Ireland’s tax treaties with poorer countries are some of the most restrictive in the world, limiting the taxing rights of those countries, an international NGO has claimed. Action Aid said that globally, tax treaties cost developing countries billions every year. In a report released yesterday, the body said it has… – Continue reading
As promised earlier this year, the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) has published Guidance Notes for the implementation of the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The CRS, the new global standard for automatic exchange of information for tax purposes, obliges all participating countries and jurisdictions to obtain financial information from their… – Continue reading
Overview If you have been reading my articles on JD Supra for a while, you will know that I love Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Nevertheless, the Hall and Oates song Private Eyes, is a more fitting song to describe the state of offshore planning in Tax Havens than “Oye Como… – Continue reading
Gibraltar, a tiny British territory at Europe’s southern tip, is famous for its geography — a huge limestone rock — that appears on the Prudential logo. It’s a global center for offshore banking, with the trappings of wealth to prove it: Luxury high-rises tower over super yachts in Gibraltar’s marina. The… – Continue reading
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has issued draft regulations for the purpose of specifying a new country-by-country (CbC) reporting standard for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Legislative amendments to the Tax Administration Act, 2011, were effected during 2015 in order to implement CbC reporting in South Africa. They implement the OECD’s… – Continue reading
The Vanuatu government says it will complete its obligations to the OECD Global Forum on Tax Information Exchange Agreement by 2018. It said earlier governments had made a commitment to do so as far back as 2009 but it had never happened. The Global Forum, which has 133 members, is… – Continue reading
Businesses will be forced to declare how much they make in each European country and in certain tax havens as part of an attempt to curb schemes that shift profits out of the reach of tax collectors. The plan to introduce country-by-country reporting in Europe is the latest global curb… – Continue reading
Panama is a tax haven, but Mauritius is one with which India has a comprehensive double tax treaty. This complicates matters more. In popular Indian imagination, a tax haven is generally associated with Switzerland and its numbered bank accounts. But tax havens are numerous, have grown in importance, and are… – Continue reading
The chief of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday that the Panamanian government is expected to cooperate in international efforts to prevent tax avoidance after the revelation of the so-called Panama Papers. OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said in a press conference in Tokyo that… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance on a grand scale is nothing new – the US President Barak Obama has led the way in tackling the issue head on with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) since 2010. FATCA demands non-American financial institutions should hand over details about accounts and investments controlled by… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Following the Panama Papers leak, India is seeking to restart talks with the Central American country on a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) that can help uncover information on wealth hidden away from public scrutiny. Talks with Panama on such an agreement aimed at information exchange on tax… – Continue reading
Much of the activity is legal, but it siphons away billions in tax revenue from government coffers The massive Panama Papers data leak shines a light not only on the dirty money being shuffled through tax havens, but also on the legal and common use of offshore accounts to significantly… – Continue reading
The European Commission is looking into advance pricing agreements (APAs) given to financing companies and other businesses to see if they constitute illegal state aid, the MNE Tax news site has reported EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager told the European Parliament’s TAXE 2 committee that her office has reviewed 1,000… – Continue reading
Panama and the U.S. have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money. Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists, regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape… – Continue reading
The Panama Papers–the biggest leak of financial data in history–has blown the lid off offshore tax havens, again. This time, those in the limelight include twelve current or former world leaders, many celebrities, and wealthy persons who are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth. In scope, this is… – Continue reading
It’s easy to stoke outrage at multinationals’ low taxes but harder to do something about it. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – the so-called rich-countries club – tax avoidance by multinational companies is worth US$100-240 billion a year. That’s 4-10% of total global corporate income… – Continue reading
The number of multinational companies warning investors about the risk of higher taxes doubled in the past year, according to analysis by the Financial Times. Nearly a fifth of the US companies who warned on taxes were technology companies, the Financial Times found in a study of company filings. A… – Continue reading
Both the US and the global forum working on automatic exchange of information under OECD have endorsed the data safeguards put in place by India New Delhi: India’s tax systems have withstood international scrutiny over data confidentiality and other safeguards put in place by the government before the revenue authorities… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) released its Annual Report to Parliament (“Report”), outlining the CRA’s performance and key statistics for 2014-2015. This article highlights some of the measures that the CRA has undertaken to combat non-compliance. During 2014-2015, the CRA assessed over $1.7 billion in additional taxes owing and identified… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Industry chamber Assocham today suggested the government to introduce the equalisation levy as part of Indian Income Tax Act itself and not as a separate chapter in the Finance Act as it would only increase cost of doing business. “Introducing equalisation levy separately under Finance Act and not… – Continue reading
Global international tax takes from multinational companies will almost certainly increase in the next 5-10 years as governments around the world look to level the taxation playing field. Commenting on the New Zealand Herald’s series examining ‘the tax gap’ – multinationals channelling earnings to lower tax regimes, disadvantaging some of… – Continue reading
Kenya has received global recognition from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), following the appointment of James Karanja, a career Kenyan tax administrator to lead the recently established Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Secretariat. TIWB is a global scope initiative, that was launched mid last year at the… – Continue reading
The proposed Article 26 (exchange of information) of the convention on Avoidance of Double Taxation, being renegotiated between Pakistan and Switzerland, would bound the Swiss tax authorities to exchange all requested information, including confidential bank account information of Pakistanis maintaining Swiss accounts. Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that… – Continue reading
Investors alerted to risks of higher payments as crackdown closes loopholes A global crackdown on tax avoidance has forced a surge of warnings by multinational companies that higher payments are set to hit their earnings. A Financial Times analysis of company filings revealed that more than twice the number of… – Continue reading
The idea is simple. Firms make profits in one jurisdiction, and shift them across borders by exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules, to take advantage of lower tax rates and, thus, not paying taxes to in the country where the profit is made. There have been concerns across the… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has ruled that no administrative assistance can be provided by Switzerland in response to a group request submitted by the tax authority in the Netherlands (in decision A-8400/2015). In upholding the appeal by a Dutch client of Swiss bank UBS, the court blocked the request… – Continue reading
European Union member states are taking the lead on implementing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recommendations under the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, a new EY report says. EY’s Outlook for global tax policy in 2016 report highlights that, of the 14 jurisdictions (37 percent) either… – Continue reading
Finomial Corporation today announced the launch of a comprehensive and automated online investor services and tax reporting platform. This software enables financial institutions to meet the compliance requirements for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) mandated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). These new tax regulations require that… – Continue reading
Bulgaria has definitively removed Gibraltar from its ‘tax haven’ list following intensive lobbying by Albert Isola, Minister for Financial Services, and the Gibraltar Finance Bulgaria team. This change has been reflected in the updated lists published on the European Commission website under ‘Tax good governance in the world as seen… – Continue reading
Ireland recently announced it will introduce a formal advance pricing agreement (APA) programme this year. Ireland has accepted and concluded bilateral APAs for many years although there have been no formal procedures to initiate an APA in Ireland. However, in light of comments made by an Irish Revenue official at… – Continue reading
The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) has disclosed that 81 percent of respondents to a survey of South Korean companies professed that, although they were aware of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, they were not, as yet, making any preparations. The South Korean Government is preparing… – Continue reading
The first Budget tabled by Canada’s new Liberal Government provides for a major crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance, and streamlines the domestic tax credits system. The Budget was delivered by Finance Minister Bill Morneau on March 22, 2016. He told Parliament: “Today, we begin to restore hope for the… – Continue reading
Multinationals with turnover of more than €750 million would have to publish profit and tax details on their websites under new European Commission plans, the Financial Times has reported. According to plans seen by the Financial Times, the Commission would impose the requirement on companies with subsidiaries in Europe as… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) also known as the common reporting standard (CRS) – a globally co-ordinated approach to disclosure of account information between tax authorities. It follows on from several country’s successful implementation of the US Fatca regulations… – Continue reading
The American Institute of CPAs has written to the Internal Revenue Service recommending some changes in the IRS’s proposed regulations for country-by-country reporting by multinational corporations of financial information to curb tax avoidance. The proposed regulations were issued last December as part of an effort by the Organization of Economic… – Continue reading
Private equity (PE) populism looks to be in the news again – though in a context that’s unlikely to win too many votes for the instigators. This time it’s the UK, and Chancellor George Osborne’s latest budget. The UK Budget 2016 (the Budget) includes a significant reduction in the UK… – Continue reading
The ways of doing business in a digital economy have evolved rapidly. Traditional tax norms, effective in addressing issues in a world before high-paced technological and e-commerce, are increasingly becoming outdated. Taxation of e-businesses has been a globally identified challenge with tax authorities acknowledging that corporates in this disruptive environment… – Continue reading
The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, through its Inland Revenue Department has gone live with Vizor Software’s FATCA & AEOI solution, the FATCA Reporting Portal. Ottawa, Canada (PRWEB) March 17, 2016 Today, Vizor Ltd. announced that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has gone live with the Vizor… – Continue reading
The Treasury recently released a revised U.S. Model Income Tax Convention (the “2016 Model”), the U.S. starting point for bilateral treaty negotiation, last updated a decade ago. In May 2015, the Treasury circulated several proposed changes in draft form. Those proposals generally survive in the 2016 Model, although the Treasury… – Continue reading
THAILAND HAS no plan to adopt any time soon the three-tiered approach to transfer-pricing documentation recommended by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, large Thai multinational enterprises (MNEs) with subsidiaries operating in countries that are members of the OECD and/or Group of 20 will find that they will… – Continue reading
Thomson Reuters Checkpoint has just released a special report, European Commission Presents Anti-Tax Avoidance (ATA) Package, summarizing the ATA Package to help businesses plan for the latest developments in advance of implementation. On January 28, 2016, the European Commission presented its Communication on the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package. The goal of… – Continue reading
Only the little people pay taxes. For a small, select cohort of rich Australians, the famous quote of New York property billionaire Leona Helmsley rings not as an outrage but as an inspiration. In the most recent documents released by the Australian Tax Office, there were 55 people who had… – Continue reading
In the final session of the two day Global Tax Conference at Dublin Castle yesterday, a senior Canadian tax advisor used the analogy of children playing football to describe the relationship between multinationals and government when it comes to tax. In a kids football match, he said, when the ball… – Continue reading
The amount of tax multinational companies pay – and the amount they don’t pay – has become highly controversial, writes RTÉ’s Economics Correspondent Sean Whelan. This is mainly as a result of public outrage over legal tax avoidance schemes that big companies can use to shelter vast amounts of money… – Continue reading
It is now time for Australian financial institutions to move on CRS. Australian implementing legislation has been finalised. You need to be prepared by 1 July 2017. The scope of CRS and applicable penalties have been expanded The next FATCA reporting deadline is 31 July 2016. The uncertainty around listed… – Continue reading
Following the release of the anti-tax-avoidance (ATA) package on January 28, 2016 by the European Commission, the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union presented an EU-Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Roadmap (the Roadmap) to the Members of the High Level Working Party on Tax issues. The… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has expressed deep approval for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) plan to allow all countries to participate in its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan. BEPS is an international policy proposal designed to counteract the negative effects of multinational companies’… – Continue reading
Debt planning and restructuring is a common mechanism to minimize taxable income by increasing deductions among different entities in a multinational group of companies. As interest on debt is generally a deductible expense of the payor and taxed in the hands of the payee, groups may create intercompany loans to… – Continue reading
While equalisation levy appears to be a step to counter double non taxation and protect India’s share of taxation, in its current form it may impact an Indian taxpayer more than foreign MNCs The growth of digital economy entails many benefits, but also poses various tax challenges. These include the… – Continue reading
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has issued final regulations that require certain financial institutions (FIs) to report on accounts held or controlled by foreign residents from March 1, 2016. The OECD’s automatic tax information exchange standard, the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which the regulations are in response to, obliges… – Continue reading
