Overview If you have been reading my articles on JD Supra for a while, you will know that I love Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Nevertheless, the Hall and Oates song Private Eyes, is a more fitting song to describe the state of offshore planning in Tax Havens than “Oye Como… – Continue reading
The Revenue has published its consultation on proposing to make companies criminally liable for failing to prevent their staff facilitating tax evasion The offence was first proposed in the 2015 Budget and was expected to come into effect in 2020. The Panama papers leak and subsequent scandal has put significant… – Continue reading
Gibraltar, a tiny British territory at Europe’s southern tip, is famous for its geography — a huge limestone rock — that appears on the Prudential logo. It’s a global center for offshore banking, with the trappings of wealth to prove it: Luxury high-rises tower over super yachts in Gibraltar’s marina. The… – Continue reading
The U.S. Treasury Department is finalising new tax rules aimed at combating the use of shell companies to evade taxes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Saturday amid increased pledges by global finance leaders to cooperate on tax issues. In a statement to the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee,… – Continue reading
As April 18 looms near, it’s hard not to have taxes weigh heavy on our minds. For a lot of Vermont small businesses, this day can be bittersweet. Paying taxes typically means that, as a business, you’ve made money; and for most small businesses that alone is an achievement. Small… – Continue reading
Nearly half of people say the Prime Minister’s handling of his finances was ‘morally repugnant’, according to our opinion poll, and they support public tax returns for all As the fallout from the fallout from the Panama Papers leak begins to settle, the Prime Minister is left contemplating the damage… – Continue reading
Less than two weeks after publication of the Panama Papers, a year-long investigation by hundreds of news organizations around the world, including the Star, cast a bright light on the world of offshore tax havens, a new report from Oxfam reveals how much money the 50 largest U.S. corporations have… – Continue reading
The release of the so-called Panama Papers has shone a light on the secretive world of offshore tax havens and shown the exhaustive lengths that companies and wealthy individuals will go to in an effort to avoid paying tax. The trove of documents leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack… – Continue reading
The UK Government will bring forward plans to introduce a new criminal offense for companies that fail to prevent their staff from facilitating tax evasion. Prime Minister David Cameron said that the offense will be introduced in legislation this year. Cameron explained: “This Government has done more than any other… – Continue reading
In the wake of the Panama Papers leak debates about the morality of taxation are back in vogue. Unlike tax evasion, tax avoidance is, by definition, legal. This is not the same thing as saying it’s acceptable. No one wants to live in a society where everything questionable is banned… – Continue reading
Businesses will be forced to declare how much they make in each European country and in certain tax havens as part of an attempt to curb schemes that shift profits out of the reach of tax collectors. The plan to introduce country-by-country reporting in Europe is the latest global curb… – Continue reading
The European Union’s executive wants thousands of multinationals to disclose in what member states they make money and pay taxes, an effort to close loopholes and crack down on the use of tax havens. Reacting to public anger over tax avoidance by some of the globe’s best-known companies and by… – Continue reading
Panama is a tax haven, but Mauritius is one with which India has a comprehensive double tax treaty. This complicates matters more. In popular Indian imagination, a tax haven is generally associated with Switzerland and its numbered bank accounts. But tax havens are numerous, have grown in importance, and are… – Continue reading
The chief of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday that the Panamanian government is expected to cooperate in international efforts to prevent tax avoidance after the revelation of the so-called Panama Papers. OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said in a press conference in Tokyo that… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance on a grand scale is nothing new – the US President Barak Obama has led the way in tackling the issue head on with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) since 2010. FATCA demands non-American financial institutions should hand over details about accounts and investments controlled by… – Continue reading
The Swiss-run humanitarian organisation International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has allegedly been used without its knowledge to mask the true beneficiaries of offshore accounts whose details were leaked in the Panama Papers. According to revelations by the Swiss papers Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung on Sunday, the ICRC… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Following the Panama Papers leak, India is seeking to restart talks with the Central American country on a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) that can help uncover information on wealth hidden away from public scrutiny. Talks with Panama on such an agreement aimed at information exchange on tax… – Continue reading
TOKYO — Measures to deter tax avoidance will be discussed at next week’s meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in light of the release of the Panama Papers, including expanding an information-sharing agreement to include Panama and other countries. The release of leaked documents from a… – Continue reading
BERLIN – A European Union official threatened Thursday to sanction Panama and other nations if they don’t cooperate fully to fight money laundering and tax evasion, after a leak of data showed the small country remains a key destination for people wanting to hide money. The 11.5 million documents from… – Continue reading
The release of the so-called “Panama Papers” – more than 11 million documents and personal files detailing financial information and offshore accounts of prominent individuals – dominated the international news cycle this week. It’s raised questions about the role of technology and the expectation of privacy. “We saw this in… – Continue reading
Much of the activity is legal, but it siphons away billions in tax revenue from government coffers The massive Panama Papers data leak shines a light not only on the dirty money being shuffled through tax havens, but also on the legal and common use of offshore accounts to significantly… – Continue reading
HMRC complicite in tax avoidance scheme after it emerged it rents its own office from tax haven based company A day on, the world is still reeling from the revelations of the Panama Papers leak, the full repercussions of which are yet to be felt. Eleven million documents leaked from… – Continue reading
As “Panama Papers” expose the world’s most prominent people engaging in murky deals, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday told the Indian industry to become more “transparent and credible” in its functioning. “With the G20 (countries’ new global transparency standard) and FATCA (the US’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) coming… – Continue reading
Panama and the U.S. have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money. Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists, regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape… – Continue reading
HSBC, Credit Suisse and the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned bank Coutts Trustees have denied claims they are helping clients avoid tax by using complex offshore structures following the leak of the Panama papers. The banks were named in a list of 500 lenders who investigative journalists said had helped to… – Continue reading
The Panama Papers–the biggest leak of financial data in history–has blown the lid off offshore tax havens, again. This time, those in the limelight include twelve current or former world leaders, many celebrities, and wealthy persons who are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth. In scope, this is… – Continue reading
March 31 — Minnesota Sen. John Marty (DFL) introduced legislation that would require corporations headquartered in 46 tax havens to be subject to the same taxation as domestic companies. While it’s still early in the legislative session—the bill was introduced March 29—a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce told… – Continue reading
It’s not just the Indian banks that business tycoon Vijay Mallya has taken for a ride. The chairman of United Breweries (UB) group and promoter of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines also concealed in his election affidavit, filed before the Rajya Sabha, his business interests in offshore tax havens elsewhere. dna… – Continue reading
The European Commission has concluded that selective tax advantages granted by Belgium under its ‘excess profit’ tax scheme are illegal under EU state aid rules. The European Commission is looking at Member States to assess compliance with EU state aid rules in the context of aggressive tax planning by multinationals,… – Continue reading
Twenty Caribbean and Latin American nations have been named by the U.S. as “major money laundering” countries in the 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) from the U.S. State Department released Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2016. A major money laundering is defined by statute as one “whose financial institutions engage… – Continue reading
The consul of Panama, John A. Gauci-Maistre, writing on behalf of the Panamanian foreign ministry has rejected claims that the country is a tax haven. “Panama is committed to the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion,” he said in a statement. It was pointed out that last… – Continue reading
Maltese individuals resident and domiciled for tax purposes, that is people whose permanent residence is in Malta, are required to pay tax in Malta on their worldwide income, according to the Income Tax Act. This essentially means that Minister Konrad Mizzi is required to pay tax on foreign earnings. However… – Continue reading
PANAMA’S most notorious moment as a haven for tainted cash came with the nationalisation of money-laundering in the 1980s under Manuel Noriega, a military strongman. It has since clamped down on egregious financial criminality, but remains home to thousands of secretive firms and famous for the discretion of its bankers… – Continue reading
Pfizer, one of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies in the world, recently announced plans to merge with Allegran, Plc, a pharmaceutical company based in Ireland. The new merged corporation, worth a total of $160 billion, will move its headquarters to Dublin, Ireland to avoid the U.S. government’s “double taxation” of… – Continue reading
Russia has come close to blacklisting the UK as a tax haven as concerns grow over Scotland’s booming offshore business. The Kremlin’s Finance Ministry had announced that it would officially equate Britain with traditional “fiscal paradises” like Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Caymans. Such a humiliating move would… – Continue reading
Just when you thought the banksters had done all they could to rig the game against people that bail them out, you hear another tale of industrial-strength greed. This time, the scam is so ironic it’s almost absurd. For almost a decade the U.S. government has been going around the… – Continue reading
The formal IRS/Department of Justice (DOJ) Swiss Bank Program has concluded with 80 Swiss banks coming forward. The banks agreed to provide information about personnel, depositors and advisors who were participated in or assisted U.S. taxpayers in offshore tax evasion. In addition to disclosure and cooperation with investigations each of… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Union Bancaire Privée, UBP SA (UBP), reached a resolution under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. UBP will pay a penalty of more than $187 million. “Today’s agreement marks the final resolution with UBP, which acknowledges its role in conspiring with U.S. taxpayers to… – Continue reading
Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse) SA agreed to pay $45.4 million to avoid prosecution for helping U.S. clients evade taxes, admitting it aided them in moving cash and using sham offshore entities to hide money from the Internal Revenue Service. Rothschild is the 68th Swiss bank to reach an accord with… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse) SA and Edmond de Rothschild (Lugano) SA (collectively EdR Switzerland) reached a joint resolution under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. EdR Switzerland will pay a penalty of more than $45 million. The Swiss Bank Program, which was announced on… – Continue reading
Three Swiss banks, including a unit of France’s Crédit Agricole SA, will pay a total of more than $130 million to the U.S. Justice Department to avoid possible prosecution for helping Americans evade taxes, the department said on Tuesday. The Zurich-based unit of Crédit Agricole will pay $99.2 million, the… – Continue reading
We have on several occasions fingered Panama as a particularly recalcitrant secrecy jurisdiction: our recent Panama Narrative Report spills a fair number of beans in that respect. Its recalcitrance is perhaps hardly surprising, given the quantity of Colombian and Mexican drugs money believed to be sheltered there – to name… – Continue reading
There are a variety of benefits to moving offshore, yet few would argue the assertion that tax neutrality is paramount among them. As anyone familiar with the phrase “tax haven” would surely recognize, many countries offer strongly favorable tax terms as an incentive to draw new business. Written by CT… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Cornèr Banca SA (Cornèr) and Bank Coop AG (Bank Coop) reached resolutions under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. The Swiss Bank Program, which was announced on Aug. 29, 2013, provides a path for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United… – Continue reading
An influential UK newspaper has called for Britain to force its Overseas Territories to create a public register of owners of companies. Chris Blackhurst, the group content director of a four-newspaper stable, writing in the London Evening Standard, said: “Only then, once we have put our own house in order,… – Continue reading
Amid all the diplomatic comings and goings on Syria and how to tackle Islamic State, an important but little-noticed high-level gathering has been taking place in London. The Overseas Territories were holding the fourth meeting of their Joint Ministerial Council at Lancaster House. Leaders from Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands,… – Continue reading
On the day he took office as Greece’s shipping minister in June 2012, Kostis Moussouroulis received a visit from a 90-year-old shipowner. He still remembers the older man’s words: “Don’t forget, the best minister of shipping and maritime affairs is the minister who is doing nothing for the shipping industry…. – Continue reading
Deutsche Bank AG’s Swiss unit agreed to pay $31 million to receive a non-prosecution agreement in a U.S. probe of banks in Switzerland that helped Americans evade taxes. The accord announced Tuesday by the Justice Department is the third-largest of 57 reached this year with Swiss banks. The firms, which… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Privatbank IHAG Zürich AG (IHAG) reached a resolution under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. IHAG will pay a penalty of more than $7 million. “Through the information provided by IHAG and other Swiss banks in the Program, the department has unraveled the various… – Continue reading
The clock is ticking for American tax dodgers around the world after BNP Paribas SA’s Swiss unit and two other banks joined a U.S. program to avoid prosecution, revealing the exact methods of Swiss bankers’ legendary discretion. BNP agreed to pay $59.8 million in a program that has brought in… – Continue reading
