The UK tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has warned taxpayers to avoid disguised remuneration schemes that attempt to recharacterize loan arrangements to avoid the 2019 loan charge on disguised remuneration. “HMRC is aware of schemes that claim to avoid the 2019 loan charge on disguised remuneration. These schemes… – Continue reading
The UK tax man has raised almost an extra £30 billion in the past year from cracking down on avoidance. The boost came in a year that saw HM Revenue & Customs collect a record £574.9 billion in taxes from individuals and businesses. The tax take was £38.1 billion up… – Continue reading
I am a trustee of an offshore trust settled by a UK resident, non-UK domiciled settlor (with no UK origins) for the benefit of himself and his family. He previously opted to be taxed on the remittance basis. The trust holds only offshore investments. The settlor lent monies to the… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs’ new online Trusts Registration Service is now up and running, and beginning to get the attention of trust providers in a big way. Here, tax commentator Gerry Brown looks at the new regulations, and what they will mean for those in the trusts industry. The UK… – Continue reading
Amazon has refused to reveal how much it paid in total UK tax last year after it emerged it actually got a rebate of £1.3million. The online giant, which three years ago pledged to stop using a controversial tax avoidance scheme, admitted it had paid just £7million in corporation tax… – Continue reading
As part of the Irish Budgetary process, officials from the Finance Department have published a paper on the implications of Brexit for Ireland’s tax system. The paper was prepared for consideration by the Tax Strategy Group (TSG), an interdepartmental committee chaired by the Finance Department. The papers produced by the… – Continue reading
The UK will not engage in aggressive tax competition to attract business post-Brexit, Chancellor Philip Hammond has said. He added that the country’s economy will remain aligned with the European model after leaving the EU. “It is often said that London would consider launching into unfair competition in terms of… – Continue reading
Computer scientists have worked to uncover the way the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Singapore and Switzerland, in particular, are used by multinationals to channel investments onto well-known offshore centres (OFCs). According to the research which was first reported by online journal Quartz, the five countries are used by multinationals to… – Continue reading
Business group Ibec has said that the Irish Government must “Brexit proof” its 2018 Budget, improve its foreign direct investment model, and implement a range of tax reforms to compete with the UK. Publishing the group’s pre-Budget submission, Ibec Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Fergal O’Brien said: “The Irish… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance by multinationals is better dealt with by an international treaty than harsher measures brought in by Australia and the United Kingdom, Revenue Minister Judith Collins says. In an interview with TV3’s The Nation, the minister said she had not ruled out the idea of diverted profit tax, which… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has released guidance on a change to value-added tax rules to tax services used outside the EU by UK consumers. The changes, which were introduced in the Spring Budget 2017, will affect suppliers of mobile telecommunication services, private consumers, and non-business users who consume telecommunication… – Continue reading
THE BENEFITS OF NON-DOMICILE STATUS An individual who is resident but not domiciled in the UK does not pay tax on overseas income and gains, as long as they are kept outside the UK and are not used to provide benefits in the UK. This is called the remittance basis… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has collected more than £4bn through its controversial ‘pay now, dispute later’ accelerated payment notices rules, for people who have used a tax avoidance scheme. HMRC said that more than 75,000 accelerated payment notices (APNs) have been issued to people under enquiry for tax avoidance… – Continue reading
Expats can claim pension tax relief as long as they are still resident in the UK. Residence is a matter of fact rather than choice and depends on the result of the statutory residence test. Expats who are not resident in the UK cannot claim pension tax relief How do… – Continue reading
Andrew Howard, Ropes & Gray tax partner, discusses the UK’s new corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent tax evasion, which goes into effect in September 2017. Click here to view video. Transcript: The UK’s new corporate offence of failure to prevent facilitation of tax evasion is quite a mouthful,… – Continue reading
Passing on your inheritance and your place of residence – the tax minefield QUESTION: I was born in Belfast and now live in Dublin. I have 2 children who both live in Dublin and I am contemplating retiring to Northern Ireland. Is there a difference between the Inheritance tax systems… – Continue reading
UK wealth managers “are quietly scaling back access to offshore accounts for their clients”, as the global crackdown on tax havens, of which the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard is a major component, “gathers pace”, the Financial Times is reporting today, citing research it commissioned. The American tax legislation known as… – Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — On June 13, the first Double Taxation Agreement was signed between the Kyrgyz Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by British Ambassador Robin Ord-Smith and Kyrgyz Minister of Economy Arzybek Kojoshev, the British Embassy in Bishkek said. This Double Taxation Agreement represents… – Continue reading
The amount of disputed tax relating to the transfer pricing of the U.K.’s largest businesses has risen 60 percent in the past year, according to law firm Pinsent Masons. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the U.K.’s tax authority, is reviewing as much as 3.8 billion pounds ($4.9 billion) of large… – Continue reading
The first set of ‘hidden’ financial data about Britons living abroad is set to be handed to the UK’s Revenue & Customs later today, as part of the global transparency drive that has been introduced via a series of information sharing agreements across the world’s financial centres. As a result,… – Continue reading
The finance minister says federal government doesn’t “want to wait for the next Panama Papers.” Canada’s finance minister denounced “unfair” tax loopholes on Thursday and put Bay St. on notice that the Liberal government is committed to addressing “blind spots” and exposing shadowy corporate finances to public scrutiny. “We don’t… – Continue reading
The UK Conservative Party has outlined plans to “legislate for tougher regulation of tax advisory firms.” In its Manifesto last week, the ruling Conservative Party said: “We have taken vigorous action against tax avoidance and evasion, closing the tax gap the difference between the amount of tax due and the… – Continue reading
The U.K’s diverted profits tax was dubbed the ‘Google Tax’ even before its introduction in April 2015. Yet instead of netting foreign tech companies engaged in complex tax planning such as California-based Google Inc., only U.K. multinational companies outside the technology sector have issued warnings so far over the tax… – Continue reading
The Criminal Finance Act 2017 received Royal Assent on April 27, 2017, making its way onto the statute book before the halting of Parliamentary business ahead of this year’s general election. As well as giving enforcement agencies further powers to recover the proceeds of crime and tackle money laundering, the… – Continue reading
Guidance on new financial reporting standards are to be published on the Ministry of Finance website later this month, the Alternative Investment Management Association said yesterday. The news came in an update on Aima Bermuda’s knowledge networking session on common reporting standards held last month. A spokesman for Aima said… – Continue reading
This article is the first of a series of articles that looks at tax aspects of the UK company which make it an attractive international business company, or “IBC”. This generic label, and its acronym, are normally associated with the BVI company, and its international competitors. An essential feature of… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs has updated the International Tax Compliance Regulations to include provisions on new automatic tax information exchange agreements and to clarify how non-compliance penalties will apply. The amendment clarifies due diligence and reporting requirements for financial institutions, to ensure the UK complies with international tax reporting standards,… – Continue reading
A high percentage of UK executives are unaware of the impending introduction of new laws which could make a business’s failure to prevent tax evasion by its employees and agents a criminal offence, according to research by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. In a YouGov poll of more… – Continue reading
Starting on April 27, and finishing on May 2, the European Parliament (EP)’s Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) is holding two meetings to present several related studies which address the impact of, and the fight against, tax evasion and money laundering, particularly in… – Continue reading
The UK parliament passed a truncated version of the finance bill (budget) for 2017 last Tuesday after strong opposition to the original bill. The removal of 72 of the 135 clauses allowed the bill to glide through the UK parliament in just two hours. A significant number of the 72… – Continue reading
Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley released after HMRC investigation Offices at St James’ Park and club training ground raided by tax authorities The offices of Newcastle United and West Ham United were raided on Wednesday morning and Chelsea confirmed they were asked to provide information as part of a wide-ranging… – Continue reading
Many of the data submissions made by early adopters over the next two months under the new common reporting standard (CRS) are likely to be rejected and returned for correction and resubmission, adding to compliance costs, according to predictions from Sovos, a global tax compliance solution provider The UK is… – Continue reading
The overwhelming majority of people in G-20 countries believe that cooperation between governments on tax policy is more important than competition to increase national tax revenue. According to a survey by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the preference for cooperation over competition is strongest in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France,… – Continue reading
New measures targeting trust companies and banks in their role of helping to create offshore companies, such as the more than 200,000 exposed in the year-old Panama Papers, should be the priority for EU legislators in their efforts to crack down on the use of tax haven intermediaries, according to… – Continue reading
People earning more than £70,000-a-year could be forced to pay more tax if Labour wins power, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell hinted today. He stressed Labour wanted a “fair taxation system” which would see corporations and the rich “pay their way more”. Asked to define rich, Mr McDonnell said they would… – Continue reading
SIX Financial Information announced that has launched a new Common Reporting Standard (CRS)/ Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) data service, enabling financial institutions to meet the requirements which are being phased in from June 2017. The SIX CRS/AEoI service identifies CRS-reportable client income by flagging relevant corporate actions, simplifying resource-intensive… – Continue reading
A new report from Transparency International has revealed that more than US$2.7 billion worth of property in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, is hidden behind shell companies, many of which have close links to the United Kingdom, which has many offshore tax havens in its overseas dependencies. Using newly released… – Continue reading
A new report from Transparency International has revealed that more than US$2.7 billion worth of property in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, is hidden behind shell companies, many of which have close links to the United Kingdom, which has many offshore tax havens in its overseas dependencies. Using newly released… – Continue reading
HMRC is to renew and extend the scope of the double taxation treaty passport (DTTP) scheme, which will now be available to all UK borrowers who are required to withhold income tax at the basic rate on certain loan interest payments to overseas lenders from 6 April 2017 The DTTP… – Continue reading
Seventy-four percent of UK executives surveyed by KPMG said they see Ireland as having one of the top three most competitive tax regimes. KPMG has published the findings of its Annual Survey of Tax Competitiveness 2016, which are based on interviews with 100 senior tax decision makers in the largest… – Continue reading
HMRC has launched a new hotline for the public to report fraud and evasion, replacing the existing two separate tax evasion and customs hotlines with one, in a bid to streamline information gathering on tax fraud. Individuals can report all kinds of tax fraud and evasion on the new hotline,… – Continue reading
Dedicated technical experts from the UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will visit all English Premier League, Championship and Scottish Premier League clubs over a three year period and review all compliance risks including payments to players, the government has said. The statement was made in Treasury Minutes containing the… – Continue reading
HMRC has launched its Making Tax Digital for business pilot to test out its new reporting system, with a year to go before businesses with turnovers above the VAT threshold are required to switch to digital records and provide quarterly summary updates from April 2019 This month HMRC says it… – Continue reading
Citizens in G20 countries would prefer their government engage in international efforts to improve the functioning of international tax rules than compete for tax receipts, says a new survey. G20 public trust in tax, a report compiled by the ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), IFAC (the International Federation… – Continue reading
ANALYSIS: US-style deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) should be introduced in Scotland to deal with corporate offending, according to a recent report by the global Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Foreign bribery should attract significant penalties, and Scotland’s civil settlement regime is potentially too lenient, according to the report,… – Continue reading
Google says it paid 36.4m (AUD59.8m) in UK corporation tax in the last financial year, as the internet firm’s operations in this country remain mired in controversy. The US company, which was revealed early last year to have done a 130m (AUD213.7m) deal with the taxman covering 10 years of… – Continue reading
Denton warns people of the long-term implications of stripping down their pension A new double tax treaty (DTA) between the UK and the UAE, which becomes effective April 6, will allow UAE residents to access their UK pension free of UK income tax, according to an expert. David Denton, Head… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is planning to make its Double Taxation Treaty Passport (DTTP) scheme available to all UK borrowers following a consultation on a legislative amendment. The DTTP scheme provides for Double Taxation Relief on UK loan interest payments made by a UK corporate borrower to overseas corporate… – Continue reading
Governments around the world are losing as much as half a trillion US dollars (£400 billion) a year in tax revenue due to so-called “profit shifting” by multinational companies, according to research. The research published by the Tax Justice Network found that poorer countries were hardest-hit by the practice, which… – Continue reading
The 2017 Finance Bill was published on Monday 20 March, introducing dozens of initiatives with a focus on improving and modernising the tax system The Treasury said the bill, which is over 700 pages in length, “continues the government’s crackdown on tax avoidance” and “improves the fairness of the tax… – Continue reading
