Johannesburg – More than 260 cases of tax evasion were successfully prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority during the last financial year. Sars spokeswoman Marika Muller said about 330 tax-related criminal cases were finalised during the 2013/14 financial year, of which 267 were successfully prosecuted. Muller said to deter non-compliance, Sars… – Continue reading
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
The American Chamber of Commerce Ireland chief says ‘can-do attitude’ of Irish workforce is key ingredient for multinationals In the global tax game, Ireland is a mere pawn, powerless in the face of big corporations and their aggressive tax avoidance schemes. It’s no secret that these firms inhabit a parallel… – Continue reading
The verdict serves as reference for invoking treaty abuse provisions in the absence of General Anti-Avoidance Rules Mukesh Butani September 7, 2014 Last Updated at 22:33 IST In a ruling demonstrating wise judicial discipline, the Delhi High Court (HC) recently upheld non-taxability of sale of shares in an offshore company… – Continue reading
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
A ruling by the European Court of Justice that Spanish inheritance tax breaks the law by charging more to foreigners, could lead to a change in Spanish property taxation, lawyers believe The European Union’s highest court has ruled that Spanish inheritance tax breaks the law by charging foreigners more –… – Continue reading
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
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… – Continue reading
A Tax Information Exchange Agreement with Swaziland has been signed by the Manx government. The TIEA was signed in the island by Treasury Minister Eddie Teare MHK and by Senator Martin G. Dlamini, Swaziland’s Minister for Finance, in the African kingdom, and exchanged by post. Mr Teare said: ‘The signing… – Continue reading
(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
To ensure location-based profits stay on shore. Treasurer Joe Hockey has promised to direct the Tax Office to target multinational businesses who charge Australians more for technology and ship the profits offshore to avoid tax. In a pre-G20 speech this morning, Hockey outlined the ways the Government plans to tighten… – Continue reading
Multinational corporations that use complicated schemes to avoid paying tax in Australia are set to be targeted, with Treasurer Joe Hockey demanding the Commissioner of Taxation “double his efforts”. Mr Hockey has also warned Australians with offshore investments to once again disclose their unreported foreign income to tax authorities before… – Continue reading
Mention financial secrecy at the dinner table ten years ago and you would most likely have been greeted with a blank stare. Tax evasion in particular was a subject matter deemed largely the preserve of accountants and frustrated FBI men seeking circuitous ways to prosecute mobsters. These days, though, the… – Continue reading
Last year, $20 trillion disappeared into secret off-shore tax havens across the world — an amount that can save 3.6 million lives annually. A study conducted by the UK-based NGO, ONE, has found that corruption, tax evasion and corporate malpractices is leading to monetary losses of the scale that could… – Continue reading
Anonymous shell companies and shady natural resources deals targeted in report that calls on G20 to drive for transparency G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Moscow, July 2013. ONE is calling on the group to stop the corruption that is costing the developing world billions. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty… – Continue reading
The Indian government’s bid to unearth black money stashed away in hidden offshore accounts is starting to pay off. The government believes around £350 billion is hidden in undeclared bank accounts and investments outside the country and wants to bring the tax owed on the money back to India. Nine… – Continue reading
COMPLICATED transfer pricing legislation remains a burden and has become an increased risk for multinational firms doing business in SA and the rest of the continent. Transfer pricing is the price charged for goods and services in cross-border transactions between two companies within the same multinational group. Companies can become… – Continue reading
The Seychelles is the latest country to commit to the automatic exchange of tax information as part of a scheme piloted by the Group of Five (G5) nations. The G5 pilot is aimed at deterring and cracking down on tax evasion. The five countries – the UK, France, Germany, Spain,… – Continue reading
Tax authorities throughout the world are cracking down on taxpayers – individuals and corporations – that utilize some aggressive tax planning strategies. While most of these schemes are perfectly legal and merely take advantage of loopholes in theinternational tax system, there is a growing concern that they not only threaten… – Continue reading
On August 26, Burger King announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Tim Hortons, Inc., the Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain, in a transaction that will be structured as an “inversion” (i.e., Burger King will become a subsidiary of a Canadian parent corporation). The deal is expected to close in 2014… – Continue reading
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
Australian banks are stalling on a deal that will help expose tax evaders to global authorities. The information sharing deal, part of the G20 talks in Australia this year, requires banks to pass on information about their customers to the Australian Tax Office. The deal has been signed by more… – Continue reading
A high ranking Spanish politician has claimed that the Spanish government misses out on EUR1bn (USD1.3bn) of tax revenues each year as a result of Gibraltar’s tax regime. Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, Spain’s Secretary of State for the European Union (EU), made the claim during an interview with the country’s… – Continue reading
THE SNP’s plans to cut corporation tax could turn an independent Scotland into a tax haven for multinational companies like Google and Microsoft, Labour’s finance spokesman Iain Gray has claimed. He said Scotland would lose out on jobs and investment as companies used the country to channel money and avoid… – Continue reading
Malta’s High Net Worth Individual Rules for EU, which carried a minimum property investment of €400,000, has been replaced by the Global Residence Programme, with an entry point as low as €220,000 Malta has announced a new residency programme for EU nationals – and has halved the minimum property purchase… – Continue reading
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
Expat savers dealing with unfamiliar banks are unlikely to know how much of their cash is protected if the foreign bank goes bust. In Britain, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) safeguards up to £85,000 held by each person in accounts under a single banking licence. Each building society has… – Continue reading
BEIRUT: Some bankers have said that European states are expected to follow the example of the United States and ask their citizens abroad to disclose their bank accounts to European financial authorities in a bid to combat tax evasion. “It’s not official yet but we expect some European countries to adopt similar… – Continue reading
Twitter is the latest major internet multinational to have opened up a Spanish subsidiary. But the popular micro-blogging site has followed in the footsteps of Google, Apple, Facebook and Linkedin, all of whom keep their Spanish corporate taxes down to the bare minimum by shifting their income to Ireland. Created… – Continue reading
With all the talk about inversions and America’s Burger King Going Canadian, it’s easy to ignore even more prevalent tax savings by numerous American companies. Take Microsoft, which admits in its 2014 SEC filing that it avoids $30 billion in U.S. taxes. The trick? Keep about triple that amount, $93… – Continue reading
David Glen, head of tax at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Scotland, analyses the effects independence will have on Scottish taxes. While it is obvious that a Yes vote will result in substantial change to the tax system, as Scotland begins to develop its own independent tax regime, perhaps what is less clear… – Continue reading
Potential inversion deal highlights dropping corporate taxes in Canada, now the lowest among 10 countries, with the U.S. in 5th place. Fast-food giant Burger King faced anger from both Washington and average Americans Monday, a day after it announced that it was in talks to buy Tim Hortons and relocate… – Continue reading
CFOs of multinationals need to prepare by assessing how much their companies engage in profit shifting to cut their taxes. Do you have responsibility, whether direct or dotted line, for the tax function in your company? Does your company have, or plan to have, operations outside the United States? If… – Continue reading
Technology companies frequently possess an international tax footprint before expanding their domestic tax footprint. That may soon change as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its G20 member countries undertake an ambitious agenda to fundamentally alter the international taxation system. The OECD released its Action Plan Addressing… – Continue reading
Tax investigators pursuing instances of blackmoney stashed abroad by Indians have finally been able to circumvent the Swiss secrecy code by asking over 100 such account holders to submit on their own details of personal balances in these banks, brought under the tax net recently, for lesser penal action for… – Continue reading
Tax evasion is eating away at the heart of Romania and holding back the country, among the poorest in the European Union, in its efforts to catch up, analysts warn. The estimates for the costs of the so-called black or undeclared economy are huge: about one quarter of economic activity… – Continue reading
THE National Tax Policy (NTP) has identified double taxation as one of the major hindrances to the growth of the Nigerian economy. Double taxation has become an issue paramount to investors and top executives of multinationals as income is generally taxable both in source and residence countries. In order to… – Continue reading
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
Ireland can adopt ‘wait-and-see’ approach on tax breaks, says Department of Finance Ireland supports the EU review of all patent box regimes – under which certain member states offer tax breaks for intellectual property – and has decided to take a “wait-and-see approach” on the issue until guidance is provided… – Continue reading
Planting its European headquarters in Luxembourg has afforded Amazon significant tax advantages. That does not sit well in Britain, where members of Parliament from across the political spectrum have expressed outrage at the strategy. t would be hard to find anything better, unless, of course, you’re Cecil or Amazon. A… – Continue reading
The Delhi High Court upholds the non-taxability of gains from sale of shares of overseas entities by the Copal Group to the Moody’s Group. Interpretation of the indirect transfer tax provisions in a restrictive manner. 50% threshold for substantiality based on guidance by OECD/ UN material and Shome Committee Report… – Continue reading
Tax reform is squarely on the agenda for the G20 Brisbane summit in November. The current international tax regime is broken and it’s going to take significant effort on a global scale to fix it. In a recently released CEDA Report on securing the G20’s future, I recommended the role… – Continue reading
Reasons given by the bank for refusing to publish findings of an investigation into alleged tax evasion remain unconvincing When commodities giant Glencore publishes its half-yearly report on Wednesday, it is unlikely to mention what may be a significant victory for the firm. This relates to an investigation into allegations… – Continue reading
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
On July 21, 2014 the OECD released the full version of a new global standard for the exchange of financial information in tax matters “OECD\Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters” The new standard which will be presented for formal adoption by the OECD Members in… – Continue reading
Northern Ireland looks set to be handed the power to slash corporation tax in a move with the potential to significantly boost our stuttering economy. In a development which could transform international investment, senior sources in London and Belfast predict that an announcement will be made no later than October… – Continue reading
To some, US companies switching their tax residency to gain a tax advantage are economic “traitors.” To others, they are victims of a United States tax code that effectively punishes them for investing at home and encourages them to look for opportunities overseas. In this Tax-News Topical Focus, we try… – Continue reading
With new laws in place, recovery from Swiss banks can be little easier provided the government shows sincerity in taking action against tax dodgers Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in recent days has expressed the government’s firm conviction to bring back untaxed money of “US$ 200 billion” stashed in… – Continue reading
Property owners and pensioners who face losing their personal tax allowances can take steps now to protect themselves, say experts Expats facing the possibility of losing their personal allowance under a tax raid proposed by George Osborne should not panic but look carefully at where their UK sources of income… – Continue reading
A “yes” vote for Scottish independence could leave the drinks industry out of pocket either side of the border, an excise specialist has warned. Alan Powell, consultant to the UK Warehousing Association, said goods could be taxed in both Scotland and Britain if they were counted as separate EU member… – Continue reading
