The Cayman Islands currently has in place an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with each of the United States and the United Kingdom and has passed domestic legislation to make compliance with the IGAs a matter of Cayman Islands law (Cayman FATCA). The Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (TIA) issued Guidance Notes… – Continue reading
A Los Angeles tax attorney has received more than 6,500 pages from the Internal Revenue Service on the agency’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program and how it trains its agents. The Brager Tax Law Group asked for the IRS documents through a Freedom of Information Act request in April filed on… – Continue reading
A Canada Revenue Agency crackdown on tax-free savings accounts has some people wondering whether TFSAs will always be shielded from a federal government that might be looking to generate cash. Here’s what will get your TFSA audited by the CRA Bank of CanadaCanada’s Taxman has an audit project targeting Canadians… – Continue reading
What unites the dates February 12, 2013, July 19, 2013, and September 16, 2014? They are the key dates to this point in the OECD’s crusade against base erosion and profit shifting, which will be remembered either as a well-coordinated campaign against abusive tax avoidance by large multinational enterprises, or… – Continue reading
December 2: A tax commission charged with examining the tax system in Norway today submitted its report—NOU 2014: 13—to the Minister of Finance that describes proposals for changes to the corporate tax system and for adjustments to the tax system, in general. The tax commission’s report will be submitted for… – Continue reading
Former head of counter-terrorism department in London Philip Parham says there are very big opportunities in the UAE. The new British Ambassador to Abu Dhabi, Philip Parham, is planning to concentrate his efforts in further growing the commercial ties between UK and UAE. “On the commercial side, there are very… – Continue reading
December 2: A tax commission charged with examining the tax system in Norway today submitted its report—NOU 2014: 13—to the Minister of Finance that describes proposals for changes to the corporate tax system and for adjustments to the tax system, in general. The tax commission’s report will be submitted for… – Continue reading
Project cannot be a ‘dialogue of the privileged’, stresses Minister for Finance Plans to reform the global tax system must not be used to create advantages for larger countries, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said. Addressing a conference in Dublin, he said Ireland overwhelmingly supported the Organisation for Economic… – Continue reading
Complying with USA FATCA and UK/EU Data Protection Requirements The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), passed by Congress in March 2010, was finally implemented in July 2014. The Act makes the US the only large economy to tax its nationals on all of their earnings anywhere in the… – Continue reading
The Department of Finance is actively involved in the BEPS process, but how it manages to balance national interests with a commitment to help developing countries reap the benefits of the reforms remains to be seen’ The recent Luxembourg leaks have kept the spotlight firmly on the lengths to which… – Continue reading
New rules for the UK’s General Betting Duty (GBD), Pool Betting Duty (PBD), and Remote Gambling Duty (RGD) entered into force on December 1, 2014, shifting the place of supply for tax purposes from the place of supply to the place of consumption. The reforms affect those businesses providing remote… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. The UK has lost its top slot in a league table of multinational companies’… – Continue reading
Action taken against tax avoidance by HM Revenue & Customs continues to be “unacceptably slow” and is putting tax revenues at risk, a group of MPs has warned. In a 16-page report, HMRC’s Progress in Improving Tax Compliance and Preventing Tax Avoidance, Eighteenth Report of Session 2014/15, the House of… – Continue reading
JOHANNESBURG – It has been quite difficult to keep up with the flurry of regulatory reforms in the financial services industry. Apart from the introduction of tax-free savings accounts next year and the fact that certain retirement reform regulations have been postponed, a number of other changes are also in… – Continue reading
The refusal by the Mayor of London to pay his American taxes has been hailed as “noble” and “brave” by the CEO of independent financial advisor, deVere Group. The comments from Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, which operates in 100 countries and has $10 billion under… – Continue reading
UK chancellor George Osborne is set to unleash a new strict liability rule and higher penalties to capture those with offshore assets who are ignoring their tax obligations, according to a leading tax expert. John Cassidy, partner at audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, predicts Osborne’s Autumn Statement… – Continue reading
Stock award is a popular method of rewarding talented and industrious employees. However, employees who render services across different jurisdictions may trigger a taxable presence in two or more jurisdictions. Such employees at times need to deal with the issue of double taxation on such benefits. A normal stock incentive… – Continue reading
Ireland has knocked the UK off the top spot as the most competitive tax destination, according to KPMG’s annual survey of Britain’s largest businesses However, the UK has increased the number of times it is mentioned in the companies’ top three competitive tax regimes. The KPMG Annual Survey of Tax… – Continue reading
AN essential part of the Transfer Pricing (TP) documentation process is that of finding and selecting closely comparable companies. Only comparable, independent companies can truly establish the arm’s length nature of the intercompany transactions under review. This process of finding comparable companies and the arm’s length price they pay or… – Continue reading
George Osborne’s targeting of corporate tax dodges faces voter scepticism • Chancellor waters down tech company measures • Disbelief will greet key plan in autumn statement Almost 60% of adults in the UK don’t believe politicians’ promises to tackle corporate tax avoidance, according to a damning poll published ahead of… – Continue reading
It feels like FATCA has been around for years already, yet some companies are still coming to terms with its implications. However, as Kirsten Morel explains, impending deadlines are now creating a real sense of urgency It’s four years since US Congress enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA),… – Continue reading
North East Labour MEP Paul Brannen on why European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker can crack the tax dodge problem The expression ‘poacher turned game keeper’ sprang to mind this week in the European Parliament as in meeting after meeting Jean-Claude Juncker’s suitability for the top job in the European Union… – Continue reading
In the African tax sphere, the trend remains for headline tax rates to continue to remain stable or decrease. Withholding tax rates have generally remained stable, although the experience of Dentons and our clients is that African tax authorities are requiring tax to be withheld from payments that have not… – Continue reading
A combination of lower corporation tax and increased aggression from HMRC has seen a significant rise in yields THE AMOUNT OF CORPORATION TAX HM Revenue & Customs collects from UK companies has risen 25% to £4bn, from £3.2bn, over the last 12 months. Increased activity in preventing tax avoidance by… – Continue reading
If you want to know how your local school is performing, you can check the My School website for data on its results, funding, enrollments and more. If you want to be sure about a company you’re doing business with, you can search ASIC’s registers for details of its ownership,… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance is morally wrong even if it is legal, the majority of people surveyed in a poll for two leading charities said. Four in five of those asked said it is too easy for large companies to avoid paying tax in the UK while almost three-quarters said the next… – Continue reading
December 1: The Inland Revenue last week released its annual compliance guide for taxpayers and reports on progress with respect to the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) work and time frames, for New Zealand consultation on possible domestic law changes to address BEPS concerns. The 2014/15 compliance guide… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0092eb7c-788d-11e4-a33c-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3KooWgw9y Multinational companies are braced for a tax crackdown after George Osborne vowed to use… – Continue reading
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed long-awaited recommendations from the Smith Commission on the devolution of additional tax powers to the Scottish Parliament. Cameron established the Commission in the wake of the “no” vote in September’s Scottish independence referendum. He sought to keep Scotland in the UK with promises… – Continue reading
Top cable firm, lawmaker allegedly stashed funds in Swiss accounts Argentina’s top cable-TV operator, a former professional soccer player and a lawmaker are among the holders of some 4,000 secret Swiss bank accounts used to evade taxes, the Argentine tax agency said on Friday. The agency’s revelation came a day… – Continue reading
Swiss citizens voted against a referendum to dramatically slash immigration, in what had been described as an effort to protect the environment from a wave of resource-consuming new arrivals. Early results by polling agency gfs.bern, published by public broadcaster RTS, showed that 74 percent of Swiss voters turned down the… – Continue reading
WEALTHY foreigners who have sought tax exile in Switzerland could be tempted to find a new home elsewhere — many in Britain — if Swiss voters back a referendum today abolishing their special status. Polls suggest the move could be approved by a narrow margin, leaving the 5,600 beneficiaries of… – Continue reading
New European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday defended Luxembourg’s controversial tax deals with global firms, saying it had no choice if it wanted to stay competitive. Juncker survived a no confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday over revelations by the “Luxleaks” journalistic investigation this month showed the… – Continue reading
More than 23,000 foreign and offshore companies have developed profitable activity in Greece over the last thirty years. Data released by the Greek newspaper “TA NEA” show that most foreign and offshore companies acquired a Greek taxpayer identification number (TIM) and legal representatives in Greece between the 1980s and 2011…. – Continue reading
Pascal Soriot has said that controversial inversion tax deals, branded ‘unpatriotic’ by President Obama, are still taking place despite attempts to curb the practice AstraZeneca’s chief has said inversion deals used by US companies to escape high taxes at home are not over despite a major clampdown on the practice…. – Continue reading
New Delhi, India is moving towards a tax-friendly regime to erase the “bad name” it has earned over the years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday. “Our tax system has to be friendly with tax payers and that is what we are trying to do step by step,” he… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Tax authorities are making a fresh bid to engage with taxpayers as they attempt to present a friendly face and wipe out the ghosts of controversial tax disputes of the past, which attracted global criticism. Reaching out to the taxpayer, both small and large, the department has lined… – Continue reading
November 28: Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service previously indicated that it would no longer accept tax returns filed by non-resident companies on a “deemed profit basis,” but that non-resident companies must file their tax returns on an “actual profit basis.” These returns are to include audited financial statements as well… – Continue reading
November 28: The French legislative assembly on 18 November 2014 passed a draft Finance Bill for 2015, thereby sending the bill to the Senate for its consideration. One of the provisions in this legislation would “tighten” the transfer pricing penalties for a taxpayer’s failure to respond to a request by… – Continue reading
Reminder: All Cayman Islands funds are likely to be caught by the FATCA legislation – regardless whether the fund has any USA investors. With the end of 2014 in sight, Cayman Islands funds must check for compliance with the obligations imposed under the FATCA / tax information sharing regime. For… – Continue reading
Even as Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said a heavy tax regime was responsible for black money, his ministerial colleague M Venkaiah Naidu told parliament amidst uproar that BJP had never promised to bring back black money stashed aboard in first 100 days of power. Reading BJP manifesto, Naidu,… – Continue reading
BARBADOS AND COLOMBIA have taken significant steps to improve the exchange of information on arrangements with the signing of a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) recently. The Barbados-Colombia signing took place on November 25, in Washington D.C. Ambassador John Beale initialled the document on behalf of Barbados, while Colombia’s Ambassador… – Continue reading
Demands for an independent investigation into ‘Lux Leaks’ tax avoidance affair remain after censure vote World Bulletin/News Desk Although the European Commission’s new president, Jean-Claude Juncker, has comfortably survived a no-confidence vote, demands for an independent investigation into the so-called “Lux Leaks” tax avoidance affair are continuing. The censure motion… – Continue reading
Proposals by the Smith Commission to allow Scotland to vary income tax rates could lead to a rise in tax avoidance unless properly managed, according to a tax expert at Pinsent Masons, the international law firm. Karen Davidson, a legal director and tax specialist at Pinsent Masons says that any… – Continue reading
The revelations that global and multinational businesses have been brokering “secret” tax deals with Luxembourg to avoid paying taxes in their home countries, may be the first time an entire country has been implicated in tax avoidance collusion. A cache of leaked agreements uncovered by the International Consortium of Investigative… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said tax rates should be brought down to reasonable levels to get rid of rampant instances of evasion and to improve the environment for investments. “Our tax system has to be friendly for tax payers and that is what we are trying to do… – Continue reading
On 13 October 2014, China and Russia concluded a new double taxation agreement (DTA) and protocol (together referred to as ‘the new DTA’). The new DTA embodies the new trends in the development of international tax treaty. Main changes in the new DTA include: time threshold for service permanent establishment… – Continue reading
Recently approved incentives for companies to set up international headquarters and international trading centres in Thailand could have a positive effect on foreign investment, say foreign executives. “After Singapore, I think Thailand could be the next big attraction for [such offices] to open here,” said Stanley Kang, chairman of the… – Continue reading
Passage by the French assembly on 18 November 2014 of a draft Finance Bill for 2015 (which now will be presented to the Senate) Introduction by the French government on 12 November 2014 of a second draft amended Finance Bill for 2014 In general, the draft Finance Bill for 2015… – Continue reading
Latest updates as proposals for new devolution to Scotland unveiled in Edinburgh 14.00 We’re going to wrap it there for today. Thank you for following. 13.30 Labour are concerned about regional airports in the north of England, and tax competition from lower levels of air passenger duty in Scotland. Is… – Continue reading
