Japan’s National Tax Agency has obtained information on more than half a million accounts held by Japanese citizens and companies at overseas financial institutions. The move comes amid heightened public interest in how the wealthy use offshore havens to evade paying taxes at home. The Japanese agency will analyze the...
LONDON — Britain’s Treasury chief unveiled Monday a new tax on big internet companies’ revenues, insisting it is time that the global tech giants with profitable business in the United Kingdom pay their fair share for public services. Philip Hammond made the announcement as he outlined his budget, explaining that...
THE European Union has decided to remove Namibia from the list of 17 countries regarded as tax havens due to lax practices and regulations on tax governance. Namibia was blacklisted in December last year, and is currently one of the six territories countries which are still blacklisted, while the other...
Macau (MNA) – The Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) has approved a bill revoking the current offshore law, with several legislators warning the government over the future of the local workers in the sector. The bill approved on Thursday had been proposed by authorities in order to comply with standards of...
On the list of countries operating CBI/RBI schemes, that the OECD feels have the potential to be used for tax dodging, are 2 tax havens that are popular with wealthy Canadians and large Canadian companies. These are Barbados and Panama. Ottawa (19 Oct. 2018) — New information from the Organization...
The Chinese government has decided to tight policies that target investors in the country and that hold their wealth overseas with the intention to avoid paying taxes. However, these investors that are now threatened by the government might move to cryptocurrencies and avoid being investigated by Chinese authorities. Most of...
Pakistan has been unable to get much cooperation from 11 countries known as tax havens around the world to share information on offshore wealth amid a global clampdown on tax evasion. Under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) new automatic exchange of information programme, effective since September 1,...
Switzerland has begun sharing financial record data with tax authorities in many countries as a method for battling tax evasion, however, Africa, which loses about $60 billion in unlawful flows every year, generally into European banks, is prominent by its nonappearance from the arrangement. Swiss bank accounts have for quite...
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Liechtenstein and Peru are compliant with EU laws on tax after implementing necessary reforms and were therefore removed from EU “gray” list of tax havens, the Council of the European Union said Tuesday in a statement. In late 2017, Brussel released two lists, a blacklist of non-cooperative...
Tax havens are typically assumed to be islands in warm climates offering low tax rates for organizations looking for a lucrative loophole. But these “havens” are also sought after for opaque financial laws that can allow organizations to get away with illegal activity, like money laundering. Now, a new report...
Four pharmaceutical giants have been named and shamed for depriving Australia of $215 million a year in tax avoidance. Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD Australia), and Abbott – which make household name brands like Band Aid, Baby Oil, Centrum and ChapStick –were found to have unfairly...
Indonesia is set to join the global treaty on the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) on tax matters this month, and will then have virtually all the “high-caliber weapons” it needs to hunt down tax evaders — not just within the country but anywhere in the world, including tax-haven countries....
The top story in the finance section on Tuesday morning is about the Chinese government’s hunt for hidden assets (and unpaid taxes) overseas. The article mentions Australia and New Zealand freezing accounts from customers who don’t identify if they are foreign taxpayers. It goes on to say many of the...
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani investigators with the cooperation of Dubai authorities have traced 2,750 overseas properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These overseas property empires were allegedly acquired by Pakistani nationals with illegal flight of capital and plunder of the hard-earned taxpayers’ money worth around Rs4,240 billion. Based on three intelligence...
Tax expert Manoj Agarwal explains why businesses must be aware of their tax liability management in order to avoid falling foul of the law It has been nine months since the UAE, an erstwhile tax haven like several other GCC countries, implemented its new value added tax (VAT). And across...
When it comes to taxation, in most cases there is a cloud of uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrency. Certainly, legislation is swiftly evolving to make sure crypto traders don’t sneak off without paying their taxes. Now over to Poland, lawmakers are finally unveiling long anticipated clarifications to the existent tax policy. Such...
Several multi-national corporations have moved their European headquarters outside of the UK ahead of Brexit, and many others are expected to follow suit, especially as the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit rises further. Japanese tech giant Panasonic will be transferring its European HQ away from London to Amsterdam in October...
Around 2,000 millionaires – many of them billionaires – call Monte Carlo their home and avoid paying billions of euros in tax. Sputnik spoke to the UK Socialist Party’s Deputy General Secretary, Hannah Sell, about why France and the European Union have done nothing to combat this tax haven in...
Last week, Medtronic Plc suffered a legal setback in its bid to avoid a $1.4 billion U.S. tax bill — a ruling that may have costly implications for other multinationals battling the Internal Revenue Service over the use of overseas payments to lower their taxes. Companies including Facebook Inc. and...
ISLAMABAD: Authorities probing illegal foreign accounts and properties of thousands of Pakistanis made shocking revelations on Tuesday that the volume of these assets hidden in different tax havens abroad reached up to US$350 (Rs43 trillion). Interestingly, the authorities also revealed for the first time that only accounts and properties worth...
The United Kingdom and the European Union failed to reach an agreement on an orderly uncoupling, which is a major geopolitical and strategic event, with global implications. Uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit referendum has already started to weaken growth in the U.K. — which is expected to get...
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a package of laws allowing Russia-controlled foreign offshore companies to be re-registered in offshore financial centers (OFCs) established in Russia’s Kaliningrad Region and Primorsky Territory in order to minimize the possible consequences of sanctions and political risks from foreign countries. The legislation establishes the procedure...
The financial services sector of Caribbean jurisdictions – and other parts of the developing world – have been under continuous assault by the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the mid-1990s. This assault will peak again in a month’s time when financial institutions...
A legal practitioner cum entrepreneur, Moses Oruaze Dickson, has called for the review of the legislative framework for tax and taxation in the country, describing the existing law as obsolete for a progressive society like Nigeria. According to Dickson, who is also Managing Solicitor, Triax Solicitors, the law is long...
The Russian parliament’s upper chamber approved a package of laws enabling Russia-controlled foreign offshore companies to be re-registered in offshore financial centers (OFCs) established in Russia’s Kaliningrad Region and Primorsky Territory in order to minimize the possible consequences of sanctions and political risks from foreign countries. The legislation establishes the...
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has pledged to reform Spain’s corporate tax rules so that companies pay an effective rate no lower than 15 percent. Laying out the new Socialist Government’s two-year economic plan before parliament on July 17, Sanchez proposed that, by restricting the use of deductions, he would...
By end of last month, over $6 billion of overseas assets had been declared by Pakistani nationals on which they paid $290 million in taxes and the amnesty scheme has been extended to the 31st of July earlier this month Affluent individuals are pushing the interim government to permit them...
According to a newly released study by K-Monitor, the Hungarian government has spent around HUF 300 billion (almost EU 1 billion) in support of international companies. Just in this May-Jun period alone, the country has provided 10.7 billion financial aid to the world’s wealthiest companies. Despite the harsh rhetoric used...
The big picture is easy to see. The world’s richest few are expanding their fortunes at the cost of the vast majority. The combined wealth of the world’s 2,754 billionaires increased by US$1.8 trillion – or 24 percent – in 2017, to US$9.2 trillion. The richest 1 percent now own...
The federal government has introduced sweeping new reporting rules for private trust funds, which have been accused of hiding wealthy Canadians’ money from tax collectors. Going forward, trusts that fail to file a tax return will face fines equalling 5% of its total value. The Canadian government still has no...
If all countries have access to info about final beneficiaries, MNCs will not be able to fraudulently assign profits to tax havens Can you imagine how much governments all over the world could improve public services like education, healthcare and access to publicly provided clean drinking water and sanitation with...
A bill tabled in Parliament last week aims to strengthen the Government’s ability to detect criminals who want to use Samoa’s offshore banking scheme to hide the proceeds of their criminal activities. That’s what Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi said when the Money Laundering Prevention Amendment Bill 2018 was tabled...
Shell avoids the dividend tax via a tax haven, which would have cost the Dutch treasury – and therefore the taxpayer – at least € 7 billion… The intervention of a ‘trust’ on channel island of Jersey seems to underline the dubious character of the ‘deal’. Pressing Rutte to exchange...
THE TURKS and Caicos Islands has managed to avoid being placed on the European Union’s tax haven black list. Although the territory was on the anti-corruption watchdog’s grey list in 2017, prudent financial measures including tax transparency and compliance have prevented international sanctions. The EU’s grey list consists of jurisdictions...
Offshore finance centres are not the hotbeds of tax evasion everyone seems to believe, according to a new study. Debunking myths about tax havens, think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs argues tax havens have a key economic function helping the wealthy and businesses with tax planning. And although this...
A delayed tax agreement between Portugal and Macau will be signed later this year, according to Mr António Mendonça Mendes, the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tax Affairs on Sunday Macau (MNA) – A delayed tax agreement between Portugal and Macau will be signed later this year, Mr António Mendonça...
As June 30th deadline to file returns with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) fast closes in, a section of rich Kenyans who have hidden assets overseas are rushing to return the assets to avoid paying taxes. Tax consultants told Business Daily that the wealthy lot is repatriating the cash to avoid...
SENATOR Dion Foulkes yesterday forecast the country would soon face more pressures from the European Union and should be ready to act quickly to avoid further reputational damage. On Friday, Finance Minister K Peter Turnquest announced the Bahamas had been removed from the European Union’s “blacklist” of non-cooperative jurisdictions for...
Switzerland is known for 3 things: cheese, chocolates and banks. While you might understand the affinity for the first two, here’s why everyone wants a slice of Swiss banks: 1. Because of their tight-lipped privacy policy: This isn’t just any policy, but an integral part of the Swiss banking culture...
Brussels, May 25 The EU on Friday removed the Caribbean nations of the Bahamas and Saint Kitts and Nevis from a blacklist of tax havens, bringing the number of jurisdictions to seven. The nations, struck off from the list after providing good conduct commitments to the EU authorities, will now...
Multinationals, politicians, corporate moguls, and European consuls all used offshore companies and bank accounts to hide money and avoid taxes in West Africa, according to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released Tuesday. Senegal is one of the poorest countries in the world, but this didn’t stop...
Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange that is registered in the British Virgin Islands. The choice of location for the popular exchange is strategic for tax purposes. The British Virgin Islands are known to be tax havens for corporations that want to keep as much of their profits as possible. This...
BRUSSELS, Germany (CMC) — Two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are likely to be removed from the European Union list of tax havens next week, when European finance ministers meet here. The Bahamas and St Kitts-Nevis had in the past strongly objected to be included in the list put out by...
BRUSSELS (Alliance News) – US fast food giant McDonald’s has reshuffled its corporate structure to make tax-avoidance practices less transparent after the EU had opened an investigation into the company’s tax schemes in 2015, a group of trade unions said Monday. The report by a coalition of European and US...
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has disclosed that the Federal Government paid N439.3 million to fourteen whistleblowers who gave vital information in the recovery of billions of Naira and some millions in hard currency from some corporate tax evaders. While she did not name the offending companies, Adeosun told...
The Macau government is preparing to sign the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information which will allow automatic tax information exchange with other members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Macau (MNA) – The Financial Services Bureau (DSF) has informed Macau News Agency...
The United Kingdom’s parliament has enacted a new law requiring its overseas territories — which include notorious tax havens like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands — to start disclosing by 2020 the owners of corporations they register. This could shut down a huge amount of offshore...
Plans before MPs tomorrow would impose greater transparency on secretive paradise hideaways Offshore tax havens could be forced to open their books to scrutiny under plans before MPs tomorrow. Ministers are set to come under mounting pressure to impose greater transparency on secretive paradise hideaways as the Commons debates an...
The crusade against fiscal havens is not working. According to the BIS, “banks’ outstanding claims on offshore banking centres surpassed their previous peak recorded in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Outstanding cross-border claims on offshore centres totalled $4.6 trillion at end-2017, compared with $4.3 trillion at end-March 2008.”...
The rich are getting richer in America but that prosperity is not trickling down the economic food chain, with investment capital pooling up in thriving portions of big cities. One reason for this, experts believe, is the amount of wealth tied up in assets—real estate holdings and stock portfolios, primarily—that...
