Cross border tax fraud and tax evasion by High Net Wealth Individuals (HNWI) are serious problems for many jurisdictions. For many years exchange of information between countries has been solely upon request. In practise this procedure is not efficiently working as it requires foreseeable relevance, thus ‘fishing’ for information is… – Continue reading
Government questions dividend imputation and company tax rate Australian investors appear to have dodged a bullet, with the government’s first paper on tax reform discussing the dividend imputation system but falling short of attacking it outright as an idea that has outlived its usefulness. David Murray’s inquiry into the Australian… – Continue reading
Australian companies are taxed too highly, and politicians need to realise it’s harming the economy, according to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh. Australia’s corporate tax rate had been stuck at 30 per cent for a decade while New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and Canada had cut their rates… – Continue reading
All too often, changes to tax legislation happen at a glacial pace. As a nation, we can’t afford to let that happen with the GST changes required to modernise the law and processes to capture GST from overseas online purchases. Budget 2015 provides a suitable time for the government to… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Australia’s medicine subsidies, Canadian films and culture, and capital controls in Chile would be carved out from investment protection rules being negotiated in a Pacific trade pact, according to a draft text released by Wikileaks on Wednesday. An investment chapter, dated Jan. 20, from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership… – Continue reading
It has been said taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. So what happens when some of the wealthiest companies in the world don’t pay toward the upkeep of the societies they operate in? No one likes paying taxes. In my opinion taxes should be as low… – Continue reading
Five years after paying $413.7 million to settle a huge tax avoidance claim, ANZ bank is under fire for a $1 billion deal that appears to “double dip” on trans-Tasman tax benefits. The criticism follows the Australian bank’s issue this month of A$970 million ($995 million) of hybrid securities to… – Continue reading
The Abbott Government will shortly release a discussion paper on the Australian tax system. It will be the first step towards the much anticipated tax white paper. International factors should figure prominently in the white paper — specifically, how to ensure that Australia has a resilient tax system given the… – Continue reading
Tough tax disclosure laws introduced by the former Labor Government represent “an invasion of privacy and intrusion for Australian private companies,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said. Abbott made the comment during a joint press conference with the Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The press conference followed a meeting of the… – Continue reading
Bern and Brussels have clinched a deal to exchange bank account data in an effort to tackle tax fraud. The agreement comes after a recent report exposed the global economic damage caused by offshore accounts. Switzerland and the European Union are teaming up to crack down on tax cheats, officials… – Continue reading
Papua New Guinea’s central bank has moved to stop offshore foreign banks, which don’t operate in PNG, trading in the Kina.From this month, people and companies wanting to trade in Kina and foreign currencies will only be able to use one of six authorised dealers. Since July last year, after… – Continue reading
The Cook Islands has been rated “largely compliant” in a phase two peer group review conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The key findings of the review were that the Cook Islands has adequate laws… – Continue reading
A resurgence in property prices means loan to value ratio ‘speed limits’ are like to stay, Standard & Poor’s says in a report that predicts banks will continue to post strong earnings growth while trading in the shadow of a ‘heightened risk’ of a future property crash. “The relatively low… – Continue reading
On March 13, 2015, New Zealand’s Minister of Revenue, Todd McClay, announced the Government’s tax policy work program for 2015/16, which includes key international tax reforms aimed primarily at countering base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). In particular, the Government intends to focus on the following areas of reforms: •… – Continue reading
New Zealand has a broad-based tax system consisting principally of: income tax fringe benefit tax resident and non-resident withholding tax (RWT and NRWT) goods and services tax (GST) Accident Compensation levies import tariffs and miscellaneous excise duties, and local authority rates on property. Stamp duty, gift duty and death duties… – Continue reading
John Key has thrown his weight behind moves to catch more online purchases and even digital downloads in the GST net, and Labour says it would support changes to close the online revenue loophole. New Zealand is part of an OECD working group looking at the issue of consumption taxes… – Continue reading
NEIL CHENOWETH The raids unfolded across the city at 8.40 on a Tuesday evening. Squads of federal police descended on Point Piper, Chatswood, city offices and the departure lounge of Sydney International Airport. Accountant Vanda Gould was up when police arrived to arrest him. Across town officers scooped up his… – Continue reading
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The Barbados Government says it will not tolerate businesses operating within the international business and financial services sector engaging in tax evasion practices here and is seeking support from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Commerce Minister Donville Inniss, speaking in Parliament Tuesday,… – Continue reading
Sparks are flying after Netflix said it would not charge GST on the Australian version of its online television service which launches next Tuesday. United States-based Netflix, Quickflix, Foxtel Play, Presto and Stan, partly owned by Fairfax Media, are locked in a bidding battle to secure the best programs for… – Continue reading
Planning to enjoy your retirement in a different country? Check these tax, banking and investment issues More than 400,000 Britons have retired abroad, attracted by better weather, a laid-back lifestyle and a lower cost of living. But if you want to join them, you will need to make serious adjustments… – Continue reading
The Conversation Five years ago the Henry Review undertook a detailed examination of Australia’s tax and transfer system. Today, the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at ANU’s Crawford School has revisited the Henry Review, as the Australian government prepares to release its tax white paper. Tax reform should not be… – Continue reading
When an economist presents his opinion to the public on any subject he should be asked to swear, similar to what witnesses do in a court trial, that he will follow Henry Hazlitt’s Lesson (Economics in One Lesson – Henry Hazlitt – 1946 – Harper & Brothers): “The art of… – Continue reading
Investors seeking global diversification for their property portfolios are increasingly seeing New Zealand as an attractive investment option. Although our commercial and industrial property market is too small to attract the interest of giant global real estate investment trusts (REITs), our manageable size is regarded as an advantage by other… – Continue reading
HSBC is under fire, after a large cache of leaked bank files revealed that it helped clients evade taxes and conceal millions of dollars. The files, which cover the period 2005-07, amount to the biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn. HSBC was… – Continue reading
WELLINGTON: More than 100,000 Rich Kiwis have been caught with extra tax bills as the result of a huge file leak revealing the global super wealthy hid millions of dollars from tax authorities with the help of HSBC’s Swiss private bank. Inland Revenue investigated New Zealand links to the leaked… – Continue reading
“Well, Jon, the Government’s about to bring in a 1.5% corporate, or company, tax cut from the 1st of July. That’s something that obviously we support, because (the) corporate tax rate at 30% is not competitive with the rest of the region and we need to drive that down.” –… – Continue reading
The former ANZ Bank chairman Charles Goode held an account with HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm and asked to be identified only as “Mr Shaw” in his dealings with the bank, according to file notes in leaked bank documents. Goode – who maintains close ties to the Liberal party and… – Continue reading
Technology giants Apple and Google have said in their submissions to the federal inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that they support international changes to global tax rules to stop profit shifting, but have warned of the risk of Australia acting alone, saying it would cost heavily in local jobs and… – Continue reading
The IRS issued two New Releases this week that restate its focus on offshore tax evasion. The first was January 29, 2015 which followed the First International Criminal Tax Symposium. “The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) co-hosted a three-day International Criminal… – Continue reading
Fiji has proposed a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Sri Lanka. The Fijian Attorney-General and Minister for Finance, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, confirming this said a draft agreement will be sent to Sri Lanka to initiate the discussions. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum met with the Sri Lankan Minister for External Affairs Mangala Samaraweera this… – Continue reading
The Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (FRCA) has announced two six-month amnesty programs, for undeclared offshore assets and for persons struggling to pay tax dues. The first amnesty will enable taxpayers who disclose assets held offshore to be liable for unpaid taxes only. Initially announced by the Fijian Minister for… – Continue reading
New Zealand First is concerned the Uber ride service and multinational companies like it are using elaborate tax shelters to rip off hard working Kiwi taxpayers. The Party will be closely following the government’s newly announced review of small passenger services. “Why is it when a multinational with a track… – Continue reading
We will probably never know their names, but one thing we do know – one in 20 of the richest people in Australia tried to evade paying their fair share of tax in recent years. By what authority do we know this? By none other than the Australian Taxation Office…. – Continue reading
Europe’s tax showdown could be headed straight to people’s wallets. With the new year, a change in fiscal rules in the European Union is increasing the tax on many purchases of digital content like e-books and smartphone applications. Under the new rules, first approved in 2008, the tax rate on… – Continue reading
New Zealand’s tax authorities have been given more power to pursue tax evaders who go offshore under changes which come into effect this year. Inland Revenue will have more power to go after tax evaders who leave New Zealand under changes that come into effect this year. The Convention on… – Continue reading
2015 promises to be a big year from an Australian customs perspective. However, before turning to the events of 2015, the end of 2014 brings issues of changing duty rates, transfer pricing adjustments and developments in our existing free trade agreements that need to be considered. Below we set out… – Continue reading
Heading into the G20 in Brisbane last month, Treasurer Joe Hockey thundered that multinational companies who avoided paying tax were akin to “thieves” whose actions rendered it harder for governments to tackle poverty. Sadly however the government’s actions have failed to match its rhetoric. This week’s crafty back-down on Section… – Continue reading
The head of the Australian Tax Office, Chris Jordan, has described a tax lurk for multinational companies that is being retained by the Abbott government as having been “abused” by foreign corporations at a cost of “hundreds of millions of dollars” a year to the Commonwealth. As revealed by Fairfax… – Continue reading
Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) allegedly negotiated a secret deal with the Swiss government when James Packer was chief executive officer, which set a tax rate of less than 2.15 per cent for the media group’s intra-company loans, The Australian Financial Review reports. According to correspondence obtained by the newspaper,… – Continue reading
A secret deal with the Swiss government negotiated by media group Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd when James Packer was chief executive set a tax rate of less than 2.15 per cent on PBL’s intra-company loans. “We do have good news for you!” Ernst & Young Swiss partner Markus Huber wrote… – Continue reading
Fiji is looking at reviewing its existing taxation agreements with other countries in the coming months. Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority chief executive, Jitoko Tikolevu, said these reviews are long overdue. As a consequence, negotiations for the review of Fiji’s Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with Malaysia was completed this week…. – Continue reading
MONTREAL – The problem is not that Bombardier Inc. played a complex shell game since at least 2010 by refinancing and redirecting US$500 million of its financing activities to Luxembourg, a notorious tax haven. It’s that it does so legally — and is hurting its home country despite being one… – Continue reading
THE CONCLUSION of an air services agreement and training opportunities for Barbadians were among the areas discussed, when India’s High Commissioner, Subashini Murugesan, paid a courtesy call on Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Charles Burnett. Burnett received the High Commissioner on behalf of the Minister of Foreign… – Continue reading
Ordinary New Zealanders are carrying the tax burden while the wealthy use every possible means to avoid paying tax, ONE News Facebook readers claim, in response to damning new IRD details released yesterday Yesterday ONE News revealed how some of New Zealand’s wealthiest people worth more than $50 million are… – Continue reading
A new UK tax on the ‘diverted profits’ of multinationals operating in the UK “is probably not needed, will be hard to apply and will raise little money” according to one expert. 10 Dec 2014 Corporate tax Tax International tax UK Europe Heather Self of Pinsent Masons, the law firm… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office is auditing 10 multinational corporations and the government will consider introducing new laws aimed at targeting tax avoidance, Joe Hockey has said. The treasurer said on Tuesday the ATO was “embedded in the offices” of multinationals operating in Australia to closely scrutinise whether those companies were… – Continue reading
Australia may follow the UK in implementing a “diverted profits” tax on multinationals to crack down on tax avoidance. Joe Hockey, Australia’s treasurer, said on Tuesday that his office is exchanging information with London on its “Google tax”, which was announced last week, writes Jamie Smyth in Sydney. I am… – Continue reading
Some of the world’s leading tech companies are reportedly being audited by the tax office for off-shore ‘super profit’ shifting. Up to 10 multinational companies, one believed to be the Google, have been forced to open their books as the ATO begins a $1.5 billion tax hunt. Commissioner of Taxation… – Continue reading
The Property Council of Australia has joined efforts by the broader business community to lobby the federal government to implement significant tax reforms next year. Members of the Business Coalition for Tax Reform (BCTR) will meet with the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) on December 15 to commence discussions… – Continue reading
RETAIL billionaire Solomon Lew is threatening to ship Australian online orders from New Zealand to sidestep the GST in light of the Federal Government’s failure to axe the tax-free threshold for overseas purchases. The Premier Investments chairman has also slammed Australia Post for setting up a US mail forwarding service… – Continue reading
