TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Finance Ministry`s Tax Directorate General ensures all preparations have been completed before the implementation the automatic exchange of information (AEoI). The program is set to kick off in September this year. “It’s ready; we can now just wait for the data. It will be done through… – Continue reading
Several multi-national corporations have moved their European headquarters outside of the UK ahead of Brexit, and many others are expected to follow suit, especially as the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit rises further. Japanese tech giant Panasonic will be transferring its European HQ away from London to Amsterdam in October… – Continue reading
At a recent merger and acquisition (M&A) forum, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said that in restructuring of the country’s banking industry, the Government plans not to license any more wholly foreign-owned banks in Viet Nam, instead encouraging foreign banks to acquire domestic banks. According to Hue, the Government… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the finance ministry task force established to pursue laundered Pakistani cash parked overseas to submit its recommendations within two weeks, Minister for Finance Asad Umar said on Monday. He said the government would first move against the Pakistani owners of $8 billion worth… – Continue reading
India is to receive bank account information from HSBC, after Switzerland’s highest court ruled that the bank is obligated to provide data requested where the leaked data has not been purchased. The information was leaked in 2008 by Herve Falciani, who worked for HSBC’s Swiss private bank. The Indian authorities… – Continue reading
UK taxpayers who receive any foreign income or profits from offshore assets have been urged to contact HMRC and disclose this income before 30th September 2018 to avoid being hit by higher penalties. David Redfern, tax preparation specialist and director of DSR Tax Claims, warned those affected to contact HMRC… – Continue reading
Securing citizenship in the Eastern Caribbean jewel of Antigua and Barbuda is now easier for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) investors. Early this week, the parliament of Antigua and Barbuda unanimously approved the resolution to amend the Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP) Act, allowing for payments to be made in Bitcoin BCH… – Continue reading
The UK is upgrading its national security by adopting a recently implemented European Union fifth anti-money laundering directive, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced in a statement on Tuesday. The fifth directive is aimed at combating corruption and money laundering and came into effect in the… – Continue reading
The extension of the deadline of the tax amnesty scheme has not borne the results it was expected to. The FBR is said to have taken the advice of accounting firms to extend the deadline, but the results have not matched the early optimism. Despite this, though, the amnesty scheme… – Continue reading
A vote by the UK parliament to insist that Britain’s Overseas Territories introduce publicly available beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020, has sparked anger and dismay within these autonomous, mainly small island, jurisdictions. An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose… – Continue reading
A bill tabled in Parliament last week aims to strengthen the Government’s ability to detect criminals who want to use Samoa’s offshore banking scheme to hide the proceeds of their criminal activities. That’s what Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi said when the Money Laundering Prevention Amendment Bill 2018 was tabled… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is poised to receive information about offshore financial accounts in September 2018. This was stated by the spokesperson and member policy Dr Muhammad Iqbal while addressing a press conference on the ongoing Tax Amnesty Scheme on Friday. Due to the initiatives by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and… – Continue reading
As June 30th deadline to file returns with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) fast closes in, a section of rich Kenyans who have hidden assets overseas are rushing to return the assets to avoid paying taxes. Tax consultants told Business Daily that the wealthy lot is repatriating the cash to avoid… – Continue reading
London and Cyprus have tightened the regulations for banking operations, and the accounts belonging to Russians face blocking. Last weekend, Britain said it could block the bank accounts of about 100 foreigners. The assets will be frozen unless their owners provide information on the source of the money. At the… – Continue reading
The crusade against fiscal havens is not working. According to the BIS, “banks’ outstanding claims on offshore banking centres surpassed their previous peak recorded in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Outstanding cross-border claims on offshore centres totalled $4.6 trillion at end-2017, compared with $4.3 trillion at end-March 2008.”… – Continue reading
The holding of bank accounts and life insurances abroad follows a downward trend, reported La Libre Belgique on Saturday, based on figures from the federal tax administration. According to tax returns, the decrease since 2015 is around 5 to 10% for accounts abroad, life insurance and offshore construction. “It’s quite… – Continue reading
Swiss authorities have received requests for information concerning potential secret Swiss bank accounts linked to the Delhi-based microfinance NGO Sarvajan Unnati Bodhini.... - Continue reading
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said employees of regional operating headquarters (ROHQ) who used to enjoy preferential tax rates, will no longer be able to avail them beginning this year. In a tax advisory, the BIR said in view of the recent amendment of the provisions of Section 25(B),… – Continue reading
KARACHI: Government on Saturday said it may roll out an amnesty to allow offshore bank account holders to declare their wealth against nominal tax rates ahead of the implementation of OECD’s treaty to exchange financial details with foreign countries in September. Miftah Ismail, adviser to the Prime Minister for finance,… – Continue reading
CYBERJAYA: The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) is in the midst of auditing 15 banks with offshore transactions in an effort to collect hundreds of millions of ringgit worth of taxes. IRB deputy chief executive officer (compliance) Abdul Manaf Dim said the auditing processes of the banks nationwide were among the… – Continue reading
Letters calling for the elimination of FATCA, among other tax issues, will be presented to the White House in about two weeks’ time. A global political organisation with affiliation to the Republican Party has recently launched a petition and letter writing campaign in protest of “citizenship-based” taxation – partly in… – Continue reading
A loophole may make it a good place for foreigners to keep cash. Some 65,000 Puerto Ricans left their bankrupt U.S. island commonwealth last year. A group of private bankers are moving the other way. They’re increasingly opening offshore banks known as International Financial Entities, which were created by a… – Continue reading
New data-sharing rules aren’t without pitfalls for clients of private banks, as authorities race to shut loopholes, Bank Reyl lawyer Drazen Turujlija told finews.asia-TV. Switzerland is set to begin exchanging data with other countries from next year, a move which has fundamentally shifted the dynamic in Switzerland’s trillion-Swiss franc offshore… – Continue reading
The global campaign against money laundering combined with the Panama Papers made the Caribbean islands of sun, sand and offshore banking a near no-go zone for the world’s biggest banks. So the British Virgin Islands has a solution: a bank to service offshore companies, many of them from China, locked… – Continue reading
Over $2.6 trillion is held as untaxed cash in offshore accounts by top US companies like Apple, Google, IBM, Pfizer, Pepsi and Coke, McDonald’s etc. according to a report by the Washington-based Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP). This is the highest-ever hoard held offshore by American companies and… – Continue reading
Dubai,, till now considered a tax haven , has decided to share information of the bank accounts in the UAE with the Indian government starting next year. This has sent jitters among several Indians, who are rushing to hide their undeclared wealth stashed abroad. From January 2018, the UAE will… – Continue reading
The Portuguese parliament voted unanimously to pass a draft law by the Left Bloc that makes it mandatory to publish the annual total and destinations of transfers to offshore accounts, regardless of any ministerial decisions. Tax office statistics with the amounts transferred to offshore accounts were not published between 2011… – Continue reading
The government’s plan to issue a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) concerning banking transparency, which includes allowing the tax authority to access taxpayers’ bank data, has sparked hot public debate. The proponents argue that such an initiative is critical, outlining the fact that the government has to comply with… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday told the National Assembly that Pakistan will sign an agreement with Switzerland on exchange of information regarding bank accounts on March 21. “The Swiss government offered to sign such an agreement with Pakistan in the third quarter of the current month that will enable… – Continue reading
New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) India and Belgium have signed a Protocol to amend the double taxation avoidance agreement to curb tax evasion, an official statement said on Thursday. “India and Belgium have signed a protocol amending the existing agreement and protocol between the two countries for avoidance of double… – Continue reading
Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the avalanche of government announcements on tax avoidance and evasion. In the first of a two part series, Jason Collins, a member of the CIOT’s management of taxes sub-committee and partner at Pinsent Mason, provides an overview of the rapidly changing… – 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
The State Administration of Taxation (SAT) is about to hold Chinese citizens’ foreign account information in 101 countries and regions, as the regulation on the localization of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in China was put into effect on January 1, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. Under the… – Continue reading
‘Private Banking’ is a term that usually conjures up images of secret banking transactions being carried out on behalf Royal families, the landed gentry and wealthy individuals. That’s how private banking started, but is not a fair reflection of private banking today. Today, it’s not your family tree that matters… – Continue reading
The IRS has been using a John Doe summons to get access to taxpayers’ bitcoin information and is now using the same tactic to get debit card information. According to a report by Forbes, a federal court in Montana gave the IRS permission to serve Michael Behr of Bozeman, Montana,… – Continue reading
Agency is increasingly turning to cutting-edge data analysis techniques to improve service and ‘compliance’ The Canada Revenue Agency is scrutinizing the Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and other social media posts of Canadians it suspects could be cheating on their taxes. That’s just one example of the agency’s increasing focus on… – 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
In his Budget speech on 11 October 2016, the Minister for Finance announced a comprehensive programme of targeted intervention against offshore tax evasion. Positive action is required ahead of 1 May 2017 for those with undeclared income and gains from offshore assets. Finance Act 2016, which includes legislative changes required… – Continue reading
The creation of a new United Nations tax body to clamp down on tax dodging, which experts say could cost developing countries more than $200 billion a year in missed revenues, will be a key priority of the Group of 77 and China under Ecuadorian leadership, according to the country’s… – Continue reading
THE Panama Papers, the world’s biggest leak, highlighted the complex ways used by companies and individuals to conceal who the actual beneficiaries of a company are. Some of them put their money into offshore accounts such as in Labuan, which is also an off-shore financial centre and tax haven. One… – Continue reading
Malta was today (11 January) accused of being a tax haven as it took over the rotating presidency of the EU. Some companies in the EU’s smallest country pay as little as 5% tax on their profits. The small Mediterranean island would have been included in the list of tax… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE: Under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) which has been in effect since Jan 1, Singapore-based Financial Institutions (FIs) are now required to establish the tax residency status of all their account holders, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) said on Friday (Jan 6). The CRS is an internationally… – Continue reading
Centralised company registers will now detail who ultimate beneficiaries are. Malta’s stand on amendments seen as ‘watering down’ anti-money-laundering rules are in line with the EU’s position, a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister told the Times of Malta. EU governments have just agreed to create centralised company… – Continue reading
On December 29, 2016, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had reached final arrangements with the financial institutions meeting the requirements of its Swiss Bank Program. The Program, which was originally signed by the United States and Switzerland in August 2013, has provided a path for Swiss… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency needs to toughen up the program that offers advantageous deals to tax cheats, especially in cases where large amounts of income were not declared through deliberate schemes, a federally appointed committee says. In a report released Thursday, the Offshore Compliance Advisory Committee called for a series… – Continue reading
Taxpayers with offshore assets urged to get affairs in order before May clampdown Taxpayers with offshore assets ranging from foreign properties to deposit accounts or structured investments are being urged to get their affairs in order ahead of a May clampdown by the Revenue Commissioners – even if they believe… – Continue reading
Social media posts, private school records and immigration data are being used by the Australian Taxation Office as part of an increasingly sophisticated crackdown on tax cheats that yielded nearly $10 billion last year. ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan said the tax office had been investing in data collection analysis of… – Continue reading
Over the past few years, Apple’s cash hoard has swelled to near unthinkable levels. Per the company’s most recent earnings report, Apple now has more than $237 billion in cash and other securities, anchored of course by the company’s insanely lucrative iPhone. Though the iPhone only has a thin slice… – Continue reading
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has netted more than $10 billion in secret offshore cash and investments. The controversial Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has encouraged more than 100,000 taxpayers to reveal their overseas holdings. But the IRS suggests this is just the start as FATCA cranks up… – Continue reading
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble wants to force Germans to disclose their dealings with offshore firms in tax havens and make banks liable for lost tax income if they conceal their clients’ business with such firms, a draft law shows. Tax havens were thrown into the limelight in April when… – Continue reading
