Apple Inc. may face double taxation on some of its profits if the European Commission’s Aug. 30 ruling inspires France to slap its own tax adjustment on the company, practitioners said. Apple could even face “triple taxation” if it repatriates profits from the European Union to the U.S., Laurent Leclercq,… – Continue reading
A former Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) chairman yesterday urged the Government to resist “disingenuous” international pressure, after this nation was accused of single-handedly undermining the global “war on tax dodgers”. Michael Paton told Tribune Business that the Bahamas needed to remain steadfast and meet the commitments it has made… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Aiming to curb tax evasion and avoidance, India has operationalised the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Seychelles, one of the major sources of foreign investment into the country. The agreement will enable the authorities of both nations to provide assistance through exchange of tax and banking information,… – Continue reading
The Australian government shouldn’t rely on leaks like that of the Panama Papers to pick up on tax evasion, it should consider stronger action. The federal government showed some leadership earlier this year by announcing the establishment of a public register of beneficial ownership of companies, with the aim of… – Continue reading
Slovakia, the current president of the EU council, challenges finance ministers from all the EU member states to introduce mandatory disclosure rules for intermediaries including accountants who seek to profit from the promotion, design or implementation of tax avoidance schemes The proposals were outlined in a ‘presidency issues’ note presented… – Continue reading
Current rules allow over 100,000 wealthy residents to pay a lower rate of tax, even if they have lived in UK for many years. The Government is risking more than £6bn of tax revenue by changing rules governing non-domiciled taxpayers, an international law firm has warned. Pinsent Masons said that… – Continue reading
Israel has signed on as a member of the OECD’s international tax treaty, and as a result the Tax Authority will automatically receive information about bank accounts held by Israelis abroad. Israel, meanwhile, will automatically release information about foreign citizens who have bank accounts here to the governments of countries… – Continue reading
The Special Administrative Region yesterday signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Ireland, according to an announcement by the Financial Services Bureau. The agreement was inked by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac and Ireland’s Ambassador to China, Paul Kavanagh. According to the Secretary, the… – Continue reading
Pakistan and Switzerland would exchange information on tax evasion once the contracting state exhausts all regular sources of information available under the internal taxation procedure. On August 31, 2016, the Federal Cabinet approved initialed draft for revision of the Convention between Pakistan and Swiss Confederation for the avoidance of double… – Continue reading
Potential slice of the Apple pie stems from Commission’s invitation to EU tax authorities. BRATISLAVA — The €13 billion clawback of unpaid taxes from U.S. tech giant Apple has piqued the interests of EU finance ministers, who have today asked the European Commission for more details on the potential share… – Continue reading
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Sept 10, CMC – Government and opposition legislators are to meet here on Monday as the deadline for meeting the September 30 deadline for passing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance ACT (FATCA). Caribbean financial executives have in the past bemoaned what they deem as an uneven… – Continue reading
A legislative amendment in the UK this week will give the British government the power to publish details of tax payments made by UK-based multinational corporations on a country by country basis, as tax authorities try to clamp down on the abuse of tax laws and aggressive tax avoidance. The… – Continue reading
Denmark pays up to £1m for documents from anonymous source and plans to investigate up to 600 Danes who may have evaded tax Denmark has become the first country in the world to apparently buy data from the Panama Papers leak, and now plans to investigate whether 500-600 Danes who… – Continue reading
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is the priority initiative for The Bahamas Government in its global regulatory tax compliance regime. The Bahamas committed to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) CRS for the automatic exchange of Information in 2018. The optional… – Continue reading
The G20 summit in China has stressed the need for international tax cooperation to achieve ‘a globally fair and modern international tax system’, after US President Obama warned of the risks if countries ‘race to the bottom’ in tax policies At a press conference at the conclusion of the summit,… – Continue reading
European Union countries should better coordinate tax rules to avoid hitting corporations too hard, the Slovak presidency of the European Union has proposed. This would be an effort to provide more balance to an EU campaign against tax avoidance by multinational companies. The proposal will be discussed at an informal… – Continue reading
The international tax landscape has been changing rapidly and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has agreed on a base erosion and profit shifting (Beps) action plan that could affect businesses operating in the UAE. The plan addresses the issue of artificial shifting of profits and its proposals… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has expressed concern about the possible broader implications of the European Commission’s (EC’s) ruling against Apple. In a statement published on September 1, the ICC warned that unprecedented rulings of this nature fall outside the scope of the recommendations of the OECD’s base erosion… – Continue reading
Officials said around 192 requests had been sent to a number of countries, while another dozen were being processed as part of their investigation. The Income Tax Department on Sunday said it had invoked several tax information treaties and made around 200 requests to collect banking- and finance-related evidence on… – Continue reading
After state aid inquiries into Amazon and McDonald’s, EU looks again at Luxembourg The European Commission may open a fresh investigation into tax rulings offered by Luxembourg as early as this week, as EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager continues her clampdown against corporate tax avoidance. Luxembourg is already awaiting a… – Continue reading
India and Vietnam on Saturday inked a dozen of agreements, including protocol on double taxation avoidance agreement, to foster better ties between the two sides. India and Vietnam on Saturday inked a dozen of agreements, including protocol on double taxation avoidance agreement, to foster better ties between the two sides…. – Continue reading
The issue of tax havens is inherently international in scope. As a result, the government can use tax agreements to fight tax avoidance schemes. Unfortunately, tax agreements haven’t been used for that purpose. On the contrary, they have facilitated the outflow of Canadian money to offshore financial centres, and have… – Continue reading
CRUNCHERS SOUTH LONDON, a licensee of Crunchers Accountants, has become the first accounting service in the UK to receive the Fair Tax Mark award for reporting and paying fair corporation tax. The Fair Tax Mark, established in 2014, is an independent accreditation process that assesses companies’ corporation tax practices and… – Continue reading
The Government is being blasted as weak, for not taking action on companies dodging tax. Apple has been slapped with a $20 billion tax bill in Ireland, which has led to questions about whether tax avoidance is also happening in New Zealand. Prime Minister John Key said we could face… – Continue reading
Turkmenistan and Germany signed an agreement on avoidance of double taxation with respect to income and property taxes in Berlin, the Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary(TDH) state news agency reported. According to the message, the signing ceremony took place as part of the two-day working visit of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to… – Continue reading
Pakistan will sign Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters with OECD on September 14 as the Federal Cabinet formally approved this on Wednesday. Minister for Finance Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar termed the decision a historic one while briefing a crowded press conference regarding decisions of Federal Cabinet… – Continue reading
A coalition of Silicon Valley tech companies has urged the Dutch Government against making changes to the most “attractive” features of its corporate tax regime, warning that it risks damaging its traditionally strong tax competitiveness by doing so. The Silicon Valley Tax Directors Group (SVTDG), which includes more than 80… – Continue reading
Disclosures under the MAP are aimed at improving dispute resolution mechanism and are part of global initiative on base erosion and profit shifting. India will soon disclose the number of disputes being negotiated under the mutual agreement procedures (MAP) of tax treaties as well as details of the time being… – Continue reading
For the last three years, the international debate on tax policy was all about consensus. Led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, countries across the globe agreed that aggressive tax planning by multinational corporations which pushed profits into low-tax countries – or indeed took profits outside the charge… – Continue reading
Under EU rules it is illegal for countries to give financial help to some companies and not others in a way that distorts fair competition, writes Liza Lovdahl Gormsen. State aid rules were originally designed to protect the internal EU market and avoid retaliation among member states. The US Treasury,… – Continue reading
The US has warned the EU that it risks damaging international agreements on tax reform if it continues to act as a “supra-national tax authority”. The US Treasury Department “shares the European Commission’s concern with tax avoidance by multinational firms. The international community, including the EU and its member states,… – Continue reading
Talks have begun between the US and Irish governments about updating certain elements of the Double Tax treaty between the two countries. The existing treaty was signed in 1997 and a Protocol to the treaty was signed in 1999. The Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners are calling for… – Continue reading
Five more governments have signed up to an international convention on cooperating with tax authorities around the world, bringing the number of participating jurisdictions to 103. The OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters is a wide-reaching agreement to exchange information about taxpayers between authorities either on request… – Continue reading
As Brussels is slated to deliver a verdict next month on Apple and other US companies for evading billions of pounds in taxes, the US Treasury Department has warned the European Commission (EU) about taking such action. In a white paper commissioned by US Treasury secretary Jack Lew, the Obama… – Continue reading
You might think the Panama Papers leak would cause the ultrarich to seek more transparent tax havens. Not so, according to Jordan Greenaway, a consultant based in London who caters to the ultrawealthy. Instead, they are going further underground, seeking walled-up havens such as the Marshall Islands, Lebanon, and Antigua,… – Continue reading
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod for signing of revised double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with Cyprus, a popular tax haven. It is also learnt to have approved the removal of island nation as a non-cooperative jurisdiction for income-tax purpose. Cyprus was the only country to have been… – Continue reading
Regulators in Europe and the US say that the value Amazon places on the technology behind user experience varies radically depending on which appraisal will lower its tax bill. Jeff Bezos’s relentless focus on user experience has helped him make Amazon the most valuable e-commerce company in the world. But… – Continue reading
Tougher stance follows Theresa May’s leadership campaign promise to be more punitive of tax evasion and avoidance The Treasury is proposing new rules to punish offshore tax evaders who fail to come clean about their finances before September 2018, with fines of up to 200% of the amount owed. Published… – Continue reading
On August 22, 2016, Liechtenstein filed its instrument of ratification of the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on country-by-country (CbC) reporting. With the move, Liechtenstein will be able to share the information contained in the CbC reports with tax treaty partners that have implemented the necessary reporting standards. Liechtenstein was among… – Continue reading
New research shows that financial institutions are generally confident about meeting existing and incoming automatic exchange of information obligations. However, the study also found that a significant proportion of the industry is facing higher costs and risking fines by being under-prepared for new compliance requirements. The research by Aberdeen Group… – Continue reading
Switzerland has informed Italy of its desire to sign the bilateral agreement on the taxation of cross-border commuters. The point was made by Didier Burkhalter, the head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, during a meeting with the Italian Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni. They discussed bilateral issues, Switzerland’s policy… – Continue reading
The UK’s crown dependencies and overseas territories are unlikely to suffer following the Brexit vote, and may even be a model for a post-EU UK says Richard Wilson QC Even before the UK’s decision to leave the EU, offshore jurisdictions faced a number of significant challenges: increased pressure to provide… – Continue reading
THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT will keep value-added tax (VAT) exemptions for three key sectors, but may opt to remove this benefit from senior citizens and others to arrive at a “fair” tax regime. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters late last week that the government is looking to trim… – Continue reading
The U.K. government has been consulting on a proposed “Interest Restriction” rule which will limit the amount of interest expense U.K. companies will be allowed to offset against their income for tax purposes (to 30% of their taxable earnings before interest, tax and amortization). The second consultation phase on the… – Continue reading
Democrats are likely to object to the House GOP’s and Donald Trump’s plans for sharply lower rates President Ronald Reagan once chided government’s approach to the economy as following this mantra: “If it moves, tax it.” Today’s Republicans are following Mr. Reagan’s ideas by trying the exact opposite approach. The… – Continue reading
Assessing the Hong Kong – Russia Double Taxation Agreement: Another Step Towards Amplifying China’s Eurasian Connection The long-awaited Comprehensive Double Taxation Agreement (CDTA) between Hong Kong and Russia entered into force on July 29, 2016. The agreement will take effect on April 1, 2017 in Hong Kong and January… – Continue reading
Apple is a major part of why the United States is the world’s leading innovator on new technologies, particularly those involving telecommunications and computers. The company has over 66,000 domestic employees, and a large percentage of its customers are here — at least 40 percent, according to its latest annual… – Continue reading
City firms that help businesses run tax avoidance schemes could face huge financial penalties under fresh Government proposals. Banks, accountancy firms and lawyers could be forced to hand over underpaid tax if they are found to have broken the law. Currently, advisers who facilitate tax avoidance by exploiting loopholes and… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: In a major development, Pakistan has been formally offered to sign and ratify a 98-countries’ convention — “Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters” — to check tax evasion and tax avoidance by any of its nationals living in any of the member countries. Signing the convention… – Continue reading
Companies doing business in Luxembourg will be required to file global tax information now that the nation has released draft legislation to implement new international tax reporting rules. The rules—known as country-by-country reporting—would require companies to submit a global blueprint outlining the location of their operations, taxes paid, income earned,… – Continue reading
