Category: Offshore Companies

China’s offshore empires go from help to headache

When is a Chinese company not Chinese? When it’s a complex web of offshore vehicles rooted in anonymous tax havens. That description includes some of the People’s Republic’s most successful and innovative companies. It will make the country’s apparent new push on tax evasion hard to enforce. Authorities have extracted… – Continue reading

Russia Cracks Down On Offshore Tax Havens

MOSCOW — There is nothing new about offshore tax shelters. In ancient Athens, after the government decided to levy a 2% tax on all trade operations, merchants started avoiding the city, conducting business on the surrounding islands instead. Those Greek islands became the first offshore tax havens. The current offshore… – Continue reading

Tax man mulls new transfer pricing law

THE South African Revenue Service (SARS) is investigating possible changes to the law to make it easier for it to audit transfer pricing by multinational companies to ensure that they pay their rightful tax dues to the government. The need to maximise tax revenue has become particularly acute in the… – Continue reading

Vestager says will use ‘Luxleaks’ documents in EU tax probe

The European Commission will use the ‘Luxleaks’ documents uncovered by investigative journalists three weeks ago in its ongoing investigation of tax avoidance at the European level, Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief, said on Thursday (20 November). The documents, known as the ‘Luxleaks’, showed that more than 300 companies, including… – Continue reading

Juncker faces censure motion over Luxembourg tax deals

The European Commission faces a censure motion in the European Parliament next week after right-wing, and far-right Eurosceptic lawmakers united to condemn the role its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, played in Luxembourg tax evasion schemes. A lack of support for the censure motion from other parties, less than a month after… – Continue reading

‘Anti-offshore’ law to bring billions back to Russian economy

Russia’s upper house of parliament has approved an “anti-offshore” law requiring individual and corporate taxpayers to report foreign profits. The Russian government aims to prevent capital outflow via “offshores,” estimated at $200 billion in 2014. The law requires Russian tax authorities to be notified of all foreign dealings. The government… – Continue reading

Macquarie Group hit by Tax Office ‘U-turn’

The Tax Office denied Macquarie Group a controversial tax deduction related to offshore subsidiaries that resulted in a long-running and costly court battle, while at the same time allowing other taxpayers to claim the deductions, a report finds. A report from inspector-general of taxation Ali Noroozi, released by the government… – Continue reading

HSBC’s Swiss arm charged with serious fiscal fraud

Belgian authorities have charged a Swiss subsidiary of HSBC with serious and organised fiscal fraud, money laundering, criminal organisation and illegal financial intermediary. Belgian prosecutors say HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) cheated the state by wooing very wealthy clients particularly in diamond businesses in Antwerp. The bank is said to have… – Continue reading

Crackdown on celebrity tax avoidance branded a failure

MPs have attacked the taxman for being too slow to crack down on controversial avoidance schemes used by celebrities and other high earners, resulting in millions of pounds being lost to the public purse. As much as £10 million may never be ­recoverable because of delays by Her Majesty’s Revenue… – Continue reading

Not doing enough being done to cut tax avoidance in UK, say MPs

LONDON: Britain’s tax collection agency is not doing enough to tackle multinational firms who use complex company structures to reduce their tax bills, a report by MPs said on Tuesday. Britain has sought to take a leading role in international efforts to reduce legal tax avoidance methods used by companies… – Continue reading

Russia Readies for Showdown Over Taxing Offshore Companies

Russia’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday took aim at the offshore holdings that have become ubiquitous in Russian business, passing in its final reading a bill that will make Russian taxpayers declare and pay taxes on their assets abroad. But once signed into law, this product of President Vladimir… – Continue reading

US Corporate Giants Pay More to CEOs than in Federal Taxes

Seven of the biggest U.S. corporations received billions of dollars in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, while dolling out an average of US$17.3 million to CEOs. While Congress is set to renew a slew of corporate tax breaks, new research published Tuesday found some of United States’ biggest… – Continue reading

29% Of Largest Corporations Pay More To CEO Than Uncle Sam

CEG says the U.S. corporate tax system is in desperate need of reform A recent report from the Center for Effective Government (Fleecing Uncle Sam) highlights that many large U.S. companies pay little to no corporate taxes, and a few even get tax rebates from the federal government. Moreover, in… – Continue reading

FATCA: Are Transnational Criminal Networks Influencing US Policy?

The New York Times’ report on prominent American think tanks receiving some $92 million from a minimum of 63 governments since 2011, prompted Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) to ask Attorney General Eric Holder, a long overdue question: “Should think tanks be allowed to take undisclosed donations from foreign governments?” According… – Continue reading

Jean-Claude Juncker faces censure vote over Luxembourg tax schemes

Eureopean Union chief’s actions as prime minister of Luxembourg attacked over alleged role in creation of tax haven Jean-Claude Juncker is facing a vote in the European parliament to declare him unfit for his post as head of the EU executive because of his alleged role in turning Luxembourg into… – Continue reading

Cyprus: Cyprus India Relations – Cyprus May No Longer Be A Tax Haven For Funds Or May It?

A publication in the Economic Times has caused much debate in India since after blacklisting Cyprus for not sharing information on tax evaders, India is now looking to take away the favourable tax treatment available to investors from the European tax heaven under the bilateral tax treaty between the two… – Continue reading

Lebanese Offshore Companies: Why it is so difficult to open a bank account in Lebanon?

Beirut, November 17, 2014: All-inclusive offshore solutions provider ‘Lebanon Offshore’ and auditing and consulting firm ‘Majzoub & Partners CPAs-Nexia International’ organized a conference titled “Why is it so difficult for Lebanese offshore companies to open a bank account in Lebanon?” on November 14, 2014 in Badaro, Beirut. Attended by a… – Continue reading

MLPs Can Generate Tax Bills In Retirement Accounts

It’s a surprise to many people that MLPs generate taxable income in retirement plans requiring a tax filing and payment of taxes. Traders and investors are interested in using their IRA and other retirement plan accounts (collectively referred to as “retirement plans”) for making “alternative investments” in publicly traded master… – Continue reading

Metlife Completes Merger of Three Life Insurance Companies and One Former Offshore Reinsurance Subsidiary

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) today announced that it had completed the mergers of its subsidiaries MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut, MetLife Investors USA Insurance Company, MetLife Investors Insurance Company and Exeter Reassurance Company Limited. The merged company has been renamed MetLife Insurance Company USA and is domiciled in Delaware. All necessary… – Continue reading

Beijing’s Interest in Offshore Tax Evasion Limited to Corrupt Officials

Fifty-one countries signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in Berlin on Oct. 29 to fight offshore tax fraud and evasion. The agreement aims to put an end to banking secrecy by sharing tax-related information with member states. Missing from the signatory list are the United States and China. China’s absence… – Continue reading

Corporate Close-Up: The Burden of California’s Taxes and Fees on Limited Liability Companies

The limited liability company, or LLC, has become a popular form for organizing a business.  Using an LLC generally avoids the double layer of taxation encountered with a corporation while providing limited liability for its members, and offers more flexibility than S corporations in which corporations may not be shareholders. … – Continue reading

Businesswoman contests release of Cayman bank records

A high-profile businesswoman accused of using Cayman Islands bank accounts to dodge more than $7 million in taxes is seeking to challenge the use of information obtained by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service through a tax information exchange request. Cheryl Womack, a Kansas City businesswoman who has a home and… – Continue reading

Nigeria: Still On the Taxation of Foreign Companies Operating in Nigeria

IN July 2014, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sent letters to some tax consultants requesting their non-resident clients operating in Nigeria to file complete tax returns effective from 2014 tax year. In practice, non-resident companies file their tax returns on the deemed profit basis. Following an initial period of… – Continue reading

Cost-benefit analysis puts corporate tax avoidance in perspective

The growing crackdown on tax avoidance risks ushering in a broader suppression of international tax competition, harming the interests of all taxpayers. An inevitable consequence of economic globalisation is that supply chains and financial linkages have become dispersed across geographic space, and producers now strive to provide customers with quality… – Continue reading

Corruption fighters confident for G20 tax haven crackdown

G20 guide: what to expect Brisbane residents will experience “longer travel times” as G20 forces roads and bus stations to be closed in the CBD and South Bank. Autoplay ONOFFVideo feedbackVideo settings G20: full coverage The global coalition against corruption – Transparency International – hopes Sunday’s G20 closing statement in… – Continue reading

PwC in secret tax deals while advising ATO

NEIL CHENOWETH Global accounting firm PwC was advising the Australian Taxation Office how to run its transfer pricing unit at the same time that its Luxembourg office was cutting favourable tax agreements for Australian companies. Luxembourg documents show PwC obtained secret tax agreements for more than 30 Australian companies in… – Continue reading

GSD URGES LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR TAX AND IRKS GOVT

There must be a level playing field when it comes to taxation so that Gibraltar will suffer the burdens of compliance but not the benefits of having a compliant tax system, said the GSD Opposition this week.  “That would simply place Gibraltar at a significant disadvantage and would be unacceptable,”… – Continue reading

DTCC Sponsored Aite Study Reveals Increased Regulations and Immature Processes as Top Concerns in the Management of Client and Legal Entity Data

80 Percent View Derivatives Regulation and FATCA as Greatest Operational Challenges New York/London/Hong Kong/Singapore, November 11, 2014 – Increased regulatory requirements and related penalties, along with immature and fragmented data management processes are ranked as top concerns for financial firms in the management of client and legal entity data, according… – Continue reading

Russia is about to adopt anti-offshore measures

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia is speeding towards the adoption of anti-offshore legislation. The State Duma (lower house of parliament) on Tuesday will hold the first reading of amendments to the Tax Code obliging both individuals and legal entities to notify the authorities of their foreign properties and profits. This… – Continue reading

Cayman Islands sheds its tax haven image

The 2013 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) peer review report states that Cayman Islands has developed its standards rapidly, and has proven its long-standing commitment to adhering to the highest standards of regulations. KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10, 2014: The often scrutinised Cayman Islands —  having long been associated… – Continue reading

New loophole to replace the ‘Double Irish’ tax strategy

Another sophisticated loophole in the tax system means the removal of the “Double Irish” tax-avoidance strategy won’t actually have any real impact for US firms in Ireland seeking to lower their tax bills. An influential US tax journal has found that the Irish subsidiaries of US companies can easily opt… – Continue reading

Hiding places where Indian black money is concealed

Aparajita Basak, the manager, of research analytics, innovation and knowledge centre at Frost & Sullivan, talks about the use of tax havens across the world for Indian black money. What kind of role do tax havens play in black money in terms of Indian companies and individuals? Across the world,… – Continue reading

India: Sham Transactions: Recent Developments In Indian Tax Law

Delhi Tribunal holds that the mere fact that one of the steps in a transaction resulted in capital loss for the taxpayer would not make the series of transactions a sham. Karnataka High Court holds that shares bought at a premium, and sold at a lower value to individuals (ex-employees… – Continue reading

Cayman Islands: Asian Firms Face Growing Offshore Compliance Risks

Imagine a scenario in which a Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager establishes and appoints an offshore management company to provide investment management services for its fund. On one hand, the fund’s structure ensures a clear operational base. But at another level, key governance procedures are often neglected. These tasks include… – Continue reading

CAPITAL FLIGHT IN LATIN AMERICA

From 1970 to 2011, US$2 trillion from Latin America and the Caribbean have been funneled to offshore tax havens. It’s money that moves behind the scenes, in illicit financial flows (IFF). These transnational transfers come from three sources of illegal funds: corruption (bribery), money laundering (contraband, trafficking of drugs, weapons,… – Continue reading

Opera star Montserrat Caballé reaches deal to avoid jail for tax evasion

Spanish soprano to pay fine after already returning the €500,000 she withheld in 2010 World-famous soprano Montserrat Caballé is close to ending the darkest chapter of her career. The opera singer has reached a deal with the Spanish tax authorities over more than €500,000 that prosecutors claim she withheld in… – Continue reading

Dutch tax regime similar to Luxembourg’s, auditors find

BRUSSELS – Dividend, interest and royalty payments that companies let pass through the Netherlands to avoid taxation have increased substantially in the past decade, the Netherlands Court of Audit has found. In a report published on Thursday (6 November), the court writes that tax laws and treaties that originally were… – Continue reading

Aid Funding is Being Routed Through Tax Havens

BRUSSELS – Aid funding intended for private enterprises in developing country is being moved through offshore tax havens, potentially hindering tax collections in the developing countries it was meant to help. Government operated aid and development organizations around the world routinely route investments and funds through entities domiciled in offshore… – Continue reading

N. Y. judge to Wylys: You can’t keep SEC away by declaring bankruptcy

Onetime Texas billionaire Sam Wyly and the estate of his late brother Charles just can’t seem to outsmart the Securities and Exchange Commission. Their latest attempt to evade the consequences of their allegedly fraudulent offshore trust scheme failed Monday, when U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin of Manhattan, in a ruling… – Continue reading

Big 4 Audit Firms Play Big Role in Offshore Murk

For more than a decade, tax gurus at PricewaterhouseCoopers helped Caterpillar Inc., the U.S. heavy equipment maker, move profits produced by its lucrative spare-parts business from the U.S. to a tiny subsidiary in Switzerland. Little changed except the bookkeeping. Parts were still shipped from suppliers to a warehouse in Morton,… – Continue reading

Pension board that set up offshore shell companies is separate from government, Tony Clement affirms

CBC probe finds civil servants’ pensions invested via Luxembourg shell companies to avoid foreign tax Cabinet Minister Tony Clement has moved to distance the federal government from a Crown corporation’s decision to set up a complex arrangement of offshore companies as part of a tax “avoidance scheme” on pension investments… – Continue reading

Tax haven crackdown still to deliver missing billions

Tax avoidance, or the use of legal arrangements to reduce tax, is rife. According to the Australian Tax Office (ATO), Australian companies in 2012 sent almost A$60 billion to related parties in tax havens. Singapore and Ireland topped the list of countries where businesses send their money. A recent report… – Continue reading

UK aid investments target tax havens

Private sector arm of DfID and other EU development institutions channel significant investments to offshore havens, study finds More than two-thirds of the investments made by the private sector arm of the UK’s aid programme last year were channelled through “notoriously secretive” tax havens, according to a report that calls… – Continue reading

Maine’s largest landowner, billionaire media magnate avoids millions in taxes with inversion deal

NEW YORK — Shifting the address of his Liberty Global Inc. from Colorado to London last year didn’t just put billionaire John C. Malone in a position to reduce his company’s tax bill. He also took precautions to avoid the capital-gains hit that the so-called inversion would trigger for him… – Continue reading

Large-scale account inheritance emerges in black money probe

NEW DELHI/BERNE: Accounts inherited from family members as also from previously-constituted trusts or companies have come to the fore in a big way, as India seeks further details from Switzerland about those suspected to have ‘unaccounted’ wealth parked in the Swiss banks. Hundreds of individuals and entities, including 627 names… – Continue reading

Offshore firms: in the zone

London is an increasingly important hub for offshore law firms, which are winning business from City-based financial institutions, and clients in Russia, western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Offshore law firms are constantly evolving, it seems. Traditionally, they operated in one offshore territory: whether the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey… – Continue reading

Tax revenues are under relentless attack – the government needs to take action

Taxes are the price of a civilised society and without them no state can provide social infrastructure, alleviate poverty, subsidise corporations or rescue distressed banks. But tax revenues are under relentless attack and corporate ingenuity in avoiding taxes shows no limits. Companies have become very adept at shifting profits to… – Continue reading

Europe’s tax haven investments in Africa

In front of European Commissioners, leading politicians, chief executives of huge multinationals, senior bank bosses and billionaires, the Egyptian investment tycoon was asked to set the tone of the forum, a three-day lobbying event funded by the EU. Dr Heikal is founder and chairman of Qalaa, an African investment fund… – Continue reading

Where did all the black money come from and how did it get out of India?

Hawala networks are being replaced by sophisticated transfer pricing approaches. The image is easy to envision. Corrupt politicians, crooked corporate honchos and evil criminals stashing away their ill-gotten gains in shady Swiss banks. Thousands of crores of rupees that should be earning India tax revenue wilfully being hidden from authorities… – Continue reading

UAE in top five offshore markets for client origination over next five years

Offshore Incorporations Limited (OIL), a division of OV Group, a company formation and corporate service specialist focused on serving the financial and professional intermediary sectors, has released its fifth annual market research report “Offshore 2020”. This year, over 300 global senior industry stakeholders were surveyed, highlighting major trends and providing… – Continue reading