The 500 largest American companies hold more than $2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes and would collectively owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes if they repatriated the funds, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study, by two left-leaning non-profit groups, found that… – Continue reading
LONDON (CNNMoney) — Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands are more than just sunny vacation spots. They’re also three of the biggest tax havens for U.S. companies, according to a report from the left-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The islands… – Continue reading
In a move which is likely to be of interest to those organisations who put systems and procedures in place to comply, the US has recently announced (September 2015) that information on US persons does not now need to be exchanged for certain jurisdictions until September 2016. In Notice 2015-66… – Continue reading
Last year at this time, news about “tax inversions” was grabbing headlines – cases where large U.S. multinationals would buy a foreign company in a tax-friendly jurisdiction, and then relocate its headquarters to reap the tax arbitrage benefits. The Obama administration responded to the rash of high-profile inversions with new… – Continue reading
On October 2, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it had achieved a key milestone in implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a critical anti-tax evasion law passed by Congress in 2010 but not fully implemented until July 2014. The milestone announced by the IRS was… – Continue reading
Daily Herald Reports Specialty drug manufacturer Horizon Pharma, which moved its corporate headquarters from Deerfield to Ireland in 2014, announced it is relocating its U.S. headquarters from Deerfield to Lake Forest as part of a company expansion. The Dublin-based company reported it signed a long-term sublease on a 160,000-square-foot building… – Continue reading
Opposition to foreign taxes on American investment and hard work has been coded into our national DNA for almost 240 years. Yet almost two and a half centuries after resolving that we would not stand idle while others decide how to tax us, Americans once again must take decisive action… – Continue reading
Not only does the United States retain the dubious distinction of having the highest corporate tax rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development country grouping, it now has the third-highest rate of corporate tax in the world, according to the Tax Foundation. The non-partisan tax policy think tank… – Continue reading
A plan for overhauling the global system for the taxation of multinationals, to be published on Monday in Paris, will contain major challenges and opportunities for Ireland’s vital foreign direct investment (FDI) sector, according to tax experts, reports the Irish Times. The culmination of two years’ work, the report by… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that people who had not declared their undisclosed assets in the 90-day compliance window offered by the government will now face the law including penalty and sentence upto 10 years while 638 people who had made the declaration can “now sleep well.” In… – Continue reading
NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The following statement is being issued today by KPMG LLP on the final recommendations released on Oct. 5 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on its coordinated Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS): “The OECD’s final recommendations… – Continue reading
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A former Swiss bank executive is due to be sentenced in Florida for conspiracy as part of a long-running U.S. investigation into tax evasion. Hansruedi Schumacher could avoid prison in the scheme because of his cooperation. He pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to… – Continue reading
The OECD’s measures to reform international corporate tax systems will cause Ireland fewer problems than forecast, but for eurozone countries it will be just the beginning of greater and more detailed change. Following two years of constant meetings between tax experts from its 34 country members, the Paris-based body releases… – Continue reading
The United States has included India in a list of 34 countries with which the US administration would automatically share information under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regulations. The US Treasury Department has now added 16 new countries, including India, to an original list with which the US… – Continue reading
Two banks owned by former Tory Party vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft are at the centre of a major US tax evasion investigation. Authorities are probing whether wealthy Americans have been using the banks, based in the Central American tax haven Belize, to shelter funds offshore. Billionaire Lord Ashcroft is the majority… – Continue reading
The income tax department has signed 16 advance pricing agreements (APAs) with multinational companies (MNCs) so far, exempting their transactions with local units from rigorous tax audits. The income tax department has signed 16 advance pricing agreements (APAs) with multinational companies (MNCs) so far, exempting their transactions with local units… – Continue reading
Once again, Commonwealth Caribbean countries are under attack as “tax havens”, even though they are nothing of the sort. This time it is not only the usual countries which have been listed. Trinidad and Tobago has been included, and we can bet that Jamaica and Guyana will be added unless… – Continue reading
Under the intergovernmental agreement between the UAE and the US the first report, disclosing the financial activities of US citizens in 2014, was due to be submitted to the US by September 30, 2015. This agreement was signed to facilitate implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), a… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The US Treasury Department has issued a list of 34 countries which includes India with whom it would share information under FATCA (foreign account tax compliance act) regulations. The pact aims to cover automatic sharing of information on bank accounts and other instruments like mutual funds, insurance and equities… – Continue reading
AS the more lurid and unproven claims in Lord Ashcroft’s self-published hatchet job on the prime minister attract widespread ridicule, more embarrassment looms for the Tory peer concerning his banking operations in shady Belize. The US Department of Justice recently issued a summons for details of so-called correspondent bank accounts… – Continue reading
Efforts to block the exchange of information on US taxpayers’ foreign accounts are halted as an Ohio federal judge says Sen. Paul and six others don’t have standing to challenge parts of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, reports BNA. US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Judge… – Continue reading
On July 27, 2015, the U.S. Tax Court issued a stunning rebuke to the IRS by invalidating the part of the Internal Revenue Services’ (IRS) cost-sharing regulations under section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code that says taxpayers have to take into account, among other costs, the costs of stock-based… – Continue reading
It’s not just about the pig’s head. Britain’s headline writers went into high porcine pun mode last month over a suggestion that Prime Minister David Cameron, while still in university, had taken part in a club-initiation ritual that bizarrely incorporated part of a pig carcass. The second-hand allegation appears in… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service said Friday it has met a key milestone relating to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, having begun exchanging tax information with certain foreign governments in time to meet a Sept. 30, 2015 deadline. The automatic exchange of account information with tax authorities abroad… – Continue reading
Introduction The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires non-US financial institutions, including investment entities, to report US account holders to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This reporting is causing US taxpayers living abroad to consider whether they have been adequately filing annually their income and information returns in the… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg “FATCA Law”1 became effective on 1 August 2015. Among other provisions, the FATCA Law implemented the Model 1 Luxembourg–U.S. intergovernmental agreement of 28 March 2014 (IGA). On the day prior to the law taking effect, the Administration des Contributions Directes (Office of Income Tax) issued two circulars on… – Continue reading
Using companies incorporated in international financial centres (IFCs) in structuring financial transactions, capital raisings and corporate structures has long been popular in Asia, particularly Hong Kong (itself an IFC). Following the energetic expansion of the PRC economy and assisted in part by the relaxation of PRC regulations in relation to… – Continue reading
SOUTH Africa has ranked higher than several developed countries in an assessment of money “hidden” in HSBC Swiss bank accounts, a report showed on Wednesday. “The money connected to SA was higher than money connected to France, eight times higher than that of the US, and 3.5 times more than… – Continue reading
Federal judge in Ohio says Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul and others don’t have standing to challenge a law requiring banks to report on foreign accounts of U.S. taxpayers, and they aren’t likely to succeed on merits of case, Bloomberg BNA’s Alison Bennett reports. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rose… – Continue reading
On 14 September 2015, Cambodia and the United States signed a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Agreement. FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires U.S. financial institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs)… – Continue reading
A stream of people, including those from Rajasthan and Karnataka, walked into the only designated office before the closure of the one-time compliance window The Centre’s efforts to unearth unaccounted money stashed abroad seems to have got a tepid response, with the declarations made under the three-month compliance window that… – Continue reading
This is part one of a five-part series on avoiding unnecessary U.S. taxes. The United States has be-come an attractive outlet for direct grain sales by many Canadian producers since the dissolution of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk trading monopoly. U.S.-based grain traders are soliciting new business in Canada,… – Continue reading
In addition to Justice Martineau’s denial of injunctive relief and dismissal of the request for summary judgment in Hillis and Deegan v. The Attorney General of Canada, as discussed in our previous post, U.S. citizens residing in Canada received more disappointing news on September 29, 2015, when Judge Thomas M…. – Continue reading
Not many people actually like Obamacare’s dreaded “Cadillac Tax,” including, reportedly, Hillary Clinton. But that doesn’t mean it will necessarily get repealed before it starts in 2018. A new survey shows that while that tax, which targets high-cost, employer-based health plans, is at first glance broadly unpopular with the public,… – Continue reading
Donald Trump’s tax plan was revealed with a message for millions of Americans: “You win!” But like everything linked to taxes, not everyone would win equally under his plan, which the Republican presidential candidate says is geared toward providing tax relief for the middle class and giving the U.S. economy… – Continue reading
NEW YORK, September 30, 2015 – A new report from Thomson Reuters sheds light on the dividend and income reporting requirements for banks, brokerages, and other financial institutions under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Published by Thomson Reuters Checkpoint, New FATCA Compliance Obligations Facing Business Entities can be… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 30, 2015 –His Excellency Dr. Eugene Newry, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States, has written a letter to Municipal Officials of the District of Columbia and Federal Congressional Officials protesting “in the strongest terms” The Bahamas’ designation as a “tax haven” by D.C. authorities in the District… – Continue reading
On 28 March 2014, Luxembourg and the US signed an intergovernmental agreement (“IGA”) to implement automatic exchange of information in the context of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which gave birth to the Law of 24 July 2015 (“FATCA Law”). The purpose of the FATCA Law is to identify… – Continue reading
Moving overseas to cut tax burden remains a viable option for some firms, though the presidential candidates may have other plans. With the long haul of a presidential election campaign just beginning, companies that leave the U.S. to lower their tax bills are once again political targets. Donald Trump this… – Continue reading
On 8 September 2015, Montserrat and the United States signed a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Agreement. FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires U.S. financial institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs)… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON, D.C. — United States authorities have begun the exchange of information with Mexico on all Mexicans with bank accounts or investments in the U.S. who have obtained more than $10 USD in annual interest. With the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Mexico plans to deliver… – Continue reading
Tax havens are by design secretive and opaque. The entire point of their existence is to conceal the wealth hidden within them. And a new book by Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, reveals, as never before, the extent of their role in the… – Continue reading
Gabriel Zucman, one of 3 French economists who in recent times have published extensive research on wealth and equality, in a book, ‘The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens,’ published this month, estimates that 8% of the world’s financial wealth — some US$7.6tn — is hidden in… – Continue reading
MIAMI (AP) — A former executive at Swiss bank UBS AG might avoid jail time and end up with probation because of his extensive cooperation in a long-running U.S. investigation into tax evasion using secret accounts. Prosecutors asked a judge to order five years’ probation and a $150,000 fine for… – Continue reading
The OECD has said that its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project will create policy challenges for Ireland, but the nation should emerge well placed to attract foreign direct investment, reports Tax News. The report states: “Given the strong presence of intellectual property-intensive information technology and pharmaceutical companies in… – Continue reading
Fundamental to any developed tax policy is knowing who the taxpayer is (or should be) with respect to any particular transaction. Although that can be relatively straightforward in purely domestic situations, a cross-border dimension can present different answers to this question in the jurisdictions involved and lead to issues over… – Continue reading
Having saved for most of their life to amass an income to use in retirement, most people get to a certain age and start to think about drawing on those financial reserves as they wind down from the daily grind. When that money is held in an international pension plan… – Continue reading
If you are a foreign executive moving to the United States for work, not only do you have to consider practical concerns like moving your family and finding a new residence, but you also need guidance as to any US tax implications stemming from the move. One of the first… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The ambitious anti-offshore tax evasion and black money detection pact between India and the US – Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – will become operational from tomorrow. The pact aims to cover automatic sharing of information on bank accounts as well as financial products like equities, mutual… – Continue reading
Efforts to amend details of new rules on corporate profits raise questions, reports the Wall Street Journal. Nearly 50 governments are set to agree this fall to a new set of rules to clamp down on tax avoidance among multinational corporations. Their chance of success, however, is unclear. If the… – Continue reading
