The UK government will continue to defend its ‘patent box’ tax break for income from qualifying intellectual property (IP) during discussions to develop a global corporate tax regime, a Treasury official has said.08 Oct 2014 Intellectual Property Tax Patents Corporate tax Life sciences Advanced Manufacturing & Technology Services UK Europe… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Mexican authorities plan to ramp up a tax avoidance probe of major multinationals to scour for evidence of evasion, officials said on Tuesday, adding that they were already close to a deal with one company. In January, Mexico said its tax authority, SAT, had launched a probe of… – Continue reading
On June 10, 2014, the Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) delivered its most recent decision on transfer pricing, one which involved a Barbados structure. In Marzen Artistic Aluminum Ltd. v. The Queen[1] (“Marzen”), Justice Sheridan upheld the Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CRA”) transfer pricing adjustment as well as the penalty under… – Continue reading
7/10/14 – The 34-member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) welcomed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the OECD and Ukraine which will help Ukraine’s efforts to tackle corruption, strengthen its tax system and promote competitiveness. Announced today in Paris, the MOU seeks to tap OECD… – Continue reading
The Tax Justice Network’s misleading and error-ridden report “Who pays for our common wealth?” unfairly tarnishes the reputation of many Australian firms as well as the Australian Taxation Office, and risks setting back the tax reform debate that Australia desperately needs. The bottom line is that businesses have to accept… – Continue reading
OHN KEHOE The global tax plan being pursued by Australia as G20 president, to compel low-tax paying multinationals such as Google and Apple to contribute more revenue to government coffers, could be derailed by political resistance in the United States. A prominent US senator in congress who would likely become… – Continue reading
The UK government will shortly set out how it plans to implement globally agreed rules to prevent multinational companies from using artificial techniques to significantly reduce their tax bills, it has announced.06 Oct 2014 Tax Tax Disputes and Investigations UK Europe It has confirmed that it will consult on the… – Continue reading
We pay our taxes. Why won’t they? It’s the topic every tax official and finance minister in the developed world is talking about and acting on, yet we hear little about it in New Zealand. Cracking down on tax avoidance by the world’s biggest technology companies – among them Google,… – Continue reading
On Tuesday, September 30, 2014, the European Commission (the Commission) published its decision to open an investigation intoIreland’s transfer pricing practices. The Commission is also reviewing the transfer pricing practices of other EU Member States, including the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Any advanced pricing agreement (APA) or other tax ruling within the EU… – Continue reading
The IMA has welcomed plans by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to review the impact of possible tax changes on investment funds. Earlier this month the OECD published a report on the development of its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (Beps) plan, which is aimed at cracking… – Continue reading
Plans to tackle UK tax avoidance by international technology companies could damage UK competitiveness if they are brought in before international measures are finalised, a tax law expert has warned.02 Oct 2014 Corporate tax Tax Tax Disputes and Investigations TMT Advanced Manufacturing & Technology Services UK Europe Heather Self of… – Continue reading
Over the past few years, the issue of “tax avoidance” has dominated agendas at both Canadian and international tax conferences. The issue has also received considerable news coverage as a result of the actions of certain large companies with complicated tax structures that were seen not to be paying their… – Continue reading
eBay accused of tax avoidance, but insists it complies with letter of the law By Emma Woollacott, Sep 29, 2014Updated: September 30, 2014 7:24 AM Online auction site eBay got away with paying just £620,000 in tax on sales of over £1.3 billion last year, its latest accounts reveal. The… – Continue reading
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) UK will assist Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on tax and customs reform initiatives encompassing development of special skills to identify cases of transfer pricing, techniques to catch tax evaders and use of IT to control tax avoidance. It is learnt on Monday that the… – Continue reading
The European Commission’s crackdown on the deal between Irish tax authorities and Apple Inc. marks an expansion in the growing global war on tax avoidance by multinational companies. Governments that enable it are now a target. Tuesday, the European Commission said the Irish tax authorities failed to conform to international… – Continue reading
The European Union has accused Ireland of swerving international tax rules by letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars from revenue collectors in return for maintaining jobs. European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told the Dublin government in a letter published on Tuesday that tax deals agreed in… – Continue reading
Tax attack Bill Shorten accuses the government during Tuesday’s question time of going soft on corporate tax avoidance; Tony Abbott says Labor did nothing in government. Autoplay ONOFFVideo feedbackVideo settings Bill Shorten: Corporate tax avoidance costs Australian business The Pulse Live: Judith Ireland blogs live from Parliament The Abbott government… – Continue reading
(AFP) The European Union is to accuse US tech giant Apple of taking illegal aid from the Irish state through sweetheart tax deals over two decades, the Financial Times reported Monday. A European Commission investigation into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland, where it has enjoyed a rate of less than… – Continue reading
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
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(Reuters) – British finance minister George Osborne said on Monday he was examining changes to clamp down on tax avoidance by multinationals which the government says are depriving Britain’s public coffers of hundreds of millions of pounds each year. “Some technology companies go to extraordinary lengths to pay little or… – Continue reading
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is working on closing a tax loophole whereby German firms use so-called “patent box” tax breaks available abroad on profits generated from patented research to minimize tax bills, according to a magazine report. Business weekly Wirtschaftwoche said a potential new restriction on the practice, similar to one in… – Continue reading
The fund management industry could be exempted from new global rules intended to combat tax avoidance by multinational companies if further work finds that they may “hamper legitimate transactions”, according to the Office for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).26 Sep 2014 Corporate Tax Corporate tax Tax Disputes and Investigations Investment… – Continue reading
Corporate financial accounting and taxation are complex subjects. For this reason, many people tune out when issues that involve corporate tax practices rise to the level of public debate. Unfortunately, many legislators shy away from these issues for similar reasons. But while corporate taxation can be mind-bogglingly complex, nontax experts… – Continue reading
European Union Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta has welcomed a raft of new measures to combat international tax avoidance, in agreement between the finance ministers of the G20 at a meeting in Cairns, Australia. The ministers have agreed on a several recommendations that were made to address key areas which were… – Continue reading
Global corporations based in the UK will now have to report where they make their profits and pay their taxes to HMRC, the UK government has announced. The new country-by-country reporting template was released this week by the OECD and the UK is the first of 44 countries to officially sign… – Continue reading
After promising to flush out companies that stash their cash in offshore tax havens, the Harper government has lost its enthusiasm for ruffling corporate feathers. By: Carol Goar Star Columnist, Published on Tue Sep 23 2014 There has been scarcely a peep out of Ottawa since last winter’s promise to… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a discussion draft in March 2014 on proposals for addressing perceived abuse of tax treaties. The draft recommended extensive changes to the OECD Model Treaty together with suggested domestic law provisions targeted at treaty abuse or abuse of domestic law where… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department today came out with a series of arcane new tax regulations in the hopes of stemming corporate inversions. Inversions happen when U.S. companies merge with a foreign company while usually retaining U.S. operations. Their purpose is to avoid punitive U.S. double taxation on income earned overseas. The… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a discussion draft in March 2014 on proposals for addressing perceived abuse of tax treaties. The draft recommended extensive changes to the OECD Model Treaty together with suggested domestic law provisions targeted at treaty abuse or abuse of domestic law where… – Continue reading
Three years ago, Russia adopted new transfer pricing legislation. The new rules became effective on Jan. 1, 2012. They are in line with international standards (OECD Guidelines on Transfer Pricing), but their concept was, and still is, quite new for the Russian tax authorities. Thus the rules provide for a transition period until 2017: For the years 2012… – Continue reading
The Chartered Institute of Taxation’s Tax Policy Director has said the “first wave of reports [from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on base erosion and profit shifting] is a significant step forward in the process of modernizing the international tax system, but the test will be getting international… – Continue reading
Last week the Tax Foundation released its annual International Tax Competitiveness Index for 2014. The United States ranked 32 out of 34 OECD countries surveyed. Only Portugal and France got lower competitiveness scores, and not by much. As if that were not bad enough, the competitiveness score is only half… – Continue reading
High-tax countries unable to compete with tax havens have instead opted to subjugate them Rivalry between governments to attract capital and labour can lead to pro-growth policies. That this comes from the power of people to “vote with their feet” has been known for long. For instance, it was the… – Continue reading
All is likely to be revealed on whether New Zealand will be an early adopter of the multilateral follow up to the controversial United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in November, with late adoption something that would please the local banking sector. Either way it’s a question of… – Continue reading
India’s desire to have a global system, which will ensure tax-evaders will have no sanctuary anywhere, received a shot in the arm when finance ministers of G-20 nations took a concrete step in this regard. At their meeting in Australia on Sunday, they endorsed a plan to exchange tax information… – Continue reading
THE UK is the first of 44 countries to commit to the new country-by-country reporting model, the Treasury has confirmed. Put forward by the OECD last week as part of a wider movement against tax avoidance by large corporations, UK-based multinationals will have to report to HMRC where they make… – Continue reading
The issue of international assignees was, for a long time, limited to a small number of companies – meaning only those that operated on an international scale. But in recent years, global expansion has shifted into focus for the larger business community. As a result, the challenges and best practices… – Continue reading
The new global standard, as formulated by OECD in July, would be common for all countries The G20 on Sunday decided to put in place a mechanism for automatic exchange of tax information between various countries by 2017, a development which will help India in dealing with the menace of… – Continue reading
Plans to curb tax avoidance will hit Ireland. Most countries are set to force multinationals to pay more tax and as the political controversy grows, our own role in these activities will come under ever increasing scrutiny On Tuesday the OECD, the Paris-based club of the world’s richest economies, published… – Continue reading
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
SYDNEY: Multi-national companies which use international legal loopholes to avoid paying tax will be targeted by the authorities around the world under new universal laws, the Group of 20 (G20) conference in Australia was told on Saturday.At the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Cairns, members… – Continue reading
The German-Irish Chamber of Commerce is based in discreet but elegant offices on Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. It has a much lower profile than the American Irish Chamber of Commerce, but in many ways it is just as important. Ties with the US are hugely important for obvious reasons. There… – Continue reading
As the finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s 20 largest economies gather in a convention centre in the Australian city of Cairns this weekend, anti-capitalist protesters will likely accuse them of doing the bidding of the globe’s all-powerful multinational corporations. But the Group of 20’s financial chieftains… – Continue reading
Yesterday saw the release of the first set of deliverables under the OECD’s project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). These constitute the “building blocks” for an internationally agreed and co-ordinated response to government and media concerns in recent years about the perceived way in which shortcomings in relevant… – Continue reading
The OECD wants to force businesses to declare their turnover and number of employees in each country where they are active. Among the multinationals targeted are digital giants Google, Apple and Amazon. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has announced an international action plan called “Project BEPS”, to target… – Continue reading
THE CLAMPDOWN on tax avoidance by multinational corporations has been bolstered by a series of recommendations made by the OECD. Companies including Google, Amazon and Starbucks have been in the firing line for their use of offshore jurisdictions to drive down their UK tax liabilities. In particular, the companies have… – Continue reading
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
Cyprus has accepted a key condition put forward by India on effective exchange of information on tax avoiders Cyprus has accepted a key condition put forward by India on effective exchange of information on tax avoiders, hoping its move, which comes amid continuing talks on amending their mutual tax treaty,… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released its first set of recommendations for a coordinated international approach to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises, under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project. The OECD and the Group of 20 finance ministers hope to create a single set… – Continue reading
