With the Canadian government’s decision to comply in July with a Washington tax crackdown on “U.S. persons” around the world, many Ameri-Canadians are feeling rising anger, fear and even hatred toward their powerful country of origin. That said, the self-identities of Americans in Canada have been more ambiguous than they… – 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. C Three US companies seeking to use controversial takeovers to cut their US tax bills hold at least… – 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
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. Savers and investors who have kept assets offshore should make use of disclosure facilities to settle with the… – 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
Alex Lemond is among a new wave of New Yorkers trading in their Manhattan condominiums for beachside villas in Puerto Rico. The former hedge fund honcho moved to San Juan from New York last year, and his company, the Encanto Group, is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in developing… – Continue reading
(India and Switzerland are…) NEW DELHI: India and Switzerland are finding it difficult to break a deadlock over sharing information on secret bank accounts held in the European nation but both sides are close to finalising the first accord on a bilateral advance pricing agreement that will allow taxpayers to… – Continue reading
The constant battle raging between clever lawyers and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has led to the goal posts moving on a tax amnesty offer. After alleged abuses of the Employee Benefit Trust settlement arrangement (EBT) the scheme will be closed early, denying taxpayers the chance to settle their affair… – Continue reading
Audits may now be based on risk of tax evasion The government has dropped the Rs 15-crore threshold for referring transactions between a multinational company and its Indian subsidiary for compulsory scrutiny by the tax department. It might, instead, move towards a risk-based approach to identify international transactions prone to… – 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
British expatriates living here in Portugal are generally pleased to have left UK taxation behind them. However you still need to understand how the UK tax regime may continue to affect you and your heirs, and follow any proposed tax reforms. There are a few changes at the moment that… – Continue reading
Israel announced on August 24 that it has signed a new tax treaty with Germany. Israel announced on August 24 that it has signed a new tax treaty with Germany. It still needs to be ratified by the Knesset and the German Parliament and is expected to become effective on… – 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
Fund houses have started asking foreign investors and distributors to furnish necessary details to comply with Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Fund houses have started collecting necessary information from foreign investors about their tax residency status in order to comply with the requirement of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act… – Continue reading
This article was first published in the 2nd quarter 2014 edition of Personal Finance magazine. Your tax liability in the country in which you live and/or work depends on the tax laws of that particular country. Countries can levy taxes on a residence basis, because you live in the country,… – Continue reading
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has held the first round of negotiations with the Swiss tax authorities to revise the Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation vis-a-vis Taxes on Income and clauses pertaining to exchange of information. On the conclusion of the visit of senior tax officials to… – Continue reading
HMRC looking at new laws that mean failing to declare offshore becomes a crime By Michelle McGagh, Sep 3, 2014 Tales of benefit cheats regularly hit the headlines with salacious details of how they’ve spent their ill-gotten gains – typically foreign holidays and flash cars – but we never seem… – 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
A useful – and legal – scheme for people who haven’t paid their dues to the taxman is being restricted, reports Alison Steed Expats who have failed to pay their taxes may find the attractive option of using the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) blocked, thanks to changes made to it… – 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
The double tax agreement between Cyprus and Lithuania, which was signed in June 2013, is now in force and will take effect from 1 January 2015. Under the agreement there is no withholding tax on dividends paid by a company resident in Lithuania to a company (but not a partnership)… – Continue reading
Americans living in Canada are in a rush to renounce their citizenship in the face of Washington’s invasive tax grab. OTTAWA – Thomas Jefferson is famously believed to have defined the price of freedom as eternal vigilance. The price of freedom from Uncle Sam is a lot steeper. Faced with… – Continue reading
Years before Burger King sized up a Canadian headquarters in a hunt for lower taxes, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike McFadden’s investment firm was involved in a merger that moved an American pharmaceutical company to Ireland and significantly dropped its tax rate. McFadden’s Minnesota-based firm made more than $11 million,… – 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
Agreement comes into force at beginning of 2015, also states that Holocaust survivors are exempt from taxes on compensation. By Efrat Neuman | Aug. 29, 2014 | 12:47 PM While war was raging between Israel and Hamas, Finance Minister Yair Lapid made a low-profile trip to Germany this month, officially… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has not requested for negotiations on exchange of information for restitution of any ill-gotten money presumably stashed in Swiss banks, said Swiss Ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc George on Monday. The statement from the Swiss ambassador follows claims by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar that talks would be held with… – 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
The organisation hails the capture of five more of its most wanted as “excellent news for all honest taxpayers”. Five of the UK’s top tax fugitives have been brought back to the UK to face justice following a global HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) initiative, the organisation has said. HMRC… – 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
I n July, the American pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, maker of the world’s top-selling drug – the arthritis treatment Humira – reached a blockbuster deal to acquire European rival Shire, best known for the attention-deficit medication Adderall. The merger was cheered by Wall Street, not for what the deal will do… – Continue reading
An effort to control tax havens for those hiding their assets overseas has resulted in broad brush impacts on hard-working expatriate Americans living and working out of country. The previously delayed Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is now in full swing effective July 1, 2014. In an attempt to close a… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced on August 25 that the Korean and Vietnamese governments provisionally signed a revised double tax avoidance agreement during the fourth round of negotiations. The amended agreement takes effect early next year, through official signing and ratification in the near future. According to the… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Switzerland will begin technical level negotiations in Bern on Tuesday for revision of ‘Swiss-Pakistan Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation’ to enable the treaty to create an environment for better trade and investment between the two countries. The three-day meeting is being held on the request… – Continue reading
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid and his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, signed a revised German-Israeli double taxation agreement in Berlin on August 21, 2014, according to a recent announcement from the German finance ministry. The convention, which was last amended in 1977, has been adapted to make it correspond to… – Continue reading
MUSCAT The agreement to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion between Oman and Japan is to come into effect from September 1. Japan’s official gazette has announced the agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Sultanate of Oman for the ‘Avoidance of Double Taxation and… – Continue reading
FRANCISTOWN: Government’s negotiations with other countries to sign Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) are underway to ensure investor benefits from tax holiday incentives continue, Boniface Mphetlhe of Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has said. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in MTI, Mphetlhe, was speaking on the topic of Botswana Investment… – Continue reading
An innocuously named species of transaction has inspired a political furor this summer. After a number of U.S. companies announced plans to move overseas in so-called inversion deals, Sen. Carl Levin proposed banning them outright. President Barack Obama called the companies unpatriotic. Because of the controversy, Walgreen Co. backed away… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted into law as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of 2010. Its purpose was designed to prevent U.S. taxpayers from “hiding” under the cover of a foreign based entity or trust in evading U.S. income tax and… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted into law as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of 2010. Its purpose was designed to prevent U.S. taxpayers from “hiding” under the cover of a foreign based entity or trust in evading U.S. income tax and… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is consulting on the design of a proposed new strict liability criminal offence for those who fail to declare taxable offshore income and gains. Under the plans, magistrates could be given the power to impose an unlimited financial penalty and a custodial sentence of up… – Continue reading
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has been in force for a month and still more countries are joining the tax network. So far, 101 countries and financial jurisdictions have either signed or agreed to join FATCA. FATCA is aimed at identifying US taxpayers with offshore bank accounts and investments. Overseas… – Continue reading
This article, by Chris Horlacher, was originally published by The Dollar Vigilante. Many Canadians, referred to as snowbirds, spend three to six months each year in the United States. If they think to consult a tax adviser at all, they’re usually told that as long as they spend less than… – Continue reading
(Editor’s note: As the summer holidays wind down, we thought readers might appreciate a chance to revisit some of the stronger, and more controversial, items that have been published on this news channel since the start of what has been an eventful year.) Since the financial crisis, governments worldwide have… – Continue reading
Microsoft’s stash of cash stored overseas, not subject to US taxes, is growing. In its latest regulatory filing, the software giant said it has now stockpiled $92.9 billion offshore and that this money could have cost the company $29.6 billion in taxes, but didn’t. That compares to $76.4 billion from… – 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
