Argentina and Belgium have separately accused HSBC bank’s Geneva branch of setting up a network of offshore accounts to help their citizens avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes. The Belgian charges were filed Monday and the Argentine charges were announced Friday. HSBC, formerly known as Hong Kong & Shanghai… – Continue reading
When is a Chinese company not Chinese? When it’s a complex web of offshore vehicles rooted in anonymous tax havens. That description includes some of the People’s Republic’s most successful and innovative companies. It will make the country’s apparent new push on tax evasion hard to enforce. Authorities have extracted… – Continue reading
French magistrates examining whether the bank helped wealthy clients avoid a new tax, the European Union Savings Directive French judges have put the Swiss branch of HSBC under official investigation over allegations that Britain’s biggest bank helped wealthy clients avoid taxes. It was revealed on Friday that the unit had… – Continue reading
MOSCOW — There is nothing new about offshore tax shelters. In ancient Athens, after the government decided to levy a 2% tax on all trade operations, merchants started avoiding the city, conducting business on the surrounding islands instead. Those Greek islands became the first offshore tax havens. The current offshore… – Continue reading
The Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between Japan and the British Virgin Islands came into effect on October 11 2014. Authority and scope The BVI-Japan TIEA is essentially consistent with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standard model template for TIEAs. It provides for assistance through exchange of information… – Continue reading
Belgian authorities have charged a Swiss subsidiary of HSBC with serious and organised fiscal fraud, money laundering, criminal organisation and illegal financial intermediary. Belgian prosecutors say HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) cheated the state by wooing very wealthy clients particularly in diamond businesses in Antwerp. The bank is said to have… – Continue reading
Expats have a range of choices – so how do they find a safe home for their assets? The traditional use of offshore centres as a way of enabling better tax planning – and even tax evasion – has all but fallen away. An increasing desire for countries to share… – Continue reading
The British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”) has now enacted legislation which allows for the implementation of its commitments under the Model 1B (i.e. non-reciprocal) intergovernmental agreements with the United States, signed on 30 June 2014, (the “US IGA”) and with the United Kingdom, signed on 28 November 2013, (the “UK… – Continue reading
Aparajita Basak, the manager, of research analytics, innovation and knowledge centre at Frost & Sullivan, talks about the use of tax havens across the world for Indian black money. What kind of role do tax havens play in black money in terms of Indian companies and individuals? Across the world,… – Continue reading
This publication provides a brief overview of the expected impact on entities incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”) of (a) the foreign account tax compliance provisions (“FATCA”) of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, 2010 of the United States of America (the “US”); and (b) equivalent rules… – Continue reading
Financial institutions based in certain British Overseas Territories (BOTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) will be subject to stricter reporting requirements covering accounts held with them by UK resident non-UK domiciled taxpayers from 2016 if specific “carve outs” are not negotiated, an expert has said.31 Oct 2014 Private wealth tax Tax… – Continue reading
In front of European Commissioners, leading politicians, chief executives of huge multinationals, senior bank bosses and billionaires, the Egyptian investment tycoon was asked to set the tone of the forum, a three-day lobbying event funded by the EU. Dr Heikal is founder and chairman of Qalaa, an African investment fund… – Continue reading
Financial institutions including fund managers will need to up the ante on client due diligence and bolster investor reporting following the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) agreement on the automatic exchange of information. The OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) will force national authorities in the 51 signatory states… – Continue reading
Offshore Incorporations Limited (OIL), a division of OV Group, a company formation and corporate service specialist focused on serving the financial and professional intermediary sectors, has released its fifth annual market research report “Offshore 2020”. This year, over 300 global senior industry stakeholders were surveyed, highlighting major trends and providing… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Even as the present debate over black money is focused mostly around the names of 628 Indians with account in HSBC, Geneva, the authorities have a list of another 612 Indians with accounts in tax havens around the world. The names of these 612 Indians emerged in 2013… – Continue reading
Bellary: While Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley has warned the Congress it could be embarrassed once the names of people holding illegal foreign accounts are made public, local mining industry sources say the BJP too could be in for some embarassment as its once powerful leader and jailed mining czar,… – Continue reading
Reports from Vanuatu say an entertainment company with interests in China is to offer a new style of gambling to Vanuatu. The Daily Post Newspaper reports Amax International Holdings plans to offer live-dealer online gambling to high-rollers in the country. Amax is an investment holding company engaged in gambling and… – Continue reading
Nearly 105,000 financial institutions are listed on the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) database of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) organisations complying with the tax reporting rules for US citizens. The latest list was published on October 1, 2014 by the IRS and shows 104,344 financial organisations have signed… – Continue reading
After announcing Ohio-based Steris Co.’s plans to become British for tax purposes on Monday, CEO Walter Rosenbrough later said on a conference call, “We’re not typically users of aggressive tax policies and I don’t think we are here.” That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it. But even a cursory… – Continue reading
A failed property development is linked to a tax haven company that triggered an alleged money laundering probe into a wealthy businessman. Albany Heights, more than 400 homes proposed to be built on Auckland’s North Shore, was marketed as an “investors’ dream” but companies connected to the project collapsed with… – Continue reading
TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2014 /CNW/ – The Global Citizen Forum 2014, hosted in Toronto, proved to be a launch platform for significant initiatives. On October 3, 2014, its second day, in front of more than 260 delegates, Mykolas Rambus, CEO, Wealth-X, announced the establishment of the Global Residence and Citizenship… – Continue reading
Further to our previous bulletin, following the Notification Ceremony on 11 September the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between the Government of Japan and the Government of the British Virgin Islands will come into effect on 11 October 2014. Following the coming into force of the TIEA both Japan and… – Continue reading
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”) is a European Union law that aims to harmonise the regulation of investment services across the member states of the European Economic Area and came into effect from 1 November 2007. Following the 2008 financial crisis, amendments to MiFID became the focus of… – Continue reading
The taxman is willing to “negotiate and strike a balance” with multinationals being audited for transfer pricing misconduct, a drive it says has a potential to realise over Sh30 billion. The Kenya Revenue Authority told a workshop organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Nairobi that this will… – Continue reading
The World Bank analysed the world’s biggest corruption scandals over that past two decades. Seventy per cent involved anonymous shell companies Take a guess at how much is lost to developing countries each year through international corruption? $1 billion, maybe $10? Even more? The shocking truth is that $1trn a… – 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
On 11 September 2014, Business BVI held its Annual Asia conference in Hong Kong — ‘Pivoting to Asia: the pathway to new opportunities’. Paul Christopher, managing partner of Mourant Ozannes’ Hong Kong office, appeared as a panellist in a key panel discussion on the event’s programme, entitled ‘The BVI-HK connection:… – 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
Banks in the British Virgin Islands are making it more difficulty for new accounts to be opened after a rise in reports of suspicious transactions relating to the Caribbean tax haven. Difficulties in opening bank accounts are seen to have helped business, including an increase in new incorporations, in the… – Continue reading
(Seychelles News Agency) – The Seychelles has become an early adopter of an agreement launched by the G5 group of countries – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – to automatically disclose details of individuals who have taxable income kept in offshore accounts. According to a press statement by Her Majesty’s… – Continue reading
The British Virgin Islands’ (BVI) corporate statute is ideally suited for international listings. BVI companies have been used widely for listings on international stock exchanges in New York, London, Singapore and Oslo. They have been especially popular for listings on the world’s most successful growth market, the LSE’s Alternative Investment… – Continue reading
Aug. 28 — The hardest part about forming an offshore company in the Republic of Seychelles may be coming up with a catchy name.Luckily for applicants, that can be a multiple choice question.Seychelles, a nation of islands off the east coast of Africa, is gaining popularity as a tax haven,… – Continue reading
This article was first published in the 2nd quarter 2014 edition of Personal Finance magazine. Most people accept that they have to pay taxes in their country of residence. But citizens of the United States and green card holders who live outside that country – even if they have never… – 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
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
In March 2014, the British Virgin Islands Government announced that it had concluded negotiations with the US with respect to a Model 1B Intergovernmental Agreement with the United States (the IGA). The IGA (which was eventually signed on 30 June 2014) provides the framework for the implementation of the US Foreign… – Continue reading
Property in England and Wales worth £122bn or more is held through companies in offshore tax jurisdictions where ownership is tricky to establish, according to Land Registry data analysed by the Financial Times. The detailed report showed that around two-thirds of the 91,248 foreign-company owned properties were held through the… – Continue reading
The BVI Government has signed a Model 1B (non-reciprocal) Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) in relation to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), it was announced on 30 June 2014. The IGA can be accessed here. As expected the final IGA is in substantially the same form as the model agreement. There… – Continue reading
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) government entered into its twenty-sixth tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with the Government of Japan on 18 June 2014. This new TIEA is not present in force but will enter into force on the thirtieth day after completion of the domestic implementation procedures by both… – Continue reading
Calls for crackdown as investigation finds huge Indonesian corporations evading tax through network of secret shell companies in British Virgin Islands and other tax havens Giant Asian logging companies that make billions from destroying rainforests use a labyrinth of secret shell companies based in a UK overseas territory, the British Virgin… – Continue reading
Against global trends, gradual growth in both the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) merger and acquisition (“M&A”) activity continued through 2013, led by flagship deals in both established and emerging markets. The flexibility, certainty and efficiency of the statutory merger regimes make both of these leading offshore… – Continue reading
United States Intergovernmental Agreement The British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) Government on 6 March 2014 initialled a “Model 1 intergovernmental agreement” (the “BVI-US IGA”) with the government of the United States of America with respect to the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (“FATCA”), designed to… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands continue to be the pre-eminent offshore jurisdiction for hedge funds. Around 85 per cent of the world’s hedge funds are domiciled in the Cayman Islands, enabling the jurisdiction to outrank competing offshore centres (the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and Jersey among them) as the top spot for… – Continue reading
The bitter marital split of aviation tycoon Clive Joy has highlighted the issue the role tax efficient offshore trusts can play in lengthy High Court divorces. Recently aviation tycoon Clive Joy hit the headlines, but not for his expertise in aerospace issues. It was because in the course of a bitter… – Continue reading
The schedule of the Russian parliament has been updated yet again and it appears that forex dealing regulation is coming back to the fray. According to recent reports by Russian media there might be some key amendments aimed to limit the participation of brokers residing in offshore financial centres (OFCs)…. – Continue reading
Deadlines are fast approaching for funds to comply with FATCA, the IRS announced an April 25 deadline for fund managers to register their offshore funds and offshore master funds with the IRS. Funds have until May 5 2014 to get their Global Intermediary Identification Numbers. Notably, the IRS has also… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department added 19 nations to its list of countries that have reached agreements with the U.S. on carrying out a far-reaching law aimed at preventing offshore tax dodging by American citizens. The Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service said the 19 nations – including Australia, Brazil, South Africa… – Continue reading
The Tax Office is allowing Australians with money parked in offshore accounts to avoid harsh penalties by coming forward, in an amnesty program worth up to half a billion dollars. ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan will announce the program today, which will reduce the penalties for taxpayers who hand over information… – Continue reading
The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (the “FSC”) is advising the public that on 5 March, 2014, The Ukraine (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2014 was ratified and extended to the Territory by virtue of article 1 and Schedule 1 to the Order. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that this Order… – Continue reading
LONDON — They are the most expensive and luxurious flats in the whole of London. Their ultramodern bay windows offer an unobstructed view onto Hyde Park. An underground corridor connects them to the Mandarin Oriental, the palace where Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal has one of his prized restaurants. In total, the… – Continue reading
