official that the UK-held territory costs Spain €1 billion ($1.3 billion) a year in lost tax revenues, saying the figure is “a financial flight of fancy”. “The wealth that Gibraltar enjoys cannot continue to be based solely on an economy… – Continue reading
Despite the political and media pressure on offshore financial centers, new incorporations of offshore companies worldwide continue to grow. A new report on offshore company incorporations by law and fiduciary firm Appleby shows that new company registrations increased in most offshore jurisdictions in the second half of 2013. “As the… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands, an important international business competitor for Bermuda, is expressing “consternation” that they have been included on a new list of high risk jurisdictions for financial crime. There are a total of 95 countries listed including Brazil, Afghanistan, Cuba, Russia, China, Iraq, the Republic of Congo and Jamaica…. – Continue reading
