In recent years we have seen a seismic shift in the tax transparency landscape. The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (US FATCA) has proved to be a watershed moment and we are rapidly moving towards a global network of automatic information exchange spearheaded by the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard… – Continue reading
CHINA Tax Free Reorganisations • With circulars 109 and 116 jointly issued in December 2014 by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation, the Chinese authorities have relaxed the conditions for internal reorganisations. • Circular 109 deals with internal reorganisations. Provided the pertinent requirements are met, the… – Continue reading
The Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, expressed concern over transfer pricing and several other measures taken by MNCs to avoid paying tax on international transactions. The Dollar Business Bureau Stressing on the need to keep a check on tax evasion by multi-national companies (MNCs), India has asked the G20 members… – Continue reading
Washington, April 20 (IANS): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here has sought urgent implementation of the automatic exchange of financial account information globally to tackle the menace of black money. “We strongly feel that there is a need to ensure that the common reporting standards on automatic exchange of information should… – Continue reading
Business is braced for a slew of new anti-avoidance measures after the UK general election next month as politicians compete on promises to raise billions of pounds from closing tax loopholes, reports the Financial Times. A cross-party consensus is emerging over the scope for a renewed crackdown. Last week Vince… – Continue reading
Technology companies with international operations are increasingly using global tax avoidance methods, despite growing opposition from the public and politicians in the U.S. and abroad. As this opposition fuels ongoing changes in tax rules, organizations must be able to quickly adapt their corporate structures and tax strategies to maintain a… – Continue reading
The European Court of Justice recently ruled that the Netherlands may restrict the 30% fixed tax-free allowance for expatriate costs to employees living more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border. The 150-kilometre restriction does not restrict the free movement of employees within the European Union. Consequently, an employer and… – Continue reading
Mumbai: The United States of America (USA) has toppled Mauritius to become the top jurisdiction from where India is receiving the highest amount of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) into the equity markets.Mauritius lost out due to the uncertainty over the double tax avoidance treaty (DTAA) between India and Mauritius and… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has sought urgent implementation of common reporting standards on automatic exchange of information globally, asserting that it is the only way to tackle the challenges posed by black money and stop tax evasion. The problem of offshore tax evasion and flow of illicit money can be… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: In a fresh crackdown on suspected tax evasion and laundering of black money through stock markets, regulator Sebi today barred Mishka Finance and TradingBSE -1.93 % Ltd and 128 other entities from the securities market. While the total amount involved could not be ascertained, these entities are estimated to… – Continue reading
The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance has removed the Isle of Man from its blacklist. The new list implements provisions, announced in the Italian Budget for 2015, that jurisdictions that have exchange of information arrangements with Italy are excluded from its blacklist on the deductibility of costs. The effect… – Continue reading
On 17 March 2015 Cyprus and Bahrain signed a new double taxation agreement. Like all of Cyprus’s recent DTAs it closely follows the 2010 OECD Model Tax Convention. Its main provisions are summarised below. Taxes covered The agreement applies to taxes on income imposed by either country. In Bahrain these… – Continue reading
In response to Pranay Gupte’s story on a story published by Firstpost, the Secretary to the Mauritius cabinet, S Seebaluck, has rebutted some of the points made in the story titled: “Mauritius cracks whip on Muslims, not a’ role model of democracy’ as PM Modi said after all.” The following… – Continue reading
Last week some of Australia’s biggest and richest companies voluntarily fronted up to a senate inquiry on corporate tax avoidance. Bigwigs from big brands, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals, squirmed under the spotlight as they were grilled about how they (legally) shift profits offshore… – Continue reading
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has issued a revised draft interpretation note that discusses the principles and guidelines for the considering the “place of effective management” in determining the tax residence of a company. SARS points out that the concept of residency is critical in determining a company’s South… – Continue reading
OECD director admits UK’s Google tax may undermine some of the body’s BEPS work GOVERNMENT plans to introduce a diverted profits tax have caused embarrassment at the OECD, according to Pascal Saint-Amans [pictured], the body’s director leading the Base Erosion and Profit-Shifting (BEPS) project. Appearing via video link before Australia’s… – Continue reading
Corporate treasury departments will have to start complying with International tax rules and provide documentation for transactions according to recent reports. G20 leaders attempted to reform the international tax system in July 2012 by setting up the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. This task was given to the… – Continue reading
BEIJING: A total of 57 countries have been approved as founding members of a Chinese-led infrastructure bank, Beijing said on Wednesday, and Norway is included despite frosty relations over a Chinese dissident’s Nobel prize. No nations that formally sought to become founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)… – Continue reading
Lithuania thanks Japan for lending support to the ambition to join OECD On 15 April 2015, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius in a meeting with Parliamentary Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Kentaro Sonoura expressed his gratitude to Japan for supporting Lithuania’s ambition to join the… – Continue reading
All of the firms have established funds based in offshore tax havens such as Cayman Islands and Jersey, analysis reveals Sixteen of the top 50 European hedge funds or their executives have donated more than £6.5m to the Conservatives, according to a new analysis of data. All of the firms… – Continue reading
In October 2012 Portugal launched its Golden Visa Residence Programme with the aim to provide prospective Non-EU foreign investors with the opportunity to take up residency in Portugal through investment. Recently, the Portuguese Parliament promulgated a set of new rules pertaining to this particular programme. The said rules are still… – Continue reading
An agreement was signed between GIFT SEZ and NCDEX on Thursday at Gandhinagar, according to a joint media statement Ahmedabad: National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), India’s leading online commodity exchange, said it will set up an international commodity and derivatives exchange in the special economic zone (SEZ) area… – Continue reading
French President François Hollande said on Wednesday that a drawn-out tax evasion row with Switzerland “is behind us” as he launched a visit aimed at mending fences. The two-day trip is the first state visit to Switzerland by a French president since Jacques Chirac’s stopover 17 years ago. Paris is… – Continue reading
Israel joined the OECD in 2010. Background The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is spearheading a concerted effort to help governments around the world collect more taxes. The OECD is doing so by issuing a series of recommendations for tightening up corporate and personal tax measures. Individual governments are… – Continue reading
Taxes have risen by around one per cent on the average worker’s wage in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries since 2014, although the majority of governments have not increased income tax rates, the OECD has said. In its Taxing Wages 2015 report, the OECD looks at the… – Continue reading
Tax directors at many organizations anticipate their companies will grow by entering into new domestic and international markets in the years ahead, according to a new survey by BDO USA. In a sign of an improving economy, 50 percent of the 100 tax directors at $1billion-plus public companies surveyed by… – Continue reading
David Maclean, Baron Blencathra, wrote to Cayman Islands in 2014 that transparency push was to head off G8 pressure and EU’s financial transaction tax A Conservative peer has described David Cameron’s flagship G8 anti-tax avoidance initiative as a “purely political gesture” designed to head off European attempts to curb the… – Continue reading
The Italian Ministry of Finance has removed Guernsey from its revised tax blacklist. Amendments within the 2015 Finance Act mean that the anti-tax haven deduction blacklist has been revised to exclude all countries that have an adequate exchange of information with Italy. Sinéad Leddy, Head of Technical at Guernsey Finance,… – Continue reading
As the above title indicates (it is only a modest exaggeration), the Treasury Greenbook regarding the FY 2016 budget proposes a radical restructuring of the system for U.S. taxation of foreign income of U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs). Some Congressional players have suggested that these proposals are an opening bid in… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought foreign assistance for improvement in two key areas; capacity building of officers and staff and IT infrastructure development. “FBR is of the view that if developed, both of these areas can only play key role in bringing FBR at par with… – Continue reading
Taxes on wages have risen by about one percent for the average worker in OECD countries between 2010 and 2014, even though the majority of governments did not increase statutory income tax rates, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Taxing Wages 2015 report. According to the… – Continue reading
– Rising Cost of Compliance Within The Tax And Financial Regulatory Environment Creates Opportunities For Increased Efficiency – CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As the economy continues to accelerate, many organizations plan to grow by entering into new markets in the years ahead, reveals the first ever BDO USA, LLP Tax Outlook Survey. Fifty… – Continue reading
1. NON-TAX ISSUES 1.1 Domestic law 1.1.1 Briefly describe your legal system and its origins Canada is a federal state, with legislative powers divided between the federal and provincial governments. The federal government has legislative jurisdiction over issues concerning Canada as a whole, including foreign affairs, international trade, banking, telecommunications,… – Continue reading
The Revenue Office will take steps to tax social networking sites and implement other regulations related to e-commerce. After the implementation of this regulation, all such virtual sites will be deemed as “work places” and the advertisers of social networking sites will also be deemed as “electronic tax payers.” Moreover,… – Continue reading
Enterprise minister Nick Boles says big corporations are ‘taking the mickey’ and Labour’s Chuka Umunna said the issue makes his constituents ‘very angry indeed’ A senior Conservative MP has advised businesses and accountants to check whether their tax policies are ethical by asking an NHS nurse. The enterprise minister Nick… – Continue reading
The Minister of Finance for Luxembourg says his country – labelled by critics as a tax haven for multinational corporations – is committed to sweeping international tax reforms being pushed by the G20 and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as long as they create a “level playing field.”… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone Authority (UAQ FTZ). This agreement has been signed to ensure international standards of transparency in the exchange of information for tax purposes, as per Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)… – Continue reading
In recent years, the State Administration of Taxes (“SAT”) has paid closer attention to fees resident enterprises pay their overseas related parties, concerned that multinational groups have shifted profits away from China through aggressive tax planning and by paying unreasonable service fees and royalties overseas. Following PRC’s active participation in… – Continue reading
Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, HDFC Bank and many others have signed up for space in Gujarat’s International Finance Tec-City (also known as Gift City). In fact, banks are expected to be the first to kick off operations in 2016/17, when the International… – Continue reading
The SNP’s much-vaunted plan for full fiscal autonomy would land Scotland with more austerity, not less, writes Peter Jones More and more, the SNP’s plans for Scotland to achieve full fiscal autonomy are looking ridiculous (contradictions abound everywhere), dangerous(savage cuts in public spending would be inevitable) and unworkable (gaps cannot… – Continue reading
The reporting obligations imposed on lawyers are inconsistent and confused. Tax avoidance has become a central issue in the election campaign. So what is usually a topic for a small, specialist group of lawyers has become an item of general interest. And, yes, there is a strong link to lawyers’… – Continue reading
On 26 March 2015, the United Kingdom Parliament passed into law the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (the “Act”). The Act will bring about a number of fundamental changes to UK company law including, amongst others, the abolition of bearer shares and corporations acting as directors and, perhaps… – Continue reading
Offshore investment entities in the Cayman Islands and many other international financial centers should now start turning their attention to compliance with the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) promulgated by GATCA – Global FATCA. They must document all account holders existing on December 31, 2015, with the exception of entities with… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann insists the government is not shying away from reform despite a tough year selling its first budget. Senator Cormann says pursuing important economic reform is a “marathon, not a sprint”. “If it was easy, anyone could do it,” he told Sky News on Sunday. Senator Cormann… – Continue reading
It has become increasingly fashionable to compare the results of Greece and the Baltic States’ response to the financial crisis of 2008, most recently last month with the Financial Times’ column with John Dizard. This, however, is a classic textbook case of comparing apples to oranges. Greece’s crisis was chiefly… – Continue reading
Listed companies in developed market could be avoiding as much as $82b annually London: Listed companies in developed markets are avoiding at least $82 billion (Dh301 billion) of tax a year by using tax havens and other minimisation strategies, according to detailed analysis of more than 1,000 businesses. The revelation… – Continue reading
Belgium has not asked Russia to lift the embargo on its food products, and such issues should be discussed between the EU and Russia, says Belgian Foreign Minister and Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Chairman Didier Reynders. “Belgium pursues its policy in solidarity with the European Union, and therefore… – Continue reading
There was a moment on Tuesday evening – hours before the first public hearing of the Senate inquiry into corporate tax evasion – when Treasurer Joe Hockey and his advisers should have sensed a firestorm approaching. Sandwiched between a story on a Gold Coast diet blogger accused of pinching other… – Continue reading
BERLIN: The Governments of France and Germany signed an amendment to the France-German treaty dated (the “Treaty”), which will have an impact in the future for certain investments in real estate. For France, this amendment follows the amendment to France-Luxembourg signed on 5 September 2014 which also impacts foreign investments… – Continue reading
An Australian Senate parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday was dominated by the fire and brimstone of Labor and Greens politicians directed against tax avoidance by major corporations. Labor Senator Sam Dastyari called on Australian Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan to “name some of Australia’s worst corporate offenders,” declaring that they “should… – Continue reading
