Category: Automatic Exchange of Information

Major Government Initiative to Combat Unaccounted Money and Tax Evasion

New Delhi: A delegation led by Shri Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary and consisting of Shri K.V. Chowdary, Chairman, CBDT and ShriAkhileshRanjan, Joint Secretary (FT&TR) visited Switzerland on 15.10.2014 and held discussions with Swiss Finance and Tax Authorities on issues relating to Exchange of Information in tax matters. The Swiss delegation… – Continue reading

Bringing back black money: Swiss promise India details in time-bound manner

erne/New Delhi: In a major breakthrough in India’s fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad, Switzerland today said it will examine Indian requests for banking information on a priority basis and provide requested details in a time-bound manner. The Swiss authorities would also “assist in obtaining confirmation on genuineness of… – Continue reading

3rd LD Writethru: EU FinMins agree on taxation information exchange

LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — EU finance minister meeting concluded on Tuesday with breakthrough in taxation exchange information to fight against tax avoidance. Italian finance minister Pietro Carlo Padoan, whose country holds the presidency of the EU, told press after the meeting that the EU has planned to build a… – Continue reading

Monaco Signs OECD Multilateral Tax Convention

Monaco has become the 84th jurisdiction to commit to strengthen international tax cooperation through its participation in the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. Welcoming the signing by José Badia, Monaco’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Secretary-General, Angel… – Continue reading

After years of pressure, Luxembourg drops bank secrecy rules

(Reuters) – Luxembourg agreed on Tuesday to end its bank secrecy rules from 2017, yielding to a decade of pressure from Germany and the United States and marking a breakthrough in global efforts to reduce tax evasion. Luxembourg, whose banks hold deposits worth 10 times the nation’s annual economic output,… – Continue reading

India may have to wait for automatic exchange of Swiss info

India may have to wait longer for joining “selected” countries with whom Switzerland plans to do automatic exchange of information on tax matters, even as Indian and Swiss officials will meet soon to iron out their bilateral arrangements on suspected tax evasion cases. Switzerland has started a process for putting… – Continue reading

Courts could dismiss Swiss bank data

Say judge may find evidence inadmissible because it was supplied by a whistleblower As the AFIP tax bureau starts reviewing information it recently obtained from the French government on undeclared bank accounts held by Argentines in Switzerland, tax experts have warned that using the data might be harder than it… – Continue reading

EU tax evasion bank data agreement said to be close

There are reportedly about to be major moves in the fight against tax evasion within the European Union. The region’s finance ministers are said to be close to an agreement on automatic sharing of bank data so that the authorities could spot tax dodging or illicit money flows more easily…. – Continue reading

Indonesia Tax Boss Wants to See Bank Records in Revenue Push

Indonesia’s tax chief is pushing for access to personal bank accounts and wants to track car and home purchases in his fight to catch evaders and boost revenue. The department is asking parliament to amend the banking law to give it the right to get lenders to reveal customer account… – Continue reading

Asia-Pacific’s developing nations raise low govenment revenue: United Nations

NEW DELHI: Developing countries in Asia Pacific region are less successful in raising government revenue but greater regional cooperation can strengthen resource mobilisation, a report has said. “Countries across the Asia-Pacific region have significant potential for enhancing tax revenues … taxation is primarily a domestic policy issue, there are also… – Continue reading

Philippines signs convention to fight tax evasion

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has signed a multilateral agreement to boost its efforts in fighting tax evasion and improving compliance of taxpayers. Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares, through special authority from the Office of the President, signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters… – Continue reading

G20 countries agree to exchange tax information to stamp out evasion

Meeting of G20 finance ministers in Australia endorses plan to automatically exchange information on a reciprocal basis by end of 2018 International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde and Australia’s treasurer Joe Hockey before the main meeting of the G20 finance ministers. Photograph: Reuters G20 countries have agreed to… – Continue reading

From today, a new beginning to end global bank secrecy: G20

CAIRNS/AUSTRALIA: India may have scored a big win in its efforts to receive information on black money stashed away overseas as the G20 grouping of nations is set to endorse on Sunday a framework for automatic exchange of information on bank accounts, putting an end to global bank secrecy. A… – Continue reading

EU welcomes G20 agreement on measures to combat corporate tax avoidance

BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (KUNA) — EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta Sunday welcomed the package of measures to tackle international corporate tax avoidance, which was endorsed today by the G20 Finance Ministers in Cairns, Australia.“The initiatives agreed at the G20 today are an important advance in creating a fairer, more appropriate… – Continue reading

Hong Kong Signs on to New OECD Global Tax Standards

HONG KONG – The government of Hong Kong has recently announced that it will support the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) new global standards on the automatic exchange of information for the purpose of enhancing tax transparency and combating cross-border tax evasion. Earlier this year, the OECD released… – Continue reading

Canada: FATCA Is Not Your Enemy

Over the past six years, the United States has become increasingly concerned that Americans are stashing money offshore, essentially evading U.S. tax. The IRS has increased filing requirements around foreign assets through the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires financial institutions around the world to report activities of… – Continue reading

Hong Kong supports tax information exchange standard

HONG KONG, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government supports the new global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information which can enhance tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury KC Chan said here Monday.     “It… – Continue reading

FATCA responsible officer function obsolete for Cayman funds

Outsourcing the responsible officer (RO) function under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) offers limited value to Cayman-Islands’ domiciled fund managers.The Model one Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the Cayman Islands and the US does not stipulate that a responsible officer is required. The responsible officer title is a feature… – Continue reading

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Publishes its Standards for the Automatic Exchange of Information

On July 21, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published its Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters. The report contains the OECD’s model competent authority agreement (CAA), the common standard on reporting and due diligence for financial account information (CRS) and commentaries on both the CAA and CRS.The… – Continue reading

Shifting sands: push for government to crack down on corporate profits

Antony Ting describes it as “like finding treasure”. It was 18 months ago when the powerful US congressional committee blew the lid on Apple’s aggressive corporate tax structure, which allowed it to funnel $US44 billion dollars out of the countrythrough a network of tax haven subsidiaries. Dr Ting, a senior… – Continue reading

OECD Talks Tax Transparency In Liechtenstein

Pascal Saint-Amans, the Director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Center for Tax Policy and Administration, has visited Liechtenstein to discuss tax matters with Mauro Pedrazzini, Liechtenstein’s Minister of Social Affairs. Among other things, Saint-Amans’s visit focused on the adoption of automatic information exchange in tax matters… – Continue reading

No place to hide from the taxman – Seychelles signs automatic tax information sharing agreement

(Seychelles News Agency) – The Seychelles has become an early adopter of an agreement launched by the G5 group of countries – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – to automatically disclose details of individuals who have taxable income kept in offshore accounts. According to a press statement by Her Majesty’s… – Continue reading

US finished FATCA regime use consulting in Baku

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has conducted consultations in Baku on the application of FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). The Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes informs that Service’s representatives were received by Deputy Taxes Minister Natig Amirov. “Consultations concerned the issues of information security in the process of… – Continue reading

Ex-Ag: ‘We’re Up To’ Coping With Automatic Tax Information

An ex-Attorney General believes the financial services industry will survive even if the automatic exchange of tax information becomes the global standard, warning that this nation “can’t stand apart” from the initiative. #John Delaney, now managing partner at Delaney Partners, said the Bahamas’ resilience in withstanding previous global tax/regulatory initiatives… – Continue reading

More Swiss Banks Give Eric Holder One-Finger Salute

More Swiss banks are dropping out of the U.S. banking program that the IRS supposedly uses to prevent American citizens from stashing cash overseas to avoid taxes. Known for 100 years as the original tax haven, free from the prying eyes of governments around the world, Swiss banks have provided… – Continue reading

Facing up to Fatca

This article was first published in the 2nd quarter 2014 edition of Personal Finance magazine. Most people accept that they have to pay taxes in their country of residence. But citizens of the United States and green card holders who live outside that country – even if they have never… – Continue reading

G20 to press for ‘rapid timeline’ for exchange of tax information

NEW DELHI: G-20, a group of developed and developing nations, is likely to press for adoption of “rapid timelines” by different countries for automatic sharing of information with a view to curb tax evasion. The issue of automatic sharing of tax information would figure prominently during the meeting of G-20… – Continue reading

The implications of FATCA in South Africa

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted in 2010 by the US to target non-compliance by US taxpayers using foreign accounts. FATCA essentially requires foreign financial institutions to report information about financial accounts held by US taxpayers, or by foreign entities in which such taxpayers hold a substantial… – Continue reading

India to Switzerland: Join group on illegal money information sharing

New Delhi: To address the problem of illegal money stashed abroad, India has asked Switzerland to join a ‘early adopter group’ mandating an automatic exchange of information amongst the countries involved in the group, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. “The finance minister has written a letter to the Swiss finance… – Continue reading

Black money: India gets 24,000 pieces of secret foreign data

New Delhi: In its effort to unearth black money stashed away abroad, India has received data on over 24,000 instances of alleged tax evasion and dubious funds, which has been detected in foreign shores in the last financial year. These cases are now under investigation by the taxman even as… – Continue reading

FATCA 2 Ready In Global Crackdown On Tax Cheats

A new global standard for governments to crack down on tax evasion has been released by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Almost 70 countries have already signed up to the charter, which will roll out a US style Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) law globally. FATCA… – Continue reading

British Virgin Islands: The Impact Of FATCA On British Virgin Islands Funds

In March 2014, the British Virgin Islands Government announced that it had concluded negotiations with the US with respect to a Model 1B Intergovernmental Agreement with the United States (the IGA). The IGA (which was eventually signed on 30 June 2014) provides the framework for the implementation of the US Foreign… – Continue reading

Do You Want the Global Destruction of Financial Privacy to Enable Higher Tax Rates and Bigger Government?

It’s a bad idea when governments demand information on your bank accounts and investments so they can impose economically destructive double taxation. It’s a worse idea when they also demand the right to tax economic activity in other jurisdictions (otherwise known as “worldwide taxation“). And it’s the worst possible development… – Continue reading

Black money: OECD unveils automatic info exchange framework

New Delhi/Paris: In a major development in the fight against black money, multilateral grouping OECD Monday unveiled a ‘single global standard’ for automatic exchange of financial account information by various countries including India and Switzerland.The new framework, to be presented before a meeting of G-20 finance ministers in September, would… – Continue reading

Global crackdown on offshore secret tax accounts yields €37bn

Governments across the world have collected more than €37bn of tax from secret offshore accounts since 2009, it emerged on Monday as new details were unveiled of the next phase of the global crackdown on tax evasion. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published its global standard for automatic… – Continue reading

India-UK commit to jointly deal with tax evasion menace

NEW DELHI: India and the UK today expressed the determination to work together to tackle the menace of tax evasion even as Britain agreed to support infrastructure projects in the country. UK Export Finance will provide a line of credit of one billion pounds (about Rs 10,000 crore) for the… – Continue reading