Category: Government Bodies

Australia’s new transfer pricing laws overlap the thin cap rules: new challenges for taxpayers

The overlap of Australia’s new transfer pricing laws with the thin capitalization rules is causing challenges and likely duplication of analysis for taxpayers – particularly for the arm’s length amount-of-debt test. Australia legislated comprehensive new transfer pricing laws in 2012[i] and 2013.[ii]  These laws were passed in two installments: Subdivision 815-A, dealing with… – Continue reading

G20 gives Google, Microsoft, Apple et al tax deadline

G20 finance ministers speak loudly, mention big stick The world’s top 20 finance ministers have signalled once again that they’re sick of their taxes disappearing offshore and have signalled a strong intention to get their cash back. The ministers in question are all members of the Group of Twenty (G20)… – Continue reading

US Senate panel says Credit Suisse actively sought US tax dodgers

Credit Suisse Group , Switzerland’s second biggest bank, went to great lengths to assist US customers trying to open Swiss bank accounts and evade taxes, entertaining them at a Swiss-themed ball in New York and golf tournaments in Florida and opening a branch in the Zurich airport to serve Americans… – Continue reading

Multinationals unfazed by G20 tax crackdown

The G20 finance ministers have once again agreed to cooperate to counter aggressive cross-border tax avoidance by multinationals. Many US firms are using tax avoidance schemes for their non-US earnings while they shamelessly claim they are paying appropriate taxes in the source countries in which they operate. The OECD responded to earlier… – Continue reading

GIBRALTAR WIDENS TAX EXCHANGE NETWORK

Parliament unanimously approved new legislation on Friday that will dramatically expand Gibraltar’s network of agreements for the exchange of tax information. The legislation implements the OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in Gibraltar ahead of the March 1 deadline. The move is part of the Government of… – Continue reading

G-20 Agrees on Automatic Tax Data Sharing, OECD Says

Group-of-20 nations agreed to implement a global standard for automatically exchanging information between tax authorities by the end of 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. The endorsement is a step toward putting an end to “banking secrecy as we know it,” Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD’s… – Continue reading

G20 to tackle transfer pricing with new tax exchange scheme

The days of multinational companies being able to use the Double Irish Dutch Sandwich to avoid taxation may soon be coming to an end, with the G20 group of nations looking to create a reporting standard to allow for automatic exchange of tax information. In the official communique coming at the end… – Continue reading

Tax evasion to get tougher as Australia strikes deals on foreign bank accounts

The battle against offshore tax evasion is gaining momentum after Australia and the US struck a deal to combat tax-dodgers and G20 members prepared to sign off on a scheme for the automatic exchange of tax information. American Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, and federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey, announced in Sydney… – Continue reading

Switzerland to back OECD tax treaty

It’s a u-turn, but unavoidable: bankers and politicians are preparing for the automatic exchange of tax information. Switzerland has helped develop the new standard, which the OECD wants to fast-track worldwide. The days when Swiss finance ministers said banking secrecy was non-negotiable and carved in stone are over. Switzerland has… – Continue reading

OECD Announces Revised Timeline for BEPS

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will issue three discussion drafts and hold four public consultations before the end of May as the organization ramps up its joint project with the Group of 20 on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), an official announced Feb. 20. Raffaele Russo, head… – Continue reading

Latvia Presents Draft DTA with Cyprus

February 14 — The Latvian finance ministry on February 6 presented a draft agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income with Cyprus. The agreement aims to promote trade, foreign investment and facilitate investment from both Latvia and Cyprus. The draft DTA… – Continue reading

Global tax avoidance – a trillion dollar evil

In a world of widening inequality, it is perhaps the most pernicious injustice of them all. Multinational corporations and wealthy individuals avoiding tax on an unprecedented scale, shuffling assets, income and debt to the most favourable tax jurisdictions and confounding hapless authorities. It is impossible to identify exactly how much… – Continue reading

Tony Abbott must achieve ‘concrete results’ or risk losing G20 influence, says Wayne Swan

Former treasurer Wayne Swan has warned that Australia risks losing global influence unless this year’s G20 summit achieves concrete results on issues such as multinational tax avoidance. Ahead of this weekend’s meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Sydney, Mr Swan also urged the Abbott government not to… – Continue reading

Irish Corporate Tax 2014: How official spin and distortion works – in short-term

Irish Corporate Tax 2014: The current Irish governance system has remained unchanged through boom and bust and the addiction to political spin, distortion and sometimes lies, works at least in the short term while in some cases it has an enduring impact. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president, it’s possible “to… – Continue reading

Murdoch’s $880m tax win raises issues of global corporations’ tax liability

An $880 million payout to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has reignited the debate over whether global companies pay their fair share of tax in Australia. News was paid the money after winning a long-running legal battle with the Tax Office relating to a 1989 restructure of the media empire involving… – Continue reading

Switzerland to speed up measures against tax evasion

Switzerland must adopt a position on sharing bank client data with foreign tax authorities more quickly than originally thought and cannot hold back until all other countries have introduced the practice, its finance minister told a Swiss newspaper. So far, 42 countries have declared an interest in automatically sharing information… – Continue reading

Labor demands tax action on transfer pricing

The Federal Labor Party has demanded the Government bring Australia’s international taxation regulations into line to deal with multinationals such as Apple and Google, which are siphoning billions of dollars of revenue out of Australia while paying only small amounts of local tax. In a statement issued this morning, Shadow… – Continue reading

Labor demands tax action on transfer pricing

The Federal Labor Party has demanded the Government bring Australia’s international taxation regulations into line to deal with multinationals such as Apple and Google, which are siphoning billions of dollars of revenue out of Australia while paying only small amounts of local tax. In a statement issued this morning, Shadow… – Continue reading

Why world governments may not sign up to the plan against tax avoidance

Multinational tax avoidance in the digital economy has become a hot political topic with public reports of companies such as Google, Apple and Starbucks not paying a “fair share” of tax. The G20 group of rich economies has commissioned the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to tackle corporate profit… – Continue reading

Austria slightly shifts position on banking secrecy

Finance Minister Michael Spindelegger had hinted that Austria might be happy to exchange data on bank account holders with EU countries even is similar agreements have not been finalised with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Austria and Luxembourg had come under criticism in December after they previously said they will block EU… – Continue reading

Austria shows flexibility on bank secrecy

Feb 11 (Reuters) – Austria signalled on Tuesday flexibility on exchanging cross-border bank account data with fellow European Union members even absent a final EU accord with Switzerland. “As far as banking secrecy for foreigners goes, it is important for us that there are similar accords with neighbours like Switzerland… – Continue reading

HMRC now targeting mid-tier firms in its transfer pricing investigations, says expert

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collected more tax from smaller businesses than large multinationals last year as a result of its investigations into firms’ transfer pricing arrangements, according to figures obtained by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. Corporate tax expert Heather Self of Pinsent Masons said that HMRC… – Continue reading

Ireland in spotlight over multinationals

When Taoiseach Enda Kenny was grilled over Ireland’s low tax regime for multinationals on a visit to Paris last week, he fell back on a familiar defence. By now it’s a regular refrain – Ireland’s corporate taxes are crystal clear and transparent. Ours, he added, is a statute-based system which… – Continue reading

Greece Targeting Tax Dodgers Seeks U.K. Model From Swiss

Greece’s chronic difficulties with tax evasion was a topic of discussion today when Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras met his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf in Athens. “We reiterated that we want the British model” for Greece, Stournaras said after the meeting, referring to a 2011 withholding tax agreement between Switzerland and… – Continue reading

OECD delivers new global standard to target tax cheats

The OECD on Sunday delivered a new global standard to crack down on tax evasion with more than 40 countries already committing to the measures. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) chief Angel Gurria called it “a real game-changer” that would boost international cooperation to reel in cheats. “Globalisation… – Continue reading

CFATF Public Statement

On 20 November, 2013 the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) issued a public statement identifying jurisdictions in the Caribbean Basin region with strategic anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies that have not made sufficient progress in addressing such deficiencies. Those jurisdictions are identified as Belize… – Continue reading