PERHAPS, tax is like death. With the full weight of its certainty, people still struggle to shrug it off. At least, not many smile to tax collectors when they call knocking. Hence, some people dodge payment or under declare taxable income where it is possible to do so, a practice… – Continue reading
This is a rather sad commentary on the state of democracy today. For we’ve a senior UK politician, Margaret, Lady Hodge, appearing to demand that Apple AAPL +0.66% acts against international tax law when considering its price and tax policies. At the heart of this is the system known as… – Continue reading
Treasurer Joe Hockey has said that he will improve the structural integrity of Australia’s tax system to address international tax avoidance by multinational enterprises. In particular, the tax law will be tightened to prevent a multinational from shifting profits from Australia by claiming excess interest expense deductions. This tax avoidance technique is… – Continue reading
Here’s a question for investors in any big U.S. corporation with foreign operations: Do you know what the company’s tax bill would be if it had to bring its overseas earnings home? The answer, alas, is that they probably don’t. That’s because most companies with large foreign earnings don’t disclose… – Continue reading
GLOBAL firms’ growing ability to avoid company tax by shifting their intellectual property to low-tax countries could undermine Australians’ respect for the tax system, causing greater leakage of revenue, a senior Treasury official warned yesterday. Rob Heferen, head of revenue at the federal Treasury, also said Australia’s massive reliance on… – Continue reading
In Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens, Nicholas Shaxson, a former Financial Times and Economist correspondent, argues that tax havens play a central role in a number of crises, including economic stagnation, countries facing bankruptcy and recession. The book demonstrates why tax evasion is costing… – Continue reading
Finland’s Tax Administration has lost a landmark court case on transfer pricing. The Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling means the taxman could now lose out on hundreds of millions of euros in tax. The Finnish Tax Administration could lose out on millions of euros in tax from multinationals after a decision… – Continue reading
LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission is widening its probe into how multinationals use countries such as Luxembourg to cut their tax bill, an official with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. Last month, the Commission warned Ireland, another EU country that offers companies offshore tax status, that it… – Continue reading
The authorities are looking to entice Russian-owned offshore firms to repatriate capital. A new law will impose penalties on such companies for tax evasion, but offers 2-year amnesty for those firms which decide to relocate to Russia. The Finance Ministry has decided to grant a 2-year amnesty for offshore companies… – Continue reading
Treasurer Joe Hockey will introduce legislation this month to tighten corporate taxation loopholes but says there must be a global solution to tax evasion. The government is going ahead with rule changes to lower the amount of debt a multinational firm based in Australia can have on its books. This… – Continue reading
Players say it amounts to double taxation, prompts companies to refrain from giving dividends As foreign investors once again bet on India ‘story’, stock markets in the country are on a high. They are not running out of steam as predicted by many, but gaining strength by the day. Every… – Continue reading
The Finance Ministry is pushing ahead with its program to entice Russian-owned offshore firms to repatriate capital. A new law will impose penalties on such companies for tax evasion, but offers the carrot of a 2-year amnesty for those firms which decide to relocate to Russia. The Finance Ministry has… – Continue reading
Spain signed an agreement with the Dominican Republic to avoid double taxation of individuals and companies that are subject to levies in both nations. The accord, published today in the Spanish government’s Official Bulletin, allows income tax paid in one nation to be deductible in the other nation from income… – Continue reading
RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh commercial tax department, which recently unearthed the multi-crore rupee bogus billing scam, is all set to investigate the role of lawyers, who were responsible for registration of taxpayer identification number (TIN) of the phony companies involved in the racket. The department has also decided to impose heavy penalties,… – Continue reading
President Obama yesterday signed into law a bill which contains little-publicised elements that are expected to impact non-US financial institutions, funds and collective investment structures. The bill’s passage on 8 March 2010 represents a success for certain US lawmakers who have been seeking to crack down on Americans who have… – Continue reading
Liechtenstein is betting its offer to automatically share tax data on banking clients will end the principality’s decades-long reputation as a tax haven, a top bank official said. Simon Tribelhorn, director of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association, said the announcement in November to lock in automatic-exchange agreements with five European nations… – Continue reading
Mining company Glencore has denied reports that it has evaded taxes in Australia for the last three years in spite of earning A$15bn. The company said that it has paid A$8bn in royalties and taxes in the country over the last seven years. An earlier report by the Sunday Morning… – Continue reading
Many people are mis-sold offshore company formation packages with no guarantee of a bank account Over the years we’ve received so many queries from poor souls who’ve been sold an offshore company formation package, only to discover that they aren’t eligible to open an offshore bank account (or even an… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is preparing to examine transfer pricing cases, which have significant revenue implication for the exchequer and lead to longdrawn litigation between companies and tax authorities. The CAG has so far not been auditing transfer pricing cases, mainly because of the shortage of… – Continue reading
Increasing sophistication in combatting base erosion and profit shifting, and the corresponding increase in transfer pricing documentation, have posed a challenge for businesses. The following article considers the tension between the competing demands. Companies are facing a proliferation of transfer pricing documentation demands. While the new requirements set out in… – Continue reading
Tax attorney Rob Wood discusses his Forbes article “If An Individual Pulled The Tax Gimmicks Of Apple And Other Big Companies, They’d Go To Jail” that points out the tax breaks given to corporations by America’s tax code. Using tax breaks available to corporations, a mere 30 companies have $1.2… – Continue reading
Asia Pacific shares were down on Wednesday, 25 June 2014, as losses in the United States overnight and ongoing violence in Middle East dampened sentiment. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.4% Investors prompted to take profit off the table as fresh reports of violence in Iraq, including unconfirmed airstrikes… – Continue reading
Most of the 2,110 enterprises inspected in 2013 had to admit to losses lower than initially declared and accepted to pay tax sums set by the taxation bodies after the inspection. Regarding foreign invested enterprises (FIEs), Nam said taxation bodies have completed the inspection of over 20 enterprises in 17… – Continue reading
Borrowing costs of offshore yuan in Hong Kong surged to their highest levels in a year last week as banks became more reluctant to part with their money in the run-up to the end of the half-year and demand for funds increased with the opening up of more channels for… – Continue reading
The U.S. taxman is about to extend his reach, and not even those infamous offshore accounts may be able to escape the long arm of the law. A milestone is coming July 1 in the federal government’s long-term effort to root out tax evasion by people who keep money offshore…. – Continue reading
Pat Rabbitte, Ireland’s energy minister, has introduced a proposal to increase Irish offshore tax rates. The proposed rules will provide a higher tax take for the state, ensuring earlier revenue from developed fields, Rabbitte said at a Dublin conference. The proposed rules would charge taxes on a field by field… – Continue reading
In an era when many companies seek international solutions that in simpler times might have been openly labeled “tax evasion,” governments around the world are seeking to ensure they are not cheated of legally due taxes by what is now euphemistically called “profit shifting.” Apple Inc. (AAPL) has been keeping… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The European Commission has told Ireland it may investigate more companies as part of a probe into the country’s tax practices, after announcing a formal probe into Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) Irish subsidiaries, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The EU is investigating whether Ireland, Luxembourg… – Continue reading
The European Union is closing a loophole that allows companies to shift some of their profits between different country divisions to avoid taxation. European Union finance ministers in Luxembourg on Friday agreed on the reform after months of squabbling because some countries feared losing business from multinational firms. The ministers… – Continue reading
The issue has dominated debate among world leaders and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in recent months. In fact, it’s the OECD that’s been driving an effort to coordinate information exchange between jurisdictions under a single global standard in an effort to develop tax transparency. Moving on… – Continue reading
NEW YORK • What’s greasing the wheels for the rise in mergers by U.S. companies? The tax man. Two tax-code quirks — one that charges U.S. companies when they repatriate overseas earnings, the other that allows them to claim a foriegn domicile without moving their senior leadership abroad — are… – Continue reading
US multinationals incorporated in Ireland should have their entire global operations taxed here, a leading academic has claimed. Addressing the Oireachtas sub-committee on global taxation yesterday, Jim Stewart, associate professor in finance at Trinity College Dublin, said that existing tax residency rules, for multinational firms, are “extremely ambiguous” and suggested… – Continue reading
Bermuda has again been singled out and labelled “a tax haven” by US legislators as they last week attached an amendment to US federal funding measures, seeking to block federal contracts to former American companies involved in corporate inversions. A leading publisher of financial information, Bankrate Inc, reported at Bankrate.com:… – Continue reading
It’s a very small world when it comes to money and banking, as we all learned in 2007. Now the Internal Revenue Service is extending its reach to financial activities of U.S. citizens who have money in foreign financial institutions. On July 1, 2014 FATCA — the Foreign Account Tax… – Continue reading
Going offshore means registering any intellectual property (IP) in an offshore company and delegating R&D and marketing to onshore companies. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and taking your business international is no picnic. On June 12, the International Business Structuring Association (IBSA) held a seminar to discuss ways of growing… – Continue reading
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to introduce transfer pricing regulations from July 1, 2014 in a bid to check tax avoidance by multinational companies. The Transfer Pricing Law, approved through the Finance Bill-2012, remained in process of preparing ground work for its successful implementation. It will help… – Continue reading
Here in Ireland we can puff up our breasts and deny that there is anything tax haven-like about this country but the rest of the world believes otherwise. Poor Enda Kenny, who is chief theologian on the not-a-tax-haven side needs the Medtronic announcement like a hole in the head. There… – Continue reading
Just as water flows downhill, so do the profits of multinational corporations travel toward the countries with the lowest tax rates. That’s a fact of life in an era of global markets and businesses; there will always be countries that set unusually low corporate tax rates in the hope of… – Continue reading
The European Commission has opened an investigation to examine whether the taxes paid by Starbucks in the Netherlands comply with the EU rules on state aid. The investigation is one of three, with Apple being investigated in Ireland and Fiat in Luxembourg. This comes after revelations that the Netherlands is… – Continue reading
(CS) The Luxembourg Finance Ministry on Thursday published a statement defending its tax regime, following the launch of an EU probe into deals with multinationals in several members states. The investigation aims to determine whether special tax deals could amount to illegal state aid. Affected companies include Apple, Starbucks, Google,… – Continue reading
A Piketty Protégé’s Theory on Tax Havens GABRIEL ZUCMAN is a 27-year-old French economist who decided to solve a puzzle: Why do international balance sheets each year show more liabilities than assets, as if the world is in debt to itself? Over the last couple of decades, the few international… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc. (MDT), the globe-spanning medical device maker founded in a Minneapolis garage in 1949, is poised to become the biggest company yet to escape the U.S. tax system by shifting its incorporation abroad. Medtronic said yesterday it plans to take a legal address in tax-friendly Ireland as part of… – Continue reading
The European Commission has opened an investigation to examine whether the taxes paid by Starbucks in the Netherlands comply with the EU rules on state aid. The investigation is one of three, with Apple being investigated in Ireland and Fiat in Luxembourg. This comes after revelations that the Netherlands is… – Continue reading
While the UK government continues its battle against tax evasion and tax avoidance, the authorities have received welcome support from the High Court with a ruling backing last year’s bid to stop investors avoiding stamp duty. In simple terms, savvy investors were transferring ownership of property to an offshore company… – Continue reading
AS NAMIBIAN political activists, we are writing to you because we are greatly concerned about your transfer-pricing methods. We know that transfer-pricing occurs when two companies from the same multinational corporation trade with each other. This is probably the most important issue as far as international taxation is concerned, since… – Continue reading
Competition takes many forms in capitalism. Financial engineering by corporations to avoid paying taxes is one aspect of this competition — under the rigors of market competition, evading responsibility is an innovation to be emulated. The magnitude of tax evasion on the part of multi-national corporations through one channel —… – Continue reading
The fight against aggressive tax planning by multinationals will be one of the “key issues” for the European Parliament over the next five years, EU economics and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has said. Speaking at an event hosted by European Movement Ireland and BDO in Brussels yesterday, Mr Rehn,… – Continue reading
The Financial Times says today that 14 US tech & pharma groups, including Microsoft, Google and Johnson & Johnson, have cut their average tax rate by a quarter over the past eight years as they parked more cash offshore than all other US companies combined. Almost a half trillion dollars… – Continue reading
The European Commission raised pressure on Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg over their corporate tax practices, saying it was investigating deals the countries have cut with Apple, Starbucks and Fiat. The Commission, the executive body of the European Union, is looking at whether the countries’ tax treatment of multinationals that… – Continue reading
Like a bad penny, this tax repatriation idea just keeps coming back. You know, the one where you offer a bribe to multinational corporations in the form of a big tax cut to “repatriate” their foreign earnings. In this case, members on both sides of the aisle are conspiring to… – Continue reading
