Congress is on a roll, trying to track down hidden offshore accounts, and the latest news is a report that shows which states have the most taxpayers disclosing such accounts (California is No. 1), and where they are located (Switzerland is tops). All told, taxpayers in at least 45 states… – Continue reading
The United States permanent subcommittee will be holding a hearing as they try to solve issues surrounding offshore tax evasion as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks including credit Suisse Group AG. According to a statement by the committee, the focus will be on the status efforts to hold… – Continue reading
Deal comes as federal authorities escalate criminal probe into allegations Credit Suisse and other Swiss banks helped U.S. clients duck taxes on assets in offshore accounts. Credit Suisse is paying $196 million and admitting wrongdoing to settle civil charges it violated federal securities laws by providing financial advisory services to… – Continue reading
Treasury moved to close loophole used by wealthy to avoid stamp duty By placing homes in companies they can be sold without paying tax Ministers had expected the new levy to raise £20million this year But Danny Alexander reveals it is on course to generate £100million A crackdown on the… – Continue reading
Mirror investigator Nick Sommerlad says this is the fourth time in a row HM Revenue and Customs has defeated the firm’s complex tax avoidance schemes This is the latest victory for HMRC against a notorious tax avoidance firm. London-based NT Advisors have been behind a string of schemes which would… – Continue reading
It’s a u-turn, but unavoidable: bankers and politicians are preparing for the automatic exchange of tax information. Switzerland has helped develop the new standard, which the OECD wants to fast-track worldwide. The days when Swiss finance ministers said banking secrecy was non-negotiable and carved in stone are over. Switzerland has… – Continue reading
The Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation (CEAT) of the Swiss Council of States has unanimously agreed to return to the Federal Council for renegotiation the bilateral agreement concluded with France, aimed at preventing double taxation with respect to inheritance tax (IHT). The CEAT committee has specifically tasked the Government… – Continue reading
Tensions are rising in canton Valais, Switzerland, pitting the local authorities against citizens over the benefits of urban development versus cultural preservation. The reason? A plan to end lump-sum taxation for wealthy foreigners that will come to a nationwide vote next year. The historic village of Lens, located on the… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Continuing its crackdown on black moneymenace, India has entered into an agreement with Switzerland for liberal interpretation of identity requirements for gathering information about illicit funds stashed away by its citizens in Swiss banks. “Government has also signed a mutual agreement with government of Swiss Confederation for liberal interpretation of the… – Continue reading
February 14 — The Latvian finance ministry on February 6 presented a draft agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income with Cyprus. The agreement aims to promote trade, foreign investment and facilitate investment from both Latvia and Cyprus. The draft DTA… – Continue reading
In a world of widening inequality, it is perhaps the most pernicious injustice of them all. Multinational corporations and wealthy individuals avoiding tax on an unprecedented scale, shuffling assets, income and debt to the most favourable tax jurisdictions and confounding hapless authorities. It is impossible to identify exactly how much… – Continue reading
Russian Federation Council foreign committee chairman Mihhail Margelov said at his meeting with Estonian Riigikogu speaker Ene Ergma on Thursday that the agreement on avoiding double taxation between the two states is in Russia interests too, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports. Ergma expressed concerns over the halting of the ratification process of… – Continue reading
Irish Corporate Tax 2014: The current Irish governance system has remained unchanged through boom and bust and the addiction to political spin, distortion and sometimes lies, works at least in the short term while in some cases it has an enduring impact. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president, it’s possible “to… – Continue reading
More than 150 attendees gathered at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas for the Global Financial Summit. Our theme this year was “Market Solutions to World Problems,” as opposed to government solutions. In this tax haven just off the U.S. borders, we gained some valuable advice. Peter Schiff, president of EuroPacific… – Continue reading
Apart from tracking the fortunes of Finns battling for Olympic greatness in Sochi, Tuesday’s news headlines also looked at domestic themes. Among them official concerns about Estonia as a possible tax haven for Finnish firms, a comparison of media coverage of immigration in Finland and the Netherlands and education funding… – Continue reading
An $880 million payout to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has reignited the debate over whether global companies pay their fair share of tax in Australia. News was paid the money after winning a long-running legal battle with the Tax Office relating to a 1989 restructure of the media empire involving… – Continue reading
February 14 — The Costa Rican government on February 13 announced that it has signed an agreement for the avoidance of double taxation on income and capital with Germany. The agreement was signed in San Jose by Costa Rica’s Finance Minister Ayales Edgar and the German Ambassador Ernst Martens. The agreement aims… – Continue reading
Some three hundred years ago Sir Walter Scott asked, “Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.” Well, in America corporations are legally deemed “persons,” so the answer to Scott’s question is “Yes,” at least when it… – Continue reading
Switzerland must adopt a position on sharing bank client data with foreign tax authorities more quickly than originally thought and cannot hold back until all other countries have introduced the practice, its finance minister told a Swiss newspaper. So far, 42 countries have declared an interest in automatically sharing information… – Continue reading
Singapore’s wealth management industry grew 22 percent in 2012 to 1.63 trillion Singaporean dollars ($1.29 trillion US), and its share of global offshore wealth is expected to outstrip Switzerland by 2020, according to data from WealthInsight, an industry research group. Learning from the recent scandal when Swiss banks, including UBS… – Continue reading
Swiss banks are set to be in Capitol Hill’s crosshairs next week over tax evasion. Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, is planning to lead the latest tax-evasion hearing in the permanent subcommittee on investigations, which he heads. The focus this time is the status of efforts to hold Swiss… – Continue reading
A US judge’s opinion in favour of Validus Re in a tax case could have positive implications for Bermuda reinsurers. Retrocession arrangements in respect to offshore entities providing coverage for US risks are not subject to tax, the US federal court decision states. Judge Amy Jackson of the US federal… – Continue reading
NICOSIA, Cyprus — When the Cypriot government forced bank depositors — many of them Russian — to pay their share of an international bailout last spring, Vasilis Zertalis’s phone started ringing. The companies his consultancy helps incorporate on this breezy Mediterranean island — many of them Russian, too — wanted… – Continue reading
The Federal Labor Party has demanded the Government bring Australia’s international taxation regulations into line to deal with multinationals such as Apple and Google, which are siphoning billions of dollars of revenue out of Australia while paying only small amounts of local tax. In a statement issued this morning, Shadow… – Continue reading
INTRODUCTION On 31 January 2014 the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey jointly issued draft Guidance Notes (in conjunction with the Isle of Man) on the implementation of obligations arising under the intergovernmental agreements (“IGAs“) signed by each island with the UK in October 2013 and with the US in… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Cracking down on alleged wealth stashed by Indians abroad, the government has initiated enquiries in several cases while information has been received in 67 such cases and prosecution for wilful tax evasion has been launched in 17 other cases. Giving an update on alleged tax evasion through offshore… – Continue reading
It’s no big secret that for years the Madrid Government together with their so-called impartial EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia have been on Gibraltar’s back regarding the Rock’s income tax laws. Last week I covered for Panorama the Gibraltar Government visit to Brussels where Mr Picardo and his team had… – Continue reading
Thousands of Swiss bank account holders and others have already come forward to settle unpaid UK tax bills and avoid costly tax penalties – but the LDF window won’t be open for ever. The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) was launched in 2009 and continues to be available until 5 April 2016. It… – Continue reading
Luxembourg is lobbying Beijing for equal treatment with London, which was granted an investment quota last year allowing investors based there to invest their offshore yuan directly in the mainland’s securities markets. In an effort to capture a larger share of Europe’s offshore yuan business, top officials from the grand… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Michael Spindelegger had hinted that Austria might be happy to exchange data on bank account holders with EU countries even is similar agreements have not been finalised with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Austria and Luxembourg had come under criticism in December after they previously said they will block EU… – Continue reading
Feb 11 (Reuters) – Austria signalled on Tuesday flexibility on exchanging cross-border bank account data with fellow European Union members even absent a final EU accord with Switzerland. “As far as banking secrecy for foreigners goes, it is important for us that there are similar accords with neighbours like Switzerland… – Continue reading
Sir Alex Ferguson and Sven-Goran Eriksson are among almost 300 wealthy individuals facing average losses of more than £1m each over a notorious investment in Disney films cited as a tax avoidance scheme, The Sunday Times has reported. The football bosses and 287 other investors joined a partnership that purchased… – Continue reading
ANSA reported that a preliminary hearings judge in Milan indicted the owner of the troubled ILVA steelworks in Taranto for an alleged massive tax fraud. Emilio Riva was indicted together with two former company managers and a former Deutche Bank manager for tax evasion to the tune of EUR 52… – Continue reading
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s tax agency said Monday that it imposed more than 1 trillion won (US$944.3 million) in taxes last year through an investigation into offshore tax evasion. A total of 1.08 trillion won was imposed as a result of its offshore tax evasion probe last… – Continue reading
Swiss bank UBS is at the centre of embarrassing revelations that it helped to set up a secretive offshore firm for the wife and daughter of a former senior Chinese official who has since been convicted of corruption. Zhang Shuguang, a former deputy chief engineer of the disbanded railways ministry,… – Continue reading
Gibraltar plans to become an Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) jurisdiction within the European Union. The ILS market has grown significantly in recent years and the total volume of catastrophe bonds and ILS issued during 2013 was more than $7.5 billion and by the end 2013 there was an all-time high… – Continue reading
The European Commission is currently analysing how Gibraltar and Spain will implement recommendations made by its experts who visited the border last year. Both the Gibraltar Government and the Spanish Government have submitted detailed documents to the Commission – the former via the office of the UK permanent representative in… – Continue reading
The e-Gaming team for the Department of Economic Development and representatives from the Isle of Man’s e-Gaming sector have reported an extremely high number of enquiries from potential new business showing serious interest following a highly successful ICE Totally Gaming event in London last week. Howard Quayle MHK, the Department’s… – Continue reading
The law’s onerous provisions are scheduled to go into effect in the coming year. However, even as this regulatory reckoning approaches, a group of US citizens residing abroad is making progress pushing for repeal. The looming United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), intended to prevent tax cheating, is… – Continue reading
In a huge publicity coup as protests grow against America’s controversial Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Canada has finally signed an intergovernmental agreement to swap tax information with the US. Canada signing up for FATCA is a huge political and publicity coup for the US government as the Republican… – Continue reading
GEORGE Osborne’s new oligarch tax is set to cause a headache for wealthy people in Worcestershire, according to tax expert Anita Stewart, partner at Bewdley firm DHJH Chartered Accountants, and she is urging them act now if they want to avoid a hefty bill in 12 months’ time. Ms Stewart… – Continue reading
India’s finance ministry is preparing to seek the cabinet’s approval to withdraw conciliation proceedings with the UK telecoms firm. Vodafone, the world’s second-largest mobile operator by subscribers, entered India in 2007 by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa’s mobile phone assets. It is contesting a tax bill of about 112bn rupees (£1.1bn) relating… – Continue reading
India and Croatia have signed a double taxation avoidance treaty as an important step in strengthening their economic cooperation. The treaty was signed in Zagreb on Wednesday by Croatian Finance Minister Slavko Linic and Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, during her working visit to Croatia. The… – Continue reading
On the menu for the lunch French President Francois Hollande is hosting today for the chiefs of the likes of Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.: carrots and sticks. In the first official trip by a French president to San Francisco in 30 years, Hollande will seek to woo Facebook’s Sheryl… – Continue reading
The following commentary, compiled by the Institute for Risk Management Bermuda Group, examines the implications for the Island of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) legislation enacted by the United States. Back in June 2012 the Institute of Risk Management (IRM), Bermuda Regional Group hosted a forward looking… – Continue reading
Is Ireland a tax haven? The Irish government bristles at the question, given rising interest in cracking down on offshore financial centers, but research from a Trinity College professor is pretty definitive: Yes, it is. When Ireland’s leaders defend their country from accusations that global companies like Apple use Irish… – Continue reading
A new India-Cyprus double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA) or tax treaty, inches closer to finalisation. The delegates of the two countries are slated to meet in early-mid March to tie up the loose ends. While the revised treaty will contain more stringent provisions relating to exchange of information, it is… – Continue reading
Belgium’s finance ministry on January 27 announced changes to the effective dates of the agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with China. The finance ministry had previously announced that the agreement would come into effect on Jan. 4, 2014 and apply to taxes on income… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collected more tax from smaller businesses than large multinationals last year as a result of its investigations into firms’ transfer pricing arrangements, according to figures obtained by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. Corporate tax expert Heather Self of Pinsent Masons said that HMRC… – Continue reading
When Taoiseach Enda Kenny was grilled over Ireland’s low tax regime for multinationals on a visit to Paris last week, he fell back on a familiar defence. By now it’s a regular refrain – Ireland’s corporate taxes are crystal clear and transparent. Ours, he added, is a statute-based system which… – Continue reading
