“Luxembourg is famous for two things: its steel industry and its rose cultivation industry”. This quote from an Italian guidebook of the 1930s was uttered by Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna at the annual conference of the Luxembourg Directors’ Association on 17 June 2015[1]. The economic outlook of the tiny… – Continue reading
Some U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday used a pair of hearings in the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee to showboat for corporate special interests and oppose a growing worldwide movement to crack down on international tax avoidance. Last month, leaders of the 20 largest economies in… – Continue reading
The 28 nations of the European Union lose up to $1 trillion per year in revenue thanks to multinational corporations that use a spider’s web of completely legal constructs to lower their taxes. Now, Europe’s law enforcers and lawmakers want to wipe away these intricate tax-avoidance systems. If they have… – Continue reading
Today, the Senate Finance Committee met to discuss the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), a set of proposals on international tax policy approved earlier this fall that will place U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage globally. Testifying with me today… – Continue reading
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”-Charles Darwin The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its final recommendations on the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project on October 5, 2015. The BEPS project consist of… – Continue reading
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, Senator Maxine Mc Clean, called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Vella. Minister Mc Clean praised the Government of Malta for the organisation of the CHOGM, at which Barbados was represented by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, and congratulated Minister Vella… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said the government does not have any evidence of Rs 430 billion being taken out by Pakistanis abroad adding the figure was based on media reports. The Minister stated this while addressing a news conference after a special meeting of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC)… – Continue reading
The House and Senate held hearings Tuesday on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting action plan, also known as OECD BEPS, for combating tax avoidance by multinational corporations. A number of the lawmakers expressed a skeptical view of the international tax reforms. “The OECD’s… – Continue reading
The yuan jumped in late offshore trade on Monday on suspected intervention by Chinese state banks on behalf of the central bank but the onshore spot yuan closed weaker. Traders said the onshore spot yuan weakened because the People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s official midpoint at a three-month… – Continue reading
Police last week raided the Nicosia offices of the law firm representing the Hermitage Fund, embroiled in the largest fraudulent tax rebate case in Russian history, the Cyprus Mail has learned. On Friday, two senior Russian interior ministry officials along with local police officers searched the Nicosia offices of a… – Continue reading
Pension schemes should review their holdings in infrastructure heading into 2016, with the dual threat of incoming regulation and high prices potentially threatening returns, Kames Capital has said. Infrastructure has been an increasingly popular asset class for many schemes since bond yields tumbled in the wake of the financial crisis,… – Continue reading
The current international tax regime was developed in the last century when the internet was not yet invented. At that time, a foreign company would typically require a substantial physical presence in Australia before it could be in a position to earn significant amount of income from Australian customers. This… – Continue reading
EU committee to vote on plans to curb tax avoidance EU countries should be compelled to inform other member states in advance of plans to introduce tax initiatives that could affect their own or another country’s effective tax rate, according to a report to be considered by the European Parliament’s… – Continue reading
KPMG, PN leader warn that proposals recently approved by European Parliament could threaten Malta’s booming financial services industry New European initiatives could threaten Malta’s sovereignty over its own fiscal affairs, KPMG partner Juanita Bencini warned. “There are dark clouds on the horizon and a closer European union may not necessarily… – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) common reporting standard (CRS) is a standard that provides for the automatic exchange of financial account information between participating governments. The requirements under this standard are in addition to any Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requirements. The Cayman Islands has recently… – Continue reading
New Article 76-A of the Income Tax Law was published in the Federal Official Gazette on November 18, 2015, establishing three new transfer pricing information returns: Master File, Local File and Country-by-Country Report. Background These measures arise in response to the commitment assumed by Mexico before the Organization for Economic… – Continue reading
Multinationals operating in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will be among the first in Africa to feel the impact of new measures to be adopted in January to curb tax losses caused by manipulation of contracts between related companies. The three countries together with Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Botswana and… – Continue reading
(OECD) In Paris on the occasion of the COP21, the Honourable Billy Graham Talagi, Minister for Ministry of Natural Resources of Niue signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in the presence of Deputy Secretary General Rintaro Tamaki. Developed by the OECD and the Council of… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): A new report released by a coalition of NGOs, including Transparency International UK, has described some of the British overseas territories (BOTs) as “some of the most notorious purveyors of financial secrecy”, despite promises about more transparency. The authors say a World Bank study found that BOTs are… – Continue reading
Charities remind Cameron of pledge to ‘continue to lead world on tax and transparency’ before meetings with leaders of overseas territories Campaigners are urging David Cameron to use a meeting with leaders of Britain’s overseas territories this week to demand a crackdown on tax dodging, corruption and money laundering. Leading… – Continue reading
While the U.S. is plagued by inertia when it comes to tax policy, the rest of the world hasn’t been standing still. The biggest change of late has been the completion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, or BEPS, a multiyear… – Continue reading
Legislative Activity Tax-Writers Begin to Focus on BEPS, Tax Extenders Still Remain Though international tax reform negotiations may have fallen apart for 2015, tax-writers this week will hold their first hearings to address efforts by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to counter corporate tax avoidance as part… – Continue reading
The law, at present, is replete with a complex web of cross-references, often causing confusion The clamour for simplifying tax legislations gets louder as a new government, in its interaction with businesses and the civil society, holds out a promise of a non-adversarial tax regime. The reform of indirect taxes… – Continue reading
Government officials say multinational technology giants are reluctant to pay anything The Korean affiliates of Microsoft (MS) and Oracle are under increasing pressure to pay taxes here, with government officials saying the two multinational technology giants were reluctant to pay anything, although they generated huge a lot of money from… – Continue reading
Action Plan 10 of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seeks to align transfer pricing (TP) outcomes with value creation by clarifying the conditions under which transactions between related parties can be re-characterized. It also sheds light on how… – Continue reading
What is the whole point of the 15 actions in the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) code? How will they curb tax dodging and make taxation of multinationals more transparent? Historically, the interaction of different tax policies lead to instances where taxes paid are not commensurate to economic value… – Continue reading
East African countries expect to collect more revenue under a new code drawn, by the world’s richest economies to stop foreign multinationals from dodging taxes in host countries. The new code — Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) — adopted by G20 at its meeting in Turkey two weeks ago,… – Continue reading
Tech titans powering the economy shelter money through insane tax-avoidance havens. It’s wrong — and adding up Offshore tax havens enable not only individuals to dodge taxes—they also enable multinational corporations to do so. Often this tax avoidance is done within the letter of the law: multinational groups exploit the… – Continue reading
When it comes to planning for tax season, corporate tax reporting should be considered as part of Enterprise Performance Management. As Margaret Mitchell exclaimed in the classic novel, Gone with the Wind: ‘Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.’ And while I hope that… – Continue reading
(CNS): The UK’s overseas territories minister has told the Cayman Islands premier that the British government wants direct access to companies registered here for all of their law enforcement agencies, but the Cayman leader has so far refused. As the dispute between the UK and its territories continues, the return… – Continue reading
As Common Reporting Standard (CRS) comes into operation. OHANNESBURG – South Africans with undeclared offshore funds may only have a few months to get their affairs in order or risk facing significant penalties and even criminal prosecution as revenue authorities start the automatic exchange of information. The Common Reporting Standard… – Continue reading
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a suite of corporate tax reforms that will ensure multinational companies pay taxes where profits are made and increase transparency. A total of 508 MEPs voted in favour of the adoption of recommendations put forward by the Special Committee on Tax Rulings last month…. – Continue reading
The Dutch government said Friday it will appeal an EU ruling that the Netherlands gave Starbucks an illegal tax break and ordered the coffee giant to pay some 30 million euros ($34 million). “The government is of the opinion that the Commission does not convincingly demonstrate that the tax authority… – Continue reading
Maltese MEPs voted against a report that promotes measures that would introduce tax convergence and harmonisation Labour MEP Alfred Sant said that tax competition should remain part of the limited array of decision tools available to national economies. Sant was reacting to the report on tax rulings and other measures… – Continue reading
When the first flames of the Arab Spring began to burn, a Tunisia suffering from decades of mismanagement, inequality and abuse broke free from under the long reign of Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali. As the government fell and the turmoil in the country spread across the region, the sheer scale… – Continue reading
On the day he took office as Greece’s shipping minister in June 2012, Kostis Moussouroulis received a visit from a 90-year-old shipowner. He still remembers the older man’s words: “Don’t forget, the best minister of shipping and maritime affairs is the minister who is doing nothing for the shipping industry…. – Continue reading
The OECD published 13 final reports along with an explanatory statement under its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project on the 5th October 2015. This was endorsed three days later on the 8th October 2015 by the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Peru’. The BEPS project outlines 15 action… – Continue reading
Shriram Asset Management Company gets Sebi nod for offshore fund management Shriram Asset Management Company Ltd today said it has got market regulator Sebi’s approval to manage offshore funds. “The company has recently got the go-ahead from Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to undertake ‘offshore fund management’,” Shriram… – Continue reading
Following an independent report which ranked the British Virgin Islands (BVI) as the most important offshore jurisdiction for the sixth consecutive year, local stakeholders are singing the territory’s praises, with one going as far as to claim that the report has challenged the common perception that the BVI is being… – Continue reading
Recent developments with regard to CRS (the OECD’s “Common Reporting Standard”) mean that Irish funds need to take steps now to update their application forms and subscription documents. As referred to in Matheson’s November Investment Funds Newsletter, the Irish Finance Bill 2015 contains further provisions putting in place the necessary… – Continue reading
Introduction Transfer pricing is a term used to define the price charged between associated enterprises for the transfer of goods, services and intangible property. Increasing cross-border activities have made transfer pricing a real issue as enterprises seek to use transfer pricing as a tool for tax avoidance. Consequently, HK has… – Continue reading
FOCUS: Significant changes to the international tax system planned for the next five years, coupled with a major shift in attitudes towards tax avoidance, has all but killed off the traditional tax scheme. So what does the future hold for businesses seeking to engage in tax planning? To celebrate Out-Law’s… – Continue reading
Israel has joined 90 other countries in signing up to the OECD’s instrument to combat offshore tax avoidance and increase transparency in tax matters. The middle-eastern country became the 91st jurisdiction to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters yesterday, which enables the exchange of information,… – Continue reading
Global taxpayers can expect to pay more tax in the years ahead. Many governments worldwide continue to update their tax legislation and expand their tax systems to repay debt and pay for increased social welfare, even as the memory of the last global financial crisis lingers. These are the conclusions… – Continue reading
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said that he no longer expects that the European Commission will release its decision on the legality of a tax ruling provided to Apple before Christmas. Noonan confirmed that the Commission had requested additional information on the ruling. He said it will take the… – Continue reading
The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Tax Policy today both announced hearings relating to the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. Both hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, December 1, 2015. SENATE FINANCE HEARING According to today’s release, the Senate Finance Committee’s… – Continue reading
BERN, Switzerland, 25 November 2015 / PRN Africa / — Today, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on the agreement regarding the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) in tax matters with the EU and submitted it to Parliament for approval. The agreement was the subject of a consultation procedure from… – Continue reading
Hong Kong is tipped to become the world’s largest offshore corporate services centre by 2020, helped ironically, by the industry’s own struggles against reform demands coming from western governments and pressure groups. On notice after high profile money laundering and tax avoidance scandals, traditional offshore havens like the British Virgin… – Continue reading
4AMLDThe arm of the UK Government is likely to extend into offshore trusts where they contain UK tax paying beneficiaries. Whether or not this information will be linked at an EU level remains to be seen. Following the introduction of the EU’s 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD), and recent G20… – Continue reading
New Zealand will take steps to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) while at the same time ensuring that the country continues to be a good place to do business, Todd McClay, Minister of Revenue, has said. McClay was addressing a recent conference organized by the Chartered Accountants Australia… – Continue reading
