Category: Jurisdiction

My Turn: Legislature needs to work on closing tax loopholes

Gov. Maggie Hassan has done an excellent job working with legislative leaders to craft and oversee the state’s current two-year budget. An array of problems is being effectively managed. This budget will end in balance. But looking ahead to the next two-year budget, we in state government face difficult challenges…. – Continue reading

German state buys tax CD containing Swiss bank client data – paper

Dec 21 (Reuters) – Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought a CD containing data about several thousand German clients of a Swiss bank, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said on Sunday without citing its sources. The clients each have accounts containing up to 5 million euros… – Continue reading

Attention to NH tax structure is needed

Gov. Maggie Hassan has done an excellent job working with legislative leaders to craft and oversee the state’s current two-year budget. An array of problems is being effectively managed. This budget will end in balance. But looking ahead to the next two-year budget, we in state government face difficult challenges…. – Continue reading

Sebi bars 260 entities; suspects money laundering, tax evasion

Mumbai: In its biggest ever crackdown for suspected tax evasion and laundering of black money through stock trading platforms, Sebi Friday barred 260 entities, including individuals and companies, from the securities markets. While Sebi would further probe these cases, it has also decided to refer the matter to the Income… – Continue reading

Father-Son Tax Preparers Convicted in Israeli Bank Tax Case

A father and son who ran a tax-preparation business were convicted in Los Angeles of conspiring to help clients cheat the Internal Revenue Service by setting up undeclared offshore bank accounts. David Kalai, the founder and former chief executive officer of United Revenue Service, and his son Nadav, who was… – Continue reading

Taiwan and South Korea may open negotiations on economic agreements: officials

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan and South Korea are now more prepared to sign economic agreements, such as investment insurance and double taxation prevention pacts, South Korea’s representative to Taiwan Cho Baek-sang said yesterday. Cho made the comment at the first Taiwan-South Korea humanities exchange conference, held by the de facto… – Continue reading

Qatari ruling family hit with £38million stamp duty bill after using tax avoidance scheme on purchase of Chelsea Barracks

The Qatari ruling family has been ordered to pay £38million in stamp duty They used an aggressive tax avoidance scheme to avoid the huge bill Country bought 13-acre site from the MoD for almost £1billion in 2007 By LOUISE ECCLES, BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL PUBLISHED: 01:57 GMT, 20… – Continue reading

Capital Gains Tax Changes for Expat Property Owners

Rules relating to the payment of CGT by non-resident UK property owners will change in April and expats will be affected. Significantly sneaky draft legislation was published last week that will affect the way capital gains tax (CGT) is charged on the sale of UK property assets owed by expats. … – Continue reading

Spain pushes for taxation debate at EU summit

BRUSSELS – It was supposed to be all about investments and Russia, but the issue of tax avoidance is likely to creep onto the EU summit agenda on Thursday (18 December). In the draft summit conclusions circulated among EU ambassadors on Wednesday, there is one paragraph mentioning the “urgent need… – Continue reading

Cayman begins to see a rise in hybrid funds

UBS Fund Services has had one of its strongest years in terms of winning new clients according to Monette Windsor (pictured), who heads up the Cayman Islands business.   “We’ve invested heavily in our business development team this year and we’ve had to beef up our client onboarding team. We have 165… – Continue reading

Looking back at pensions, platforms and regulation in 2014

Bravura Solutions reflects on a year of reform and looks forward to 2015. The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last week didn’t deliver anything as revolutionary as the reforms announced in his March budget, but there were a few early Christmas crackers around ISA rules. After a monumental year, let’s look at… – Continue reading

Ranking Facebook, Boris Johnson, Google On Taxes (Diplomatically Please)

Ambassadors are supposed to be diplomatic and suave. Yet even those of the diplomatic corp may occasionally get tongue-tied or utter ill-timed statements. Take U.S. Ambassador to Britain Matthew Barzun. He recently sounded not all that diplomatic about duty, compliance with law, and yes, even taxes. Lee Rigby was a… – Continue reading

Offshore tax probe seeks data from Panama firm

NEW YORK – The multiyear federal crackdown on wealthy Americans who duck taxes by hiding income and assets offshore is targeting a Panamanian legal services firm suspected of arranging anonymous banking services. A Manhattan federal judge on Friday approved special summonses for Sovereign Management & Legal. The approval also covered… – Continue reading

A whopper of a deal at taxpayers’ expense

Burger King Chief Executive Officer Daniel Schwartz swears that the company’s plan to renounce its U.S. “citizenship” and become a Canadian corporation “is really not about taxes.” But a new report by my group, Americans for Tax Fairness, finds that it really is about taxes after all. The report reveals… – Continue reading

uncker turns tax debate away from Luxembourg and on to entire EU

Debate on multinational tax avoidance widens The surprise announcement by the European Commission that it is to extend its request for information on tax rulings to all European Union member states has the potential to significantly shift the terms of the debate on multinational tax avoidance. The timing of the… – Continue reading

Piketty Sticks to Wealth Tax Proposal, Sees Positive Signs

Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century” was a 2014 must-read for anyone interested in economics. But while his claim that income and wealth inequality has risen over recent decades to highs last seen before the start of the First World War was widely accepted, his policy prescriptions were not…. – Continue reading

Court upholds landmark ruling against tax avoidance

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has protected up to £123 million in tax after a tax tribunal upheld a landmark ruling against a stamp duty land tax avoidance scheme. In July 2013, the HMRC won a case against Project Blue, which used the scheme. According to the HMRC the scheme… – Continue reading

Volume of controlled transfer pricing deals in 2013 comes to UAH 1.142 trl – fiscal service

The total number of reports on controlled transfer pricing operations, received by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2014 exceeded 2,500. The head of the department for transfer pricing inspections at the Fiscal Service, Mykola Mishin, said at the round table “Transfer pricing in Ukraine: problems… – Continue reading

Australia Decides to Keep Bitcoin Sales Tax, Risks Double Taxation

In a blow to Bitcoin’s international presence, Australia has confirmed it will keep its controversial sales tax policy for certain Bitcoin transactions. Following the Australian Tax Office (ATO) issuing the initial legislation earlier this year, considerable community opposition arose, with domestic exchange Coinjar even forced to relocate to the UK… – Continue reading

Germany’s increasingly tough TP audit environment presents challenges for taxpayers

Transfer pricing has been an area of high importance for years. We are seeing that multinational companies operating in Germany are being increasingly examined by tax auditors. The level of transfer pricing expertise of the tax auditors is also increasing. Therefore, the transfer pricing environment in Germany is getting more… – Continue reading

Billionaire Usmanov transfers key assets to Russian jurisdiction

“These measures were taken in line with the policy announced by President Vladimir Putin for the Russian economy’s de-offshorization,” USM Holdings owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov said MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. USM Holdings owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov is transferring key assets to Russian holding companies, USM said in a… – Continue reading

Commission To Probe All EU Advance Tax Rulings

The European Commission has announced that its ongoing inquiry into advance tax rulings will be expanded to cover all European Union member states. The Commission said on December 17 that it will ask member states to confirm whether they offer tax rulings. If they do, they will be requested to… – Continue reading

The Best Job in the World

This is going to be the plum job for any international tax practitioner: Competent Authority for the Republic of Ireland. It seems pretty clear that the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project will meet its announced deadline of the end of 2015 to produce final reports on all of… – Continue reading

British govt claws back £1.36bn from Iceland after Landsbanki bank collapse

The UK Treasury has recovered a further £1.36bn from Iceland after its Landsbanki bank collapsed at the height of the financial crisis, forcing a taxpayer bailout for 230,000 savers in the UK. The British government through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme paid out £4.5bn after the collapse in October 2008… – Continue reading

EU shines light on dirty money with central registers

The European Union has agreed rules to stamp out tax evasion and stop dirty money from criminal gangs or terrorism finance being channelled through anonymous companies. EU states and the European Parliament struck the agreement on Tuesday evening to update the bloc’s anti-money laundering rules, a statement from parliament’s economic… – Continue reading

Luxembourg accedes to EU antitrust demand to divulge tax data

(Reuters) – Luxembourg acceded on Thursday to the demand of the European Commission to release data to further EU antitrust regulators’ investigation into whether it allowed multinationals to pay excessively low taxes. The European Commission launched investigations this year into whether U.S. retailer Amazon (AMZN.O) and a unit of Italian… – Continue reading

Tax Inversions Wrap Up

There has been a recent surge in anti-tax inversion legislation discouraging companies attempting to shift corporate subsidiaries or headquarters to low-tax or tax-free countries. The issue was subjected to a great deal of publicity in April 2014 during the failed hostile takeover by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) for AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) when Pfizer… – Continue reading

Anti-corruption rules fail to force clarity on property ownership, MPs say

Coalition plan for stripping ‘cloak of secrecy’ from shell firms that leaves housing loophole slated by politicians and other critics Business minister Matthew Hancock unveiled ‘the first UK anti-corruption plan bringing action across the government’. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Barcroft Media Government plans to rip “the cloak of secrecy” from corrupt officials… – Continue reading

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services Issues FATCA Guidance for Banks in Asia

Regional Adoption on Pace with Europe as Singapore Signs Agreement Experts at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services today issued guidance on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in an effort to help support banks’ regulatory compliance efforts within the region. The commentary comes in reaction to the news last week that… – Continue reading

Income tax on Facebook, Twitter likely next year

India will start charging income tax on digital economy firms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Uber, soon after the OECD finalises a framework by April 2015 to tackle the widespread corporate practice of shifting of profits to low-tax countries, government officials said on Wednesday. Tax may be levied on overseas… – Continue reading

Indonesia Bans Some From Travel in Tax Evasion Drive

Jakarta. Indonesia has banned from foreign travel senior representatives of 147 firms and 21 individuals with outstanding tax bills amounting to $42.8 million as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. The tax office, which is under finance ministry, is also processing bans on… – Continue reading

The trouble with Hockey’s tough talk on tax avoidance

Where do things stand with the government’s efforts to combat corporate tax avoidance and evasion, one of its priorities as G20 chair in 2014? The headlines suggest a contradictory stance. The latest headline is that Treasurer Hockey ‘backflips on tax laws to target multinational profit-shifters’. This refers to the announcement… – Continue reading

Government proposes separate unit for disposal of transfer pricing case

NEW DELHI: India is proposing to set up a dedicated dispute-resolution unit for expeditious disposal of transfer pricing cases that have in the past few years evoked strong reaction from domestic and international investors, with some dubbing this ‘tax terrorism’. Through this measure, the new government hopes to send out… – Continue reading