President Obama yesterday signed into law a bill which contains little-publicised elements that are expected to impact non-US financial institutions, funds and collective investment structures. The bill’s passage on 8 March 2010 represents a success for certain US lawmakers who have been seeking to crack down on Americans who have… – Continue reading
SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A San Diego tax attorney and certified public accountant was convicted Monday in a complex tax-evasion scheme involving the creation of bank accounts in the names of dead children and fake churches. A federal jury deliberated for 30 minutes before finding Lloyd Irving Taylor, 71, guilty… – Continue reading
ATLANTA (AP) – Federal prosecutors say a metro Atlanta business owner has been sentenced for trying to block the IRS from collecting millions in employment taxes. Authorities said Monday that 68-year-old Paulette Bryant of Stockbridge has been sentenced to three years in prison for obstructing the IRS from collecting nearly… – Continue reading
Andrea Bonzano, head of tax at Fiat, discusses the pros and cons of different transfer pricing methods in an interview with TPWeek, and provides his views on BEPS and US inversions. Bonzano has expressed his views on some of the most topical transfer pricing issues, discussing his concerns over BEPS… – Continue reading
Washington – US tax evaders will find it harder to hide money abroad from Tuesday, when a law comes into effect requiring foreign banks to report their offshore accounts. Banking centers like Switzerland and Luxembourg that agreed to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will have to begin… – Continue reading
Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) are becoming increasingly popular in America, due to the loophole represented by a double-tax treaty signed with Malta – a country in the top three jurisdictions of choice since QROPS were introduced. Previously it was largely viewed as near-impossible to arrange for a viable,… – Continue reading
The agreement between China and the United States for US financial accounts registered at banks in China to send their tax reports to the US Internal Revenue Services (IRS) to curb offshore tax evasion will have positive effects for China, experts said. The agreement will also enable Beijing to obtain… – Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — A Chicago-area lawyer and accountant labeled by the government as history’s most prolific and unrepentant tax cheat was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison, and the judge bemoaned the “incredible greed” of some of America’s wealthiest people for taking advantage of the tax shelters he… – Continue reading
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said India and the US have agreed to implement a foreign tax compliance law and asked banks and financial institutions to register by this year-end to report accounts and assets held by US citizens. India and the US have agreed to implement… – Continue reading
Are you an American resident? It’s a question that Canadian “snowbirds” will have to ask themselves before celebrating Canada Day next week, when the U.S. Foreign Tax Compliance Act – or FATCA – kicks into effect. Financial institutions around the world will answer to the U.S. Internal Revenue Agency so… – Continue reading
This week one of the key Democratic Party strongholds voted to reduce income taxes and expand the sales tax base. The District of Columbia Council, which in 2012 supported President Barack Obama over challenger Mitt Romney by a wide margin of 13 votes to 1 (in a city where 90.9… – Continue reading
Mainland China has been included on a list of jurisdictions co-operating with the United States on a new law to halt tax evasion. It removes the threat of blacklisting or penalties that had been hanging over Chinese financial institutions. The inclusion will also benefit institutions in Hong Kong, the US… – Continue reading
Are you an American resident? It’s a question that Canadian “snowbirds” will have to ask themselves before celebrating Canada Day next week, when the U.S. Foreign Tax Compliance Act – or FATCA – kicks into effect. Financial institutions around the world will answer to the U.S. Internal Revenue Agency so… – Continue reading
Former attorney and CPA Paul M. Daugerdas, 63, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for orchestrating a massive scheme in which he and co-conspirators hawked fake tax shelters for wealthy individuals to evade more than $1.6 billion in federal taxes. Last October, he was convicted following a seven-week… – Continue reading
Law360, Los Angeles (June 25, 2014, 10:42 PM ET) — Russia’s upper house of parliament reportedly approved legislation Wednesday that would allow Russian banks to share information about their foreign clients with the U.S., so the banks can comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, despite the Russian government’s… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The United States has reached an agreement with China on implementing and enforcing a new U.S. law meant to combat overseas tax avoidance by Americans, a U.S. Treasury Department official said on Thursday. Long seen as a crucial step for the rollout of 2010’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance… – Continue reading
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
Q. I have lived in my house for 30-plus years. I have been told that if I sell it for more than I paid for it, I will have to pay capital gains tax on the difference between what I paid for it and what I sell it for. Others… – Continue reading
Law360, New York (June 24, 2014, 7:02 PM ET) — The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday updated an agreement that foreign financial institutions will use to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, days before the law rolls out on July 1.The changes in Revenue Procedure 14-38 are largely… – Continue reading
This year, Park City primary residence owners will have to pay $18 more per $500,000 of assessed valuation in property taxes. That is because the Park City School District has imposed a one-time judgment levy to make up for the $760,000 it will have to refund to taxpayers after the… – Continue reading
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
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
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
The U.S. taxman is about to extend his reach, and not even those infamous offshore accounts may be able to escape the long arm of the law. A milestone is coming July 1 in the federal government’s long-term effort to root out tax evasion by people who keep money offshore…. – Continue reading
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
Local banks have little choice but to comply with a controversial law that requires financial institutions around the world to hand over information about American citizens that will be passed on to the US tax department, the New Zealand Bankers’ Association says. The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA),… – Continue reading
The IRS has announced important changes to its offshore account programs. They come as FATCA is taking hold worldwide. Many foreign banks are rooting out Americans with increasing vigilance. One key target of the changes? Americans living abroad and certain others who can now come within the IRS Streamlined Program…. – Continue reading
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
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is offering to waive steep penalties for Americans living abroad who haven’t been paying their U.S. taxes. But there is a catch: You have to be able to show that you didn’t evade U.S. taxes on purpose. American citizens living abroad are required to… – Continue reading
Irish and shareholder eyes may be smiling at the prospect of medtech giant Medtronic acquiring Covidien and moving its headquarters to Ireland, where Covidien is based, but the $42.9 billion deal is causing at least a few frowns, as well. Minneapolis-based Medtronic is the largest U.S. company to try to… – Continue reading
As the start of FATCA looms, Americans living permanently overseas are rushing to renounce their US citizenship. The IRS’s five-year campaign to uncover undeclared, taxable assets held by US expats is having an unexpected result, as many middle-income Americans living abroad are deciding to hand in their citizenships. Those who… – Continue reading
NEW YORK • What’s greasing the wheels for the rise in mergers by U.S. companies? The tax man. Two tax-code quirks — one that charges U.S. companies when they repatriate overseas earnings, the other that allows them to claim a foriegn domicile without moving their senior leadership abroad — are… – Continue reading
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
JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia and the US discussed ways to further enhance their existing cooperation on efforts to disrupt the financial and support networks of terrorist organizations, announced Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf at a joint press conference with US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew here on Tuesday. Assaf said that… – Continue reading
It’s a very small world when it comes to money and banking, as we all learned in 2007. Now the Internal Revenue Service is extending its reach to financial activities of U.S. citizens who have money in foreign financial institutions. On July 1, 2014 FATCA — the Foreign Account Tax… – Continue reading
In a June 3 speech, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency may not have been accommodating enough to U.S. citizens who have lived abroad for years. “We have been considering whether these individuals should have an opportunity to come into compliance that doesn’t involve the type of penalties that… – Continue reading
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
While both major candidates for U.S. Senate in West Virginia have accepted donations from big corporations accused of using offshore tax havens, some of those corporations have been significant contributors to Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, not just this year but through her entire political career. Major American companies avoid paying… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc. (MDT), the globe-spanning medical device maker founded in a Minneapolis garage in 1949, is poised to become the biggest company yet to escape the U.S. tax system by shifting its incorporation abroad. Medtronic said yesterday it plans to take a legal address in tax-friendly Ireland as part of… – Continue reading
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
Tens of thousands of Irish people and foreign nationals who have worked and lived in the UK or US and still have investments, property or pension funds there, are particularly vulnerable to those countries’ tax regulations. Soon, one group in particular – the nearly 12,000 American citizens living in Ireland… – Continue reading
As the first set of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) compliance issues for banks worldwide is set to come into effect on July 1 we have seen a flurry of banks around the world advising US citizens that they will be immediately closing their accounts. None has been so far… – Continue reading
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
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
In 2010, Congress passed House Resolution (H.R.) 2847, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, or HIRE Act. This legislation included a number of tax breaks meant to encourage businesses to put people on the payroll. This law also called for greater scrutiny of foreign accounts that U.S. citizens hold… – Continue reading
One of America’s best-known stores may soon decide that it’s no longer American. If it does, you will pay the price and feel real sick about it. Walgreens pharmacy is in every way an American company. It was founded in Chicago in 1901 and maintains its headquarters in Illinois. It… – Continue reading
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
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
One of America’s best known stores may soon decide that it’s no longer American. If it does, you will pay the price and feel real sick about it. Walgreens pharmacy is in every way an American company. It was founded in Chicago in 1901 and maintains its headquarters in Illinois…. – Continue reading
A temporary tax holiday for US companies to repatriate offshore profits would cost the government $95.8 billion in revenue over a decade, said the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper. Lawmakers occasionally talk about a repatriation tax break as a way to pay for spending such as replenishing the… – Continue reading
