Federal agents raided three Caterpillar buildings near its Illinois headquarters on Thursday, company and law enforcement officials said, in an escalation of an inquiry into the heavy equipment manufacturer’s offshore tax practices. Caterpillar has been dogged by accusations that it slashed its domestic tax bill by shifting corporate profits from… – Continue reading
Nonresident Alien NRA tax withholding is applicable to U.S sourced income paid to foreign person and does not apply to payments made to U.S. persons. Foreign persons include nonresident alien individual, foreign partnerships, foreign corporations, foreign estates, and foreign trusts. The tax generally must be withheld from the payment made… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has reminded certain non-US citizens, such as international students and scholars working or receiving scholarship funds, that they may have special requirements to file a US tax return. The IRS also reminded withholding agents, such as payroll professionals or universities, that accurately filed Forms 1042-S,… – Continue reading
The Government recently issued a resolution to ratify an agreement and a protocol on avoiding double taxation and preventing income tax evasion between Vietnam and the United States of America. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked to complete necessary procedures in accordance with law. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance… – Continue reading
U.S. multinational companies with more than $850 million in annual consolidated gross income now have draft instructions for filing IRS reports on their global tax and profits. The Internal Revenue Service added instructions to the draft Form 8975 and accompanying draft Schedule A it released in December 2016, companies that… – Continue reading
Global banking giant HSBC has disclosed being probed by tax authorities in India and several other countries, including against its Swiss and Dubai units, for allegedly abetting tax evasion of four Indians and their families. Besides, the bank has been approached by the regulatory and law enforcement agencies of various… – Continue reading
Since President George W. Bush signed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, the IRS has had a program that rewards Americans who inform the agency on tax dodgers. In its first decade, the program has helped the IRS recover $3.4 billion, and resulted in payouts of $465… – Continue reading
Apple, which was recently slapped with a $14 bn tax bill for its activities in Ireland has now filed a 14-point appeal against the ruling. The EC had filed a case accusing Ireland of giving “state aid” to Apple. The European Commission (EC) charged Apple on various grounds, including tax… – Continue reading
Tax agency calls mandatory fingerprinting ‘a powerful deterrent’ The Canada Revenue Agency’s new policy to fingerprint every person it charges with tax evasion could create travel problems at the U.S. border for some Canadians who haven’t had their day in court The Canada Revenue Agency has begun to record the… – Continue reading
We are all familiar with the use of offshore intellectual property holding companies to capitalize on international tax gradients. These companies are designed to take advantage of strategic local tax rules to reduce tax burdens on royalty streams generated from licensing. Because of these favorable tax treatments, countries like Luxembourg… – Continue reading
If the referendum passes, all public servants and elected officials in Ecuador will be barred from holding wealth in offshore accounts. As Ecuador heads to the polls Sunday to elect a new president and National Assembly, deciding the fate of President Rafael Correa’s 10-year Citizens’ Revolution, the small South American… – Continue reading
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) — The Cayman Islands became the largest investor as a tax haven country in the South Korean market last year, data showed Thursday, amid suspicions that some of the money could be owned by South Koreans disguised as foreign investors in an attempt to avoid taxes…. – Continue reading
For the third consecutive year, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has placed abusive micro-captive insurance tax shelters on its list of top tax scams to watch out for in the 2017 filing season. The IRS explained that the US tax code generally allows businesses to create captive insurance companies… – Continue reading
Bilateral Economic Accord Key to Growing Trade and Investment WASHINGTON—Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Chairman Raffi Hamparian recently held a working meeting on Capitol Hill with U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on a range of shared priorities, including the negotiation of a new U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty. This bilateral… – Continue reading
EU lawyers are preparing to mount a legal challenge against President Trump’s hugely controversial US border tax proposals in what could be the biggest case in World Trade Organisation history. Mr Trump’s proposed “border adjustment system” would see US imports subjected to tax, while export revenues exempted. The reforms have… – Continue reading
A new paper that calls for the introduction of a US carbon tax has been released by a group of former Republican administration members and economic advisers and leading business representatives. Issued under the auspices of the Climate Leadership Council, the paper proposes that the tax might begin at USD40… – Continue reading
On 7 February 2017, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine and the US Ambassador to Ukraine signed a treaty on Ukraine’s performance of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) (the Treaty). According to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the Treaty is based on the Model 1B Intergovernmental… – Continue reading
MARTINSBURG — The Internal Revenue Service has started releasing this year’s top 12 scams targeting consumers known as “The Dirty Dozen.” The annually compiled list features a variety of scams the agency says are common and that taxpayers could encounter anytime, but especially during peak filing season. Phishing schemes lead… – Continue reading
In the latest published data from the US Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board in respect of November 2016, the value of Treasury Securities held by foreigners was $5.9tn with Japan’s holdings at $1.1tn and China at $1.0tn, followed by Ireland at $275bn. However, some further data show that the… – Continue reading
A CAMPAIGN has been launched in Washington DC to repeal international tax regulations that lobbyists say have cost Jersey and other finance centres billions of pounds. The controversial Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which was introduced in 2010 by President Barack Obama, requires all finance firms outside the US to… – Continue reading
The US taxes its citizens and permanent residents on their worldwide income regardless of where they live or how long they’ve lived outside of the US. There is only one other country in the world that operates like the US – Eritrea – an African nation. According to the IRS:… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) United States of America Implementation and Enforcement of the Inter-Governmental Agreement was passed in Parliament without opposition, making it mandatory for Antigua & Barbuda’s banks to provide the banking information of US citizens to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Act requires local… – Continue reading
Madison – Tax-related identity theft is an established concern nationwide, as state and federal tax authorities have wrestled for years with a blight of criminals filing fraudulent tax returns using other people’s personally identifiable information. For a scammer, tax identity theft means quick cash. For a victim, it’s a delayed… – Continue reading
Even though the Internal Revenue Service approves 94 percent of the applications it receives from charities for tax-exempt status filed through the simplified Form 1023-EZ, approximately a quarter of them do not meet the IRS’s own requirements. A recent report by the National Taxpayer Advocate pointed out that Treasury Department… – Continue reading
Swiss voters will vote next week on whether to reform corporate tax and remove the reduced tax rates that Switzerland currently grants to multinational firms. Voters will be asked whether they accept the federal law that was adopted by Switzerland’s national council in June 2016 “with a view to enhancing… – Continue reading
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and state regulators have developed a self-assessment tool to help banks and financial institutions identify, monitor and communicate Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) risk. The BSA/AML Self-Assessment Tool is a spreadsheet intended to reduce uncertainty surrounding BSA/AML compliance and support more transparency within… – Continue reading
A Republican plan to overhaul the U.S. corporate income tax could put the dozens of existing U.S. double-tax treaties in limbo. U.S. companies doing business abroad may no longer be able to rely on the mechanisms in treaties for resolving cross-border tax disputes—overlapping claims on a company’s tax—or they may… – Continue reading
EU member states sent a letter to 92 countries on Wednesday (1 February) informing them that they will be “screened” with a view to inclusion in a future “blacklist” of tax havens. The list of the countries that have been contacted is not public, but EUobserver understands that it is… – Continue reading
The Kuwait Ministry of Finance (MOF) has issued a ministerial resolution announcing that Deloitte & Touche, Al-Wazzan & Co in Kuwait has been certified with the ministry for the provision of Foreign Account Tax Compliance (FATCA) services. FATCA is a US legislation which aims to combat tax evasion by US… – Continue reading
The OECD made its end-November 2016 deadline to release the text of the multilateral treaty to give effect to the BEPS Actions which involve changes to tax treaties, see here. The 49 page treaty text, which is commonly referred to as the multilateral instrument or MLI, and 85 page explanatory… – Continue reading
The Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) has expressed concern about the number of countries in the region which have not yet put in place inter-governmental agreements (IGAs) with the United States on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). It said it was therefore renewing the call for Caribbean countries… – Continue reading
Legislation reintroduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives calls for the repeal of the estate tax, or “death tax” as it is commonly known in the United States. Until 2012, estates paid a 35 percent tax above a USD5m cap. The tax was scheduled to revert in… – Continue reading
Deutsche Bank will pay a $425 million fine in relation to a money-laundering scheme that regulators say moved $10 billion out of Russia, the New York State Department of Financial Services said Monday. The department said Deutsche was moving money out of Russia by using a stock “mirror trading” strategy,… – Continue reading
Documents for thousands of Canadian residents transferred under controversial FATCA legislation Banking records of more than 315,000 Canadian residents were turned over to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service last year under a controversial information sharing deal, CBC News has learned. That is double the number transferred in the deal’s first… – Continue reading
The Trump White House favours a “flexible” border adjustment tax targeting countries with which the United States runs big trade deficits, including Mexico, China and Germany, the President’s top trade and industry adviser said. Peter Navarro, a sceptic of free trade, wants the US to entice advanced manufacturing production onshore… – Continue reading
U.S. companies hold cash—lots and lots of cash—overseas to avoid paying the top corporate tax rate of 35% on those foreign earnings. But the rate could be heading down with a change in the federal government’s leadership, and the prospect of more repatriated earnings to work with has finance chiefs… – Continue reading
What GAO Found In 2015, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) issued revised guidelines, including 15 actions to help reduce base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) of multinational enterprises (MNEs). One action focuses on transfer pricing guidance with the intent of aligning MNE profits with the location of… – Continue reading
On January 19, Greece and the United States signed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to facilitate compliance with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) by financial institutions (FIs) in Greece. FATCA is intended to ensure that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) obtains information on financial accounts held at… – Continue reading
China’s banking regulator issued guidelines on Wednesday calling for the country’s financial institutions to strengthen their control and management of funding for outbound investment. The guidelines are the latest new rules on overseas investment as Beijing moves to clamp down on cross-border capital outflows and halt questionable investments. The China… – Continue reading
Several countries in Latin America have established new transfer pricing documentation obligations associated with the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative. In this new year, Mexico, Colombia and Peru have included in their local legislation new documentation requirements that follow a three-tiered approach: country-by-country (CbC) report, master file,… – Continue reading
The new administration and Congress have signaled their intention to undertake fundamental tax reform in the coming months. Lawmakers will need to weigh the costs and benefits of numerous policy trade-offs as they undertake this effort. Among the most visible debates already underway concerns “border adjustability,” or moving the U.S…. – Continue reading
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement Amended between S. Korea and India The Korea Shipowners’ Association announced on January 24 that the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between South Korea and India was amended so that South Korean shipping companies’ shipping income generated as a result of their maritime transport services provided for… – Continue reading
Nassau, The Bahamas – The Bahamas has taken many steps to comply with global standards in the financial services sector. One such step is the implementation of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The Common Reporting Standard (CRS), developed in response to the G20 request and approved by the OECD Council… – Continue reading
Ministry of Finance – State of Kuwait recently “went live” with the Vizor Software for FATCA & AEOI solution to meet its FATCA obligations under the terms of its Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States of America’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Today, Vizor Ltd. announced the Kuwaiti Ministry of… – Continue reading
Bahrain has signed an agreement to implement the US Foreign Account Taxpayer Compliance Act with the United States. FATCA, enacted by the US Congress in 2010, is intended to ensure that the US obtains information on accounts held abroad at foreign financial institutions (FFIs) by US persons. Failure by an… – Continue reading
Manama, Jan. 22 (BNA): An agreement was signed between the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Government of the United States of America to improve international tax compliance and implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The agreement was signed by the Minister of Finance, H.E. Shaikh… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON, USA — Members of the United States Senate, questioning the new Trump administration nominee for Treasury Secretary on Thursday, asked Steve Mnuchin how he intends to close down Caribbean tax havens, specifically naming the Cayman Islands. The Senate panel demanded details on how the new secretary expects to close… – Continue reading
World Economic Forum debate hears how fight to make companies ‘pay their fair share’ is being undermined by race to cut corporation tax rates Efforts to tackle global tax avoidance are being undermined by a “race to the bottom” on corporate tax rates led by Britain and the US, the… – Continue reading
Unknown to many Kenyans, Parliament’s passing of Finance Bill, 2016 that granted amnesty to Kenyan residents who have offshore incomes and assets in foreign banks had a very global agenda. The foreign income that is subject to amnesty is for the year ended December 31, 2016 and offers a waiver… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON — An American tax authority who helped champion a reform now being considered by the U.S. Congress says Canada would not be among the countries hardest hit by the introduction of so-called border adjustments. Alan Auerbach is among the leading proponents of the push to restructure corporate taxes so… – Continue reading
