On 30 October 2015, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes published a supplementary peer review report for Luxembourg. Luxembourg, which was rated “Non-Compliant” in November 2013, has since implemented a number of recommendations made by the Global Forum, leading to an upgrade of its… – Continue reading
€1 trillion a year: that’s how much tax evasion and tax avoidance is costing European tax payers every year, according to the European Commission. Parliament set up a special committee to investigate these practices in the wake of the Luxleaks scandals and came up with plans to ensure multinationals pay… – Continue reading
A Protocol to Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between India and Denmark that has entered into force on February 1, 2015, has been notified by Notification No. 45/2015/F No. 503/02/1998-FDI-I, to expand the scope of Exchange of Information (EOI) clause under Article 26 by substituting the same with a new Article… – Continue reading
The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has helped grab £5.17 billion in lost tax held in secret offshore bank accounts. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has revealed the figures in a FATCA update. The IRS says the controversial law has made identifying offshore cash and investments that taxpayers… – Continue reading
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) impacts Irish funds from 1 January 2016. The CRS framework represents a globally coordinated approach to the disclosure of income earned by individuals and organisations in order to combat tax evasion. It emerged from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in February 2014… – Continue reading
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service announced the exchange of financial account information with certain foreign tax administrations as the next step in efforts to combat offshore tax evasion. This is a significant portion of the IRS’s efforts to enforce FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which was enacted in… – Continue reading
As a reminder, the international automatic exchange of financial account information is considered by most countries as particularly efficient in the fight against tax evasion and international tax fraud and is becoming the new global standard (considering the US FATCA legislation, the OECD Common Reporting Standard). The Belgian Council of… – Continue reading
The voluntary disclosure is passing under the banner of the last kilometer. By November 30, the games will be made. One can already say that the operation is a success announced. Order of Chartered Accountants of Milan has estimated that the transaction will derive from the tax authorities at least… – Continue reading
Antalya, Nov. 16: The Group of 20 nations today pledged to adopt sound macroeconomic policies to achieve strong, sustainable balanced growth. The near-term objective would be to support growth, create jobs and put debt as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) on a sustainable path. Data show that several… – Continue reading
Indonesia is set to end its “bank secrecy” policy in September 2017, allowing the country to exchange tax information with other countries, which would be a major step in the fight against tax evasion and financial fraud. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that Indonesia would be an early adopter of… – Continue reading
A bill submitted to the Luxembourg Parliament in November 2015 would transpose, into Luxembourg domestic law, an EU directive amending a 2011 directive for administrative cooperation and concerning the exchange of information on request. The directive (2011/16/EU) as amended, is referred to as “DAC 2” (the updated “directive on administrative… – Continue reading
Draft regulations in Guernsey for implementing the common reporting standard (CRS) for the automatic exchange of information are expected to be published in final form in early 2016. Guernsey has indicated its commitment for adopting the CRS, with effect from 1 January 2016, so that the first reporting would take… – Continue reading
Thanks to the FiTAX tax reporting solution, some 2,000 financial institutions successfully met the reporting requirements of tax authorities. FiTAX FATCA covers more than 45 countries. ZURICH, SWITZERLAND—(Marketwired – Nov. 12, 2015) – 2015 marks a turning point in the FATCA timeline: for the first time, Financial Foreign Institutions (FFIs)… – Continue reading
The “heads up” for Reporting Financial Institutions on foreign investors’ limited voluntary disclosure opportunities Nearly one hundred jurisdictions (Participating Jurisdictions) have already committed to participate in the CRS promulgated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Most of them have committed to be “early adopters” of the CRS… – Continue reading
Contractors are running out of time to get to grips with international tax regulations, according to CXC Global. The contractor management specialist has warned professionals that the new automatic exchange of tax information, put in place by the OECD, will mean that countries will have considerably more information on potential… – Continue reading
Presidency sent to Congress ratification of treaties with Jersey, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands and Uruguay; text follows the G20 guidelines The Presidency referred for evaluation of Congress four agreements for the exchange of tax information (TIEA, which stands for the English term “Tax Information Exchange Agreement”) entered into with Uruguay,… – Continue reading
The Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) will impose new investor due diligence and reporting obligations on funds and other financial institutions based in “early adopter” participating jurisdictions, with effect from January 1, 2016. According to the OECD, all major financial centres have now signed up to the standard. Financial institutions should… – Continue reading
On November 10, 2015 the European Commission published a brochure titled “Did you know… Facts and figures about the European Union and the G20 – 2015 Turkey G20 Antalya, 15>16 November 2015”. According to the European Commission, the brochure sets out the European Commission’s aims for the G20 summit. The… – Continue reading
The Council of European Union has revoked Directive 2003/48/EC, which has allowed tax administrations better access to information on private savers since 2005. By revoking the directive, which is part of a tax transparency package presented by the Commission in March this year, the Council says it strengthens measures to… – Continue reading
Ghana’s financial secrecy – the tendency to facilitate tax evasion, money laundering and illicit financial transfers – has been rated at a fairly high 67 per cent. The Tax Justice Network, an organisation concerned with tax havens and tax evasion, ranked Ghana 48th out of 92 territories, in its 2015… – Continue reading
NZ welcomes Cook Islands measures to tackle tax avoidance Minister of Revenue Todd McClay has welcomed a decision by the Cook Islands government to implement the ‘Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters Agreement’ (AEOI) and says the Cooks Islands and New Zealand will play their part to… – Continue reading
The BMF has application letter sent to the chief financial authorities of the countries associated with the between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America concluded by 31.5.2013 FATCA Agreement. Background Background of extensive, comprehensive 71 pages, application letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance on… – Continue reading
Transportation and other issues also taken up by the Cabinet Prague, Nov 9 (ČTK) —The Czech government today approved the Industry and Trade Ministry’s program Expansion, under which Kč 9.5 billion (€350 million) should be provided in support of small and medium-sized enterprises until 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek… – Continue reading
The chief executive of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organizations unambiguously condemned the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in a recent series of comments. deVere Group CEO Nigel Green likened the act, which went into effect in July 2014, to a “masterclass in fiscal imperialism and the… – Continue reading
The UK is one of several countries to introduce voluntary disclosure schemes. More people are coming forward to regularise their affairs as they realise there is nowhere left to hide in this new world of tax transparency. Tax authorities and financial institutions are gearing up for the new automatic exchange… – Continue reading
(Seychelles News Agency) – Seychelles’ efforts to comply with the widely-recognised Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s regulations on the sharing of tax information has led the island nation’s jurisdiction to be rated ‘largely compliant’. This follows a re-assessment of the island nation’s ‘practical implementation’ of its legal and… – Continue reading
On 14 October 2015, the Luxembourg Minister of Finance presented a bill to Parliament on the state budget for 2016. This bill contains several proposals affecting corporate taxpayers. One of the main proposals is the abolition of the intellectual property regime. Similar tax relief systems, known as “IP box” or… – Continue reading
A former finance minister yesterday slammed as “patently false” suggestions by a prominent tax advocacy group that the Bahamas is “disregarding the rules” and flouting global information exchange and transparency standards. James Smith, also an ex-Central Bank governor, hit out at the Tax Justice Network after its 2015 Financial Secrecy… – Continue reading
The blacklisting of Hong Kong by the European Union is over for the moment with Spain explaining to the EU it didn’t have HK on its list. In the course of investigation, Harbour Times receives a quick response from the Latvian embassy in Beijing to clarify their stance on Hong… – Continue reading
The timely and effective implementation of the automatic exchange of tax information was a key theme during the Oct. 29-30 meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes held in Bridgetown, Barbados. The meeting, which brought together delegates from the Global Forum’s 128 member… – Continue reading
PanARMENIAN.Net – The negotiation of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty will be on the agenda of the upcoming U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force meeting, an annual bilateral gathering taking place in Washington, DC on November 19. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed the initiative, suggesting that the Administration support… – Continue reading
04/11/2015 – Uganda today signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. It is the 8th country of the African continent to sign the Convention and the 90th jurisdiction to join it. Her Excellency, Nimisha Janat Madhvani, Uganda’s Ambassador to France, signed the Convention in the presence… – Continue reading
Today the EU and Andorra initialled the text of a new tax transparency agreement, marking another important step forward in the fight against tax evasion. Under the new agreement, Andorra and EU Member States will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of each other’s residents from 2018. Pierre Moscovici,… – Continue reading
On August 4 and 5, 2015, the FC heard oral arguments in a lawsuit—commenced on August 11, 2014 by two Canada-US citizens—that challenges the law implementing the Canada- US intergovernmental agreement (IGA) relating to FATCA (Virginia Hillis et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada et al., court file no…. – Continue reading
Major implementation milestones are being met by members of the world’s leading forum on tax transparency as the international community continues to move ahead towards greater tax transparency. The imminent shift to the automatic exchange of information will send a strong warning to tax evaders. Significant strides towards a major… – Continue reading
Secretary general of he Union of Arabs and Sam Fattouh for an international approach to the globalization of law “Vta” American FATCA, any tax compliance with the Law on Foreign Americans accounts, to become international law under labeled GATCA “Gta” (Global Account Tax Compliance Act), any tax compliance law global… – Continue reading
In a report leased by the international group Financial Secrecy, the group that carries out analysis of how far the legal systems of countries facilitate financial secrecy, Liberia is ranked amongst the top 30 countries in the world that deals in secrecy. While the Government of Liberia continues to boast… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Switzerland has retained its top spot in the financial secrecy index (FSI) 2015, unveiled by the Tax Justice Network (TJN) on Monday. Switzerland is followed by Hong Kong, the US, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. The biggest surprise is the US, which has climbed to third place from… – Continue reading
Australia hosts significant quantities of illicit funds from outside the country, according to the 2015 Financial Secrecy Index. The Tax Justice Network’s index, released every two years, rates countries based on financial transparency. The latest index rates Australia 44 out of 100 (from 47 in the previous survey) meaning it… – Continue reading
Over the last seven years, America has flexed its muscles at tax havens everywhere. With Schwarzenegger-like bulk, the U.S. has crushed Swiss banks and rooted out U.S. account holders worldwide. With its ambitious FATCA undertaking, the U.S. has cowed the world into submission. making foreign banks and foreign governments hand… – Continue reading
Tax systems within the European Union remain largely secretive and opaque despite leaders’ claims that measures are underway to fix loopholes, the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) has said. The coalition of 46 NGOs from 20 European countries including Oxfam, Save the Children and ActionAid said that, while… – Continue reading
Further strides towards greater tax transparency around the world have been made with 13 countries signing up to the international framework enabling the automatic exchange of information. The OECD’s 8th Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes was held in Barbados on 29-30 October and brought… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): Despite the constant criticism of the Cayman Islands as a so-called tax haven by US politicians and media, in the latest edition of the Financial Secrecy Index, compiled by the Tax Justice Network, the United States is placed above the Cayman Islands in its rankings. The report, which… – Continue reading
BACKGROUND The IRS recently released IR-2015-116 announcing its offshore compliance programs have generated $8 Billion. More than 54,000 taxpayers subject to U.S. worldwide income and disclosure requirements have come in from the cold to participate in IRS offshore remediation disclosure programs since 2009. The IRS also urged taxpayers with non-compliant… – Continue reading
Barbados’ reputation as a home of “serious” business and a “significant” player in international business is being enhanced with the adoption of a United States law which targets non-complaint US taxpayers with foreign accounts, Minister of International Business Donville Inniss has contended. In fact, Inniss suggested that the Foreign Accounts… – Continue reading
South African Tax Legislation: Proposed Amendments in an International Tax Context[1] This article sets out a brief summary of some of the proposed amendments introduced by recent South African draft Tax Bills. The article focuses on amendments in the context of international taxation. The draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2015… – Continue reading
As noted in our previous updates on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the related intergovernmental agreement between Canada and the United States for the enhanced exchange of tax information (the IGA), many Canadian financial institutions such as IFMs, portfolio managers, exempt market dealers and investment funds were… – Continue reading
Barbados has formally endorsed the AEOI global standard during a signing ceremony held in Barbados on Wednesday. The event was held in conjunction with a meeting of the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes that was also hosted in Barbados. “Transparency and the exchange… – Continue reading
(MENAFN – Arab Times) The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) model has spurred the rise of a global automatic exchange of information, informed Hannah Shipley, Director at Ernst & Young, while speaking about FATCA and its implications during a business panel discussion held at the Kuwait Chamber of… – Continue reading
With effect from November 1, mutual fund investors will have to make additional declaration pertaining to foreign account tax compliance act (FATCA) and common reporting standards (CRS) for all new accounts opened, failing which their applications will get rejected. Under FATCA and CRS, Indian financial institutions will be required to… – Continue reading
