Under pressure from international organisations, the Australian government has flagged that it is getting ready to reform the concessionally-taxed offshore banking unit (OBU) regime, a move that will hit big banks and hedge funds. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) forum on harmful tax practices has raised concerns...
The British tax man is asking foreign governments to chase down expats working overseas who have failed to pay the right amount of tax. Almost £6 million was raised for HM Revenue & Customs by foreign tax authorities in 2017. This was triple the amount raised from British expats in...
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) would, this year, start charging seven per cent VAT Withholding Tax on individuals and entities that transact business with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). “What we are seeking to do is that as a person is charging the 17.5 VAT on build-up cost of...
The Federal Government of Nigeria and some foreign countries, including the United Kingdom Government, have commenced the Automatic Exchange of Tax Information (AETI), particularly on overseas assets held by Nigerians. Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, confirmed this on Friday in Abuja during the presentation of Progress Report on Tax...
Calendar 2017 saw significant advances in the Australian Tax Office armoury, both through Court wins and new or pending legislation. The Tax Commissioner openly now claims the upper hand in corporate and multi-national tax compliance. The Senate seems almost becalmed!? This note outlines our selection of 10 key things that...
Laws regulating digital currency exchanges for the first time have been approved by Parliament in a major milestone for the burgeoning local sector. The amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act easily passed through Parliament at the end of last week thanks to bipartisan support, despite the Opposition...
The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service ( LIRS ) on Thursday shut 11 hotels, restaurants and event centres over alleged failures to remit their taxes under the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Laws of Lagos State 2009. Mr Seyi Alade, Director, Legal Services of the LIRS, said this after a...
Coinbase, the world’s largest Bitcoin brokerage and wallet platform, has won a partial but significant victory in its fight against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as Cointelegraph previously reported. Brief history of Coinbase v. IRS On January 15, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that the IRS sent the company a...
On November 22, the UK Government published for stakeholders’ comments a position paper setting out its views on the challenges posed by the digital economy for the corporate tax system and its preferred solutions. The paper, which was published alongside the 2017 Autumn Budget, states that “the Government believes in...
Switzerland has approved an automatic information exchange pact with India and a number of other countries on black money, a development that would enable authorities in India get instant access to details on Indians with Swiss accounts The Commission for Economic Affairs and Taxes of the Council of States –...
New Zealand’s new Revenue Minister, Stuart Nash, has said that the country will reduce or eliminate the goods and services tax exemption for low-value imports. Presently goods worth no more than either NZD226 (USD155.6) or NZD400 (depending on if they are subject to duty) are not subject to goods and...
In the aftermath of Satoshi Nakamoto’s groundbreaking paper in 2009, money began travelling via a new financial route – virtual currencies. The first Bitcoin exchange was established on February 6, 2010 where Bitcoin traded for the first time for 0.3 cents. Last June, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants...
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) recently decided to shrink the tax burden for local microfinance institutions (MFIs) by lowering withholding tax on interest from loans acquired from abroad from 14 to 10 percent, a move that the government claims will keep the massive sector sustainable. This is the...
The Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) vide notification S.O. 3512(E) dated November 2, 2017 sets out the Third Protocol to the Convention between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of New Zealand for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with...
In this Tax Alert we will briefly highlight two topical Dutch tax matters very relevant to internationally active companies: the current status of the legislative proposal regarding Dutch dividend withholding tax rules for holding cooperatives and BVs/NVs and the announcement of the Dutch Ministry of Finance that the Dutch fiscal...
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) raised the possibility of granting a general tax amnesty to lure individuals and corporations with outstanding liabilities to settle their obligations without fear of being slapped with criminal charges. Following the tax settlement of cigarette-firm Mighty Corp. with the government, Budget Secretary Benjamin...
The Hong Kong Government held a summit on October 23 to discuss new tax policies to boost the territory’s economy. Government officials recalled several recently announced taxation measures, including the two-tier profits tax rates regime and the enhanced deduction for research and development expenditure, and sought participants’ views on further...
The Canadian Government is pressing ahead with plans to cut the small business tax rate. The Government has tabled a Notice of Ways and Means Motion in the House of Commons that proposes phased reductions in the small business tax rate. Under the changes, the rate will fall from 10.5...
Cutting Australia’s company tax rate is “now an urgent matter,” according to Treasurer Scott Morrison. In a speech to CEDA, Morrison said that with the UK, France, and the US each seeking to lower their corporate tax rate, Australian businesses risk “becoming stranded on an uncompetitive tax island if we...
Paul Chan Mo-po says the city must protect against unforeseen market changes at a tax forum that also featured a warning about the city’s international tax compliance There are no plans to cut Hong Kong’s corporate taxes across the board because the government needs to reserve funds to protect the...
The statement credited to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the country may be operating one of the weakest tax regimes within sub Sahara Africa and beyond has sparked off a controversy of some sort with most Nigerians arguing to the contrary. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the...
(Bloomberg) — The Philippine government plans to target additional companies in its crackdown on tax evasion, said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez “We are on a roll, and this is part of the president’s program to make our country more law abiding,” Dominguez told Bloomberg Television’s Kathleen Hays in an interview...
Switzerland’s government has begun public consultation on the automatic exchange of client information with two major – and rival – financial centers in Asia. The alpine nation is expanding its network of countries with which it will begin exchanging client data next year. The move is does away with the...
THE Attorney General yesterday lamented that “riding behind our competitors” had caused “incalculable” damage to the financial services industry, accusing the former government of failing to act on tax information exchange changes. Carl Bethel QC, addressing the Senate, said the Christie administration had “done nothing’ for three years in relation...
New Delhi, October 11: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Wednesday revealed that the net direct tax collection up to September 2017 is Rs. 3.86 lakh crore. The amount is 15.8% higher than the net collection for a corresponding period of last year. The CBDT informed that the...
The French Government has warned taxpayers that they have until the end of this year to disclose undeclared assets under its tax amnesty scheme, which as been running for more than four years. The Processing of Corrective Declarations (STDR) scheme was introduced by a circular dated June 21, 2013, and...
Popular investment schemes offering generous tax breaks for wealthier investors are likely to face new restrictions. The Treasury is mulling a crackdown on Enterprise Investment Schemes, likely to be announced in the next Budget on November 22. The scheme allows people to invest in start-ups, either directly or through funds,...
On 7 February 2017, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine and the US Ambassador to Ukraine signed a treaty on Ukraine’s performance of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) (the Treaty). According to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the Treaty is based on the Model 1B Intergovernmental...
Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance released a draft circular on October 11th which, if passed, is set to become the largest change to transfer pricing (TP) regulation since the implementation of Circular 66/2010/TT-BTC in 2010 – which the draft updates. Touching on conditionality of TP exemption and thresholds for defining related...
Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, has extended the e-tax system to all government bodies as he bids to slash fraud. Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, has been in office for less than a year, but he is already making a name for himself as a staunch opponent of fraud and corruption. Magufuli...
Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison says overseas companies selling digital products to Australians will not be able to avoid paying the GST. The so-called Netflix Tax that would see overseas-based businesses selling digital products to Australians collect 10 percent GST has entered the House of Representatives. Introduced by Treasurer Scott Morrison,...
Professional landlords are using Airbnb and other home-sharing websites to avoid taxes and evade planning laws, according to Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) Ibrahim provided evidence to the Business Innovation and Skills committee this week, where he argued that home-sharing websites like Airbnb are made...
The Australian Taxation Office is probing Commonwealth Bank over a nine-figure sum arising from tax breaks claimed by the nation’s largest company for research and development. In a hostile environment for tax minimisation by large corporates, CBA and the ATO are wrangling over an amount ¬believed to be in excess...
An OECD initiative on tax evasion is causing ripples around the world While a host of topics — from the necessity and the proposed scope of corporate tax reform, to corporate rate reduction and corporate inversions — are of major concern to those engaged in international tax, the overriding issue...
ICC’s Perspectives on the Taxation of Hybrid Entitites Upon request from the United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, ICC submitted its views on the taxation on hybrid entities to feed into the UN’s work on the UN Model Convention. The letter highlights that the issues...
