Category: Tax Haven

EU Parliament calls for crackdown on corporate tax avoidance Proposal based on OECD action plan

Members of the EU Parliament have welcomed an EU Commission proposal for an anti-tax avoidance directive but demanded tougher rules on foreign income and stricter limits on deductions of interest payments. They also called for more transparency for trust funds and foundations, common rules for “patent box” tax reductions on… – Continue reading

Mauritius pact: A laudable reform

Last month the government announced an amendment to the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement between India and Mauritius. The DTAA was signed between the two countries in August 1982 and notified in December 1983. For the past thirty-three years it has been a key factor affecting foreign investment flows into India…. – Continue reading

Report: Multinational Tax Avoidance Cost Australia $5bn in One Year

Sydney-A new report by Oxfam said Australia’s federal government lost an estimated 5 billion US dollars in revenue in 2014 as a consequence of tax avoidance by multinational corporations with Australian operations. The non-governmental organization said in its report that investments from Australian-based big companies in tax havens globally grew… – Continue reading

Jamaica Facing Correspondent Banking Challenges

Finance Minister Audley Shaw says investors from Jamaica’s diaspora are challenged by international banks who are refusing to do correspondent banking with banks in Jamaica. Correspondent banking allows a financial institution to do business on behalf of banks in other countries, making it easy for persons to move cash from… – Continue reading

Legislative committee approves anti-tax evasion bill

The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday approved an anti-tax evasion bill, which, if passed into law, would subject all companies registered overseas to the 17 percent corporate income tax. While supportive of the legislation, the committee voted 7-5 in favor of allowing the Cabinet to set the implementation date to avoid… – Continue reading

FBR seeks powers in Finance Bill to prevent tax evasions

The FBR has proposed powers through Finance Bill 2016-17 for entering into treaty with bilateral or multilateral forums for exchange of information to ensure prevention of tax evasions in the aftermath of Panama Leaks disclosure that many Pakistani influential owned offshore companies abroad. In totality, the FBR took tax measures… – Continue reading

Panama snubbed SA on data exchange request

PANAMA, widely recognised as one of the world’s tax havens, declined a request by the South African government to enter into a bilateral arrangement for the exchange of information. However, the refusal was made before the huge leak of information about the offshore holdings of wealthy individuals and entities disclosed… – Continue reading

Ireland delays EU corporate tax deal

Ireland has helped delay an EU deal on corporate tax-dodging over fears it could harm the economy. Finance Minister Michael Noonan told his EU counterparts in Brussels he would not sign up to the deal because it affects Ireland’s sovereign right to set tax rates. “We want to make sure… – Continue reading

Being Named In The Panama Papers Doesn’t Mean You Broke the Law

The Panama Papers have recently drawn a great deal of investigation and public attention. Over 230,000 organizations and individuals were named as having set up offshore companies in tax haven like the British Virgin Islands, Panama, the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas. The public’s initial reaction was suspicion and anger toward… – Continue reading

Portugal cracks down on itself over tax haven use

Portugal finance ministry says it is looking at ways of preventing government departments from using tax havens after the Treasury debt agency was found to have held an investment in Jersey. The Finance Ministry says that the agency held 133 million euros ($149 million) of bonds in a Jersey-based company… – Continue reading

Panama Papers: Further revelations about New Zealand’s role as a tax haven

Reports published last week, based on the Panama Papers, cast further light on New Zealand’s role as a location where wealthy individuals around the world are able to hide their fortunes. Last month the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released millions of leaked documents revealing that Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, the… – Continue reading

China plans to get tough on corporate tax evasion

China is joining an international effort to tackle tax evasion, with plans to require multinationals to disclose more detailed information on their overseas affiliates, according to taxation consultants who advised the government on the new rules. The proposed regulations would make it more difficult for large companies to avoid taxes… – Continue reading

India gearing up to apply Mauritius tax treaty fix to double taxation avoidance accord with Cyprus

NEW DELHI: Now that loopholes in the tax treaty with Mauritius have been plugged, the Indian government is gearing up to apply the same fix to its accord with Cyprus. Talks to amend the double taxation avoidance treaty are at an advanced stage and the two sides will soon exchange… – Continue reading

UAE investment in India may bypass Mauritius

The closure of a tax loophole could hit UAE firms planning to invest in India through Mauritius. The Indian government this week amended a long-standing treaty that helped foreign investors to avoid capital gains tax by routing their investments through Mauritius. Mauritius is the biggest source of foreign direct investment… – Continue reading

India to renegotiate tax treaty with singapore

After renegotiating the tax treaty with Mauritius to get the right to tax capital gains, India will go in for a similar amendment with Singapore, the second closest destination through which foreign funds are routed to India. “Sooner or later, the process will commence and hopefully conclude,” Finance Minister Aruna… – Continue reading

Investors making money must pay taxes, no fear of FDI fall: Arun Jaitley

India had in August 1982 signed the treaty with Mauritius to eliminate double taxation of income and capital gains to encourage mutual trade and investment. Investors must pay taxes on money they earn in India and the domestic economy is now strong enough to depend on any “tax-incentivised route” to… – Continue reading

Tax havens accuse US of ‘hypocrisy’ over tax avoidance

A group of tax havens have accused larger countries like the United States of “hypocrisy” when it comes to cracking down on tax avoidance. With the issue of offshore finance high on the agenda in light of the fall out from the so-called Panama Papers scandal, world leaders convened in… – Continue reading

US should be added to tax haven blacklist, says EU report

Tensions between the EU and the US over tax follow investigations into Apple in Ireland The US should be added to a new European blacklist of tax havens being drawn up by the European Commission, according to a report commissioned by the Green group in the European Parliament. The report,… – Continue reading

Hong Kong: Recent Development On CRS / AEOI & CbC Reporting

In August 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the first edition of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) Implementation Handbook to provide practical guidance to assist government officials in implementing the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (AEOI). The AEOI and CRS… – Continue reading

Canada’s record on finding tax evaders is dismal

Only a week after the so-called Panama Papers burst into the media spotlight early last month, the Canadian government issued a news release vowing to “crack down on tax evasion and tax avoidance.” The leak of a staggering 11.5 million documents from a Panama City law firm promised to reveal… – Continue reading

Governor of U.S Tax Haven Delaware Launches Blockchain Initiative

Governor Jack Markell will extend Delaware’s hospitality (home to more corporations than people) to Blockchain firms. Speaking at the Bitcoin community’s event in New York, Consensus 2016, Democratic Governor Jack Markell announced an initiative by the U.S State of Delaware to embrace the blockchain industry. His plan is to provide… – Continue reading

UN urges countries to stem tide of firms profit-shifting to tax havens

Unctad thinktank shows firms funnelled $221bn in 2015 through low-tax jurisdictions such as the Netherlands and tax havens in the Caribbean The UN has urged governments to stem the flow of funds to tax havens after companies funnelled $221bn (£152bn) into countries with low tax rates last year. The Netherlands… – Continue reading

UAE – Jersey trade relations: from a tax haven to taxonomy

As with any offshore financial centre, secrecy has been synonymous with the Channel Islands of Jersey. But the reason for the strong relations between the self-governing British dependency and the United Arab Emirates – still not known to many – is not confidentiality alone. It has not been so long… – Continue reading

Tax planning in the context of Panama Papers

Panama Papers’ disclosures now and earlier dealings of Vodafone through Cayman Islands are stories of famous tax havens, which evoke discussions of how tax evasion takes place. These are all direct taxes, mainly corporate tax, and not indirect tax. These are cases of tax planning that come to the fore… – Continue reading

Liberia: Africa’s unknown tax haven with much to lose

As world leaders consider what to do about the revelations emerging from the Panama Papers, Liberia’s government will be worrying about the fall-out that may cross the Atlantic Ocean from the affair. The European Union has announced it will be creating a new “tax haven blacklist”, to be released by… – Continue reading

Anti-tax evasion measures approved by EU finance ministers

Ministers agree to propose joint list of tax havens and approve plan to automatically exchange data on shell company owners EU finance ministers have approved a series of measures to tackle tax-evading methods that were exposed by the Panama Papers. Speaking on the second day of talks in Amsterdam, Jeroen… – Continue reading

Tax Avoidance: The Real Scandal Is What Multinational Companies are Getting Away With

Embarrassing our politicians and other public figures into publishing their tax returns is muddle-headed and distracting, however briefly satisfying. What we should be focused on is not what individuals are paying to the Treasury, interesting though that is, but unreasonable tax avoidance by multinational companies. There is a danger of… – Continue reading

Panama Papers Row Fails To Deter Trust Buyers

The Panama Papers row has failed to deter Permira and TPG from bidding for offshore trust firms, Sky News learns. Some of the world’s biggest buyout firms are queuing up to buy a string of offshore trust administrators despite the escalating global furore about the leaked Panama Papers. Sky News… – Continue reading

Why We Should Be Really Worried About the Panama Papers

History shows us that tax evasion can have terrible effects, from economic inequality to societal collapse. In a world seemingly inured to financial scandals, the Panama Papers leak has reminded us of their capacity to shock. This huge document dump, which has revealed thousands of offshore accounts held in the… – Continue reading

Proposed IRS Country-by-Country Reporting Regulations: What Do They Mean for You?

Genesis of CbC Reporting and How it will Affect U.S. Multinational Enterprises Country-by-country (CbC) reporting is essentially exactly what it sounds like: a report that shows every country where a multinational enterprise (MNE) operates and allocates income, earnings and pays taxes. The CbC report regulations proposed by the Internal Revenue… – Continue reading

Private Eyes They’re Watching You – Offshore Planning after the Panama Papers

Overview If you have been reading my articles on JD Supra for a while, you will know that I love Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Nevertheless, the Hall and Oates song Private Eyes, is a more fitting song to describe the state of offshore planning in Tax Havens than “Oye Como… – Continue reading

Once A Tax Haven, Gibraltar Now Says It’s Low-Tax

Gibraltar, a tiny British territory at Europe’s southern tip, is famous for its geography — a huge limestone rock — that appears on the Prudential logo. It’s a global center for offshore banking, with the trappings of wealth to prove it: Luxury high-rises tower over super yachts in Gibraltar’s marina. The… – Continue reading

U.S. Treasury readies new tax rules as G20 vows to fight evasion

The U.S. Treasury Department is finalising new tax rules aimed at combating the use of shell companies to evade taxes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Saturday amid increased pledges by global finance leaders to cooperate on tax issues. In a statement to the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee,… – Continue reading

David Cameron’s finances touched a nerve – tax openness is the answer

Nearly half of people say the Prime Minister’s handling of his finances was ‘morally repugnant’, according to our opinion poll, and they support public tax returns for all As the fallout from the fallout from the Panama Papers leak begins to settle, the Prime Minister is left contemplating the damage… – Continue reading

Apple, Microsoft among top 50 U.S. corporations using offshore tax havens

Less than two weeks after publication of the Panama Papers, a year-long investigation by hundreds of news organizations around the world, including the Star, cast a bright light on the world of offshore tax havens, a new report from Oxfam reveals how much money the 50 largest U.S. corporations have… – Continue reading

EU tells companies to reveal how much tax they pay by country in latest avoidance crackdown

Businesses will be forced to declare how much they make in each European country and in certain tax havens as part of an attempt to curb schemes that shift profits out of the reach of tax collectors. The plan to introduce country-by-country reporting in Europe is the latest global curb… – Continue reading

EU wants companies to disclose where they pay taxes

The European Union’s executive wants thousands of multinationals to disclose in what member states they make money and pay taxes, an effort to close loopholes and crack down on the use of tax havens. Reacting to public anger over tax avoidance by some of the globe’s best-known companies and by… – Continue reading

The problem of secretive tax havens

Panama is a tax haven, but Mauritius is one with which India has a comprehensive double tax treaty. This complicates matters more. In popular Indian imagination, a tax haven is generally associated with Switzerland and its numbered bank accounts. But tax havens are numerous, have grown in importance, and are… – Continue reading

OECD chief expects Panama cooperation to prevent tax avoidance

The chief of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday that the Panamanian government is expected to cooperate in international efforts to prevent tax avoidance after the revelation of the so-called Panama Papers.      OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said in a press conference in Tokyo that… – Continue reading

G-20 to discuss combating tax avoidance

TOKYO — Measures to deter tax avoidance will be discussed at next week’s meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in light of the release of the Panama Papers, including expanding an information-sharing agreement to include Panama and other countries. The release of leaked documents from a… – Continue reading

EU threatens sanctions on money laundering, tax evasion havens

BERLIN – A European Union official threatened Thursday to sanction Panama and other nations if they don’t cooperate fully to fight money laundering and tax evasion, after a leak of data showed the small country remains a key destination for people wanting to hide money. The 11.5 million documents from… – Continue reading

Adventures in tax avoidance: Canada’s deep offshore tax haven connections

Much of the activity is legal, but it siphons away billions in tax revenue from government coffers The massive Panama Papers data leak shines a light not only on the dirty money being shuffled through tax havens, but also on the legal and common use of offshore accounts to significantly… – Continue reading

HMRC complicite in tax avoidance with ‘Tax Haven based landlords’

HMRC complicite in tax avoidance scheme after it emerged it rents its own office from tax haven based company A day on, the world is still reeling from the revelations of the Panama Papers leak, the full repercussions of which are yet to be felt. Eleven million documents leaked from… – Continue reading