Category: North America

Russia Approves Direct Information Exchange on US Taxpayers

MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, on Wednesday authorized the direct exchange of information between Russian banks and US tax authorities on US taxpayers. The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires foreign banks to supply the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)… – Continue reading

Canadian industry claims win in long fight over U.S. crackdown on tax evasion

Canada’s investment and banking industries hailed a key victory Tuesday in five-year fight to dull the impact of onerous new U.S. tax rules expected to affect about a million Canadian residents and dual citizens. A newly ratified inter-governmental agreement with the United States excludes registered accounts for education, retirement, and… – Continue reading

Taiwan is an ‘Agreements in Substance’ nation of FATCA

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC, 金融監督管理委員會) yesterday stated that Taiwan is currently recognized by the United States of America as an “Agreements in Substance” nation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The status allows Taiwanese financial institutions and their patrons to be exempted from a 30 percent withholding… – Continue reading

Your Taxes: Israel to sign tax treaty with Panama

With regard to business operations, a resident of one country (e.g., Panamanian company) may be taxed in the other country (e.g., Israel) if it has a “permanent establishment” (PE) in the other country. Panama is famous for its canal, colorful history and cool offshore tax regime. To that we can… – Continue reading

Russian Banks to Help U.S. Tax Service After New FATCA Law Passed

The State Duma on Friday passed legislation allowing Russian banks to pass information on their U.S. clients to the U.S. tax service, as demanded by FATCA, a law that drags banks around the world into the U.S. fight against tax evasion. But lawmakers were not keen to bend over backwards for the U.S. Under the legislation, authorities will be able to veto the transfer… – Continue reading

IRS Will Now Accept an ‘I Was Clueless’ Defense for Offshore Tax Evaders

As the Justice Department winds down its eight-year crusade against Swiss banks selling offshore tax-dodging services to wealthy Americans, the Internal Revenue Service is offering its own parting gift: softer penalties for taxpayers who come out of the woodwork to disclose their secret accounts. Call it the advent of the… – Continue reading

US Congress to deny federal contracts to Bermuda-based offshore companies — plan

Bermuda has again been singled out and labelled “a tax haven” by US legislators as they last week attached an amendment to US federal funding measures, seeking to block federal contracts to former American companies involved in corporate inversions. A leading publisher of financial information, Bankrate Inc, reported at Bankrate.com:… – Continue reading

New Zealand Concludes FATCA IGA

New Zealand has signed a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act intergovernmental agreement with the United States, which will minimize compliance costs for financial institutions in New Zealand. The agreement includes a waiver for certain account types that are deemed to be low risk. The IGA will facilitate information exchange under… – Continue reading

US taxpayers in Nepal come under IRS scrutiny

KATHMANDU: US taxpayers, including US citizens, firms and green card holders, living in or operating from Nepal will come under close scrutiny of the US taxman from now onwards. Issuing a circular today, Nepal Rastra Bank directed all Nepali banks and financial institutions to provide bank account information of US taxpayers living… – Continue reading

Tax date looms for Americans in Canada

Tax season is over for Canadians, but Americans living in Canada – even those with Canadian citizenship – still face complex filing obligations imposed by U.S. authorities. And it could be a punishing weekend for anyone who has not begun preparing for Monday’s deadline. “Americans living in Canada are required… – Continue reading

NZ signs FATCA agreement with the US

New Zealand financial institutions’ FATCA obligations are clarified with today’s signing of a NZ/US intergovernmental agreement (IGA).  The long-awaited agreement comes not a moment too soon, with the 1 July implementation date just over two weeks away. FATCA’s global reach FATCA (short for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) is a… – Continue reading

FATCA Hurts Law-Abiding Americans Abroad: Heritage

The Heritage Foundation has issued a report to demonstrate how the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is hurting Americans living abroad, and has recommended that it should be reformed. In particular, Heritage noted that FATCA is burdening Americans living overseas with “enormous financial and legal burdens” through… – Continue reading

The Top 5 Texas Companies Using Offshore Tax Havens–And Where They’re Hiding Their Money

Last week, the TexPIRG Education Fund and the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice released a new report examining in detail how Fortune 500 companies in the United States are using offshore havens to avoid paying the taxes they owe the federal government. According to the report, an astounding 72% of American Fortune… – Continue reading

Partners against crime: UAE, US sign innovative agreement on tax evasion

The UAE has reached an initial agreement with the US to carry out a financial data-sharing programme aimed at curbing offshore tax evasion by US citizens. The Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday that the two countries had negotiated an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) in substance to implement the US’s Foreign… – Continue reading

South Africa, US Conclude FATCA IGA

On June 9, 2014, South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Musa Nene and the US Ambassador to South Africa, Patrick H. Gaspard, signed an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) to support international efforts to improve tax compliance. The agreement includes provisions allowing the reciprocal exchange of information, which requires that financial institutions in… – Continue reading

Intergovernmental FATCA agreement signed

Revenue Minister Todd McClay and United States Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Marie Damour, today signed an intergovernmental-agreement (IGA) which will minimise compliance costs to financial institutions in New Zealand while assist in the prevention of tax evasion. The IGA is in response to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) information-reporting… – Continue reading

Advising The ‘Accidental Americans’

In an ever-increasing globalized world, more and more people are finding themselves working outside their home countries. There are estimated to be over 6 million American citizens living outside the U.S. As a financial advisor, no matter where you work in the world, if you are dealing with clients or… – Continue reading

Azerbaijan, IRS to ink additional confidentiality agreement

Azerbaijan and the U.S. Internal Revenue Office (IRS) will sign an additional agreement on confidentiality under the intergovernmental agreement on implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) by Azerbaijani banks by September 30, 2015. The news was announced by Azerbaijani Taxes Ministry last week. “It is known that the… – Continue reading

Global FATCA Push by IRS

The IRS had made a worldwide push to get information about offshore accounts over $50,000 of American taxpayers, using the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. Commentator Rob Wood discusses the new effort in his Forbes article, “IRS Nets Offshore Data Wood underscores the point that U.S. citizens abroad… – Continue reading

FATCA Causes First Russian Bank To Cut US Clients

With Russia unlikely to be able to conclude a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the United States in the foreseeable future, and subject to the country’s current law on tax information exchange, VTB has become the first Russian bank to disclose that it is reducing… – Continue reading

SA clamps down on offshore tax evasion

SA and the US have signed an intergovernmental agreement aimed at improving international tax compliance Yesterday a reciprocal agreement was signed by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and Patrick Gaspard, US Ambassador to SA that will force local financial institutions to report information about US account holders to the SA Revenue… – Continue reading

European Commission to investigate Apple’s Ireland tax haven – report

Additional details on the allegedly impending investigation from the European Commission were not shared by the initial source, Ireland’s RTE, according to Reuters. A formal announcement of the investigation is expected to follow.It’s already been established through other investigations that Apple has not broken any laws in utilizing Ireland as a tax haven,… – Continue reading

EC to Investigate Apple’s (AAPL) Ireland Tax Haven: Report

Irish state broadcaster RTE reports that the European Commission had decided to launch a formal investigation into Apple (AAPL)’s tax arrangements in Ireland. An announcement is expected by EU’s Competition Commissioner to follow: “The European Commission is to open a formal investigation into Apple’s tax arrangements with Ireland. An announcement is expected to… – Continue reading