The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is again flexing its regulatory muscles by increasing the breadth and scope of the types of entities regulated by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Among other things, the BSA requires certain types of financial institutions to implement anti-money laundering (AML) programs and file suspicious… – Continue reading
An American expatriate says a taxation issue in his homeland is having adverse effects on millions like him who simply want to work, save, and live their lives without being hammered by the government. OneNewsNow reported earlier that the tax burden in the U.S. has become so great that many… – Continue reading
The BMF has application letter sent to the chief financial authorities of the countries associated with the between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America concluded by 31.5.2013 FATCA Agreement. Background Background of extensive, comprehensive 71 pages, application letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance on… – Continue reading
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., has introduced two pieces of legislation to combat corporate tax inversions and tax deferral. The Corporate Fair Share Tax Act and the Putting America First Corporate Act would prevent corporations from using “tax inversions” to reduce a company’s U.S. tax burden and hide profits overseas. Corporate… – Continue reading
Tax-driven “inversion” deals that let companies flee the U.S. tax system by relocating abroad, if only on paper, would be curbed under legislation introduced in Congress, as Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) pursues such a deal with rival Allergan Plc (AGN.N). Wisconsin Democratic Representative Mark Pocan’s bills likely have little chance of… – Continue reading
In a time of fiscal austerity, it is breathtaking to learn that Congress has allowed Fortune 500 companies to avoid an estimated $620 billion in federal taxes on earnings they are holding offshore. While the inaction by lawmakers on this issue may create the impression that there is nothing to… – Continue reading
Two decades after Ken Dart renounced his U.S. citizenship and took his tax attorney with him to the Caribbean, the billionaire bond investor and local kingpin is reinventing himself as the Cayman Islands’ biggest real estate owner. In a rare glimpse into Dart’s holdings, Mark VanDevelde, chief executive of the… – Continue reading
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Business executives cited an increased compliance burden as their biggest concern with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative (37.7 percent), according to an October Deloitte poll. Other concerns included double taxation of income (17 percent) and… – Continue reading
FRANKFURT (The Street) — Europe’s allure as a tax haven for U.S. multinationals may be coming to an end. That’s because European Union regulators are closing up tax loopholes that U.S. companies have been enjoying for years. The first two to feel the heat are Starbucks (SBUX – Get Report)… – Continue reading
The opaque governance structure of sports federations makes them less accessible to independent oversight and therefore more prone to corruption, the deputy managing director at Transparency International, a global anti-corruption movement, told Sputnik. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Earlier this year, separate investigations by US and Swiss prosecutors uncovered deep-rooted corruption… – Continue reading
A blacklist of tax havens by the U.S District of Columbia, which featured the Channel Islands, has been repealed. The Bailiwicks were listed as part of a plan to highlight international jurisdictions the U.S. considers to be used by people trying to avoid paying tax. The Chief Minister was opposed… – Continue reading
No member state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) ranks among the top 20 jurisdictions worldwide for financial secrecy. The United States of America (at number 3), Germany (8), Japan (12) and Britain (15), all rate as bigger tax havens than any CARICOM jurisdiction, according to the Tax Justice Network (TJN),… – Continue reading
The recent corporation tax controversy highlighted by US presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is not damaging Ireland’s reputation as a place to do business, said the former chief executive of Apple, John Sculley. According to Mr Sculley, the controversy is simply part of US election fever. Known as… – Continue reading
On September 18, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2015-66 announcing its intention to amend certain of the regulations under Chapter 4 of the Code (the “FATCA regulations”), to extend the period of time that certain of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) transitional rules will apply,… – Continue reading
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Friday November 6, 2015 – No member state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) ranks among the top 20 jurisdictions worldwide for financial secrecy. The United States of America (at number 3), Germany (8), Japan (12) and Britain (15), all rate as bigger tax havens than any CARICOM… – Continue reading
Paul Singer has a good track record as a money manager. In 1995, he bought $20 million worth of Peruvian debt at a discounted price of $11.4 million, then forced Peru’s government, through lawsuits, to eventually pay nearly five times his initial investment — some $58 million. In 2002 and… – Continue reading
With local financial institutions bracing for the impact of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) reporting requirements, a recent partnership between a tax law firm and financial information services firm could well increase the ease of reporting for U.S. citizens living in The Bahamas…. – Continue reading
On September 7, 2015, the local tax court of Cologne (the “Court”) issued an injunction against the German Federal Central Tax Office (“FCTO”) to prevent the FCTO from conducting a coordinated exchange of information with the E6 countries Canada, Great Britain, France, Australia and Japan, which aimed at gathering intelligence… – Continue reading
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance on 3 November 2015 released final guidance notes for implementation of the FATCA regime. An intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed by Germany and the United States follows the Model 1 IGA. Accordingly, financial institutions in Germany are required to report information concerning assets held by U.S…. – Continue reading
They say the only two givens in life are death and taxes. And, while you still can’t live forever, an increasingly large number of Americans are skipping out on their fiscal obligations by dumping their citizenship. A whopping 1,426 Americans chose to expatriate in the third quarter of this year,… – Continue reading
Technology company made the largest profit in its history in year to end of September Apple’s latest annual report indicates a substantial increase in the amount of tax it may be paying in Ireland. The latest annual report from Apple, filed last week in the United States, indicates a substantial… – Continue reading
The UK government has a ‘Janus-faced’ approach to tax, a new report suggests: promising an increasingly intolerant approach to evasion and avoidance while being an aggressive participant in global tax competition and tolerating the UK tax havens which facilitate financial crime across the world. The report, Fifty Shades of Tax… – Continue reading
A former finance minister yesterday slammed as “patently false” suggestions by a prominent tax advocacy group that the Bahamas is “disregarding the rules” and flouting global information exchange and transparency standards. James Smith, also an ex-Central Bank governor, hit out at the Tax Justice Network after its 2015 Financial Secrecy… – Continue reading
PanARMENIAN.Net – The negotiation of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty will be on the agenda of the upcoming U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force meeting, an annual bilateral gathering taking place in Washington, DC on November 19. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed the initiative, suggesting that the Administration support… – Continue reading
The time of gaming the international tax system is over for big business, following the endorsement of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project Corporations have to realise that “playtime is over, now you have to come back to school and play with the new instruments”, said Pascal… – Continue reading
One year after the announced closing off of the Double Irish tax arrangement, U.S. multinationals once again turned their attention to Dublin as Ireland announced details of the Knowledge Development Box, or KDB. This new component to its corporate tax regime will allow companies to pay a reduced corporate tax… – Continue reading
The Bahamas will likely suffer a 25 per cent contraction in the number of financial services industry players, a senior international private banking executive said yesterday, as institutions merge to acquire scale and maintain profitability. Ricard Tubau, Andbank’s global chief executiv, said that not only is the financial services industry… – Continue reading
ABSTRACT This paper provides analysis of one of the foundational elements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and various intergovernmental agreements (IGAs): an unambiguous place of U.S. birth and the ability to cure (Cure) this element, thereby rendering the account nonreportable. The IGAs generally allow the individual to… – Continue reading
After being in effect for only a week, the Council of the District of Columbia (Council) unanimously enacted legislation today that will repeal the list of tax haven jurisdictions specifically enumerated in the D.C. Code. The legislation, titled the Fiscal Year 2016 Second Budget Support Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of… – Continue reading
On August 4 and 5, 2015, the FC heard oral arguments in a lawsuit—commenced on August 11, 2014 by two Canada-US citizens—that challenges the law implementing the Canada- US intergovernmental agreement (IGA) relating to FATCA (Virginia Hillis et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada et al., court file no…. – Continue reading
Hong Kong is the world’s second least transparent financial center, making it vulnerable to tax evasion, money laundering and other wrongdoing. It is topped only by Switzerland in a global survey by Tax Justice Network, a coalition of researchers and activists focused on tax avoidance issues. The United States ranks… – Continue reading
They say the only certain things in life are death and taxes, but a large number of non-U.S. citizens may have found a way to avoid at least one of those. Under U.S. tax law, the estates of foreign holders of U.S. assets, such as stocks, real estate and valuables,… – Continue reading
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) have one more investment option to choose from. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed NRIs to invest in the National Pension System (NPS), under Foreign Exchange Management Act. NPS will allow NRIs to invest in a mix of equities and debt and save for their… – Continue reading
Speed read Europe’s highest court has turned the US into a privacy pariah, and the fallout could have a major impact on New Zealand businesses. Tech companies and cloud computing providers, big and small alike, are staring down the barrel of increasingly uncertain privacy compliance challenges, as are their customers…. – Continue reading
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the Netherlands wants to make as much progress as possible in clamping down on tax avoidance by multinational corporations during its EU presidency, after criticism from the European Commission, reports Reuters. The Dutch tax system has enabled some corporations to pay almost no taxation… – Continue reading
The US has overtaken Singapore, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands as an attractive haven for super-rich individuals and businesses looking to shelter assets behind a veil of secrecy, according to a study by the Tax Justice Network (TJN), reports The Guardian. The US is ranked third, behind Switzerland and Hong… – Continue reading
Billionaire JP McManus sought to pay just €200,000 in tax on gambling earnings of €15.8m. The disclosure was made in filings to a US court, where the horse owner and philanthropist is seeking the refund of $5.2m (€4.7m) in taxes taken from his winnings by the US government. Authorities there… – Continue reading
Pharmaceutical giant Shire, which is headquartered in Ireland for tax purposes, has agreed to buy US rare disease specialist Dyax Corp for about $5.9bn (€5.35bn), and potentially up to $6.5bn, while still pursuing a five- times larger unsolicited bid for biopharma firm Baxalta Inc. The Dyax deal, the latest in… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Banque Bonhôte & Cie SA (Banque Bonhôte) has reached a resolution 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 States…. – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s refusal to take part in a global system for exchanging bank data has moved it above the Cayman Islands in a financial secrecy list compiled by the Tax Justice Network. The U.S. trails only Switzerland and Hong Kong in a league of offshore havens after refusing to… – Continue reading
Secretary general of he Union of Arabs and Sam Fattouh for an international approach to the globalization of law “Vta” American FATCA, any tax compliance with the Law on Foreign Americans accounts, to become international law under labeled GATCA “Gta” (Global Account Tax Compliance Act), any tax compliance law global… – Continue reading
The Republican front-runner says high corporate tax rates are the real villain. Donald Trump isn’t blaming Pfizer Inc. for the problem of corporate inversions. The Republican front-runner said Pfizer’s planned merger with Allergan Plc was understandable since it would allow the company to relocate its headquarters to Ireland, where taxes… – Continue reading
In a report leased by the international group Financial Secrecy, the group that carries out analysis of how far the legal systems of countries facilitate financial secrecy, Liberia is ranked amongst the top 30 countries in the world that deals in secrecy. While the Government of Liberia continues to boast… – Continue reading
New Zealand still has some work to do to stop the country being used as a safe haven for illicit funds, a new survey shows. The 2015 Financial Secrecy Index has been released, which ranks countries on their ability to promote fiscal transparency. The index is produced by the Tax… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Switzerland has retained its top spot in the financial secrecy index (FSI) 2015, unveiled by the Tax Justice Network (TJN) on Monday. Switzerland is followed by Hong Kong, the US, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. The biggest surprise is the US, which has climbed to third place from… – Continue reading
As the world is uniting to tackle tax evasion and improve financial transparency, the US “threatens progress,” a new survey has said. America is now ranked third among the world’s most attractive “tax havens,” trailing only Switzerland and Hong Kong. The US has jumped from sixth place to third in… – Continue reading
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev approved the intergovernmental Azerbaijan-US agreement on “Improving compliance with Azerbaijan and the United States of international rules on tax requirements and fulfilling the requirements of the Act on the taxation of foreign accounts (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FATCA)”. The relevant law is published in the… – Continue reading
Australia hosts significant quantities of illicit funds from outside the country, according to the 2015 Financial Secrecy Index. The Tax Justice Network’s index, released every two years, rates countries based on financial transparency. The latest index rates Australia 44 out of 100 (from 47 in the previous survey) meaning it… – Continue reading
As of July 15 2015, 55 financial institutions and banks in Ghana have registered themselves to comply with FATCA. So, chances are that if you tried to open a bank account in Ghana, the bank now requires you to fulfil some United States (U.S.) reporting obligations in addition to the… – Continue reading
LOS ANGELES—A recent report estimates that foreign investors are on track to spend more than $70 billion on US commercial real estate in 2015. And another report says that nearly a quarter of all recent commercial real property sales in its survey involved offshore investors. “Foreign investment in U.S. real… – Continue reading
