“Tax policy and administration should incentivise compliance. They should be administered fairly, transparently, with minimum discretion, with no harassment of taxpayers but also ensuring that tax evasion is dealt with firmly.” Promising a ‘modern tax system’ with low and globally competitive rates, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured foreign investors… – Continue reading
When Hillary Clinton recently borrowed Elizabeth Warren’s talking points and claimed “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top” (in our economic and political system) against regular working people, did she mention reforming the tax code — and then offer any solutions? The simple answer is… – Continue reading
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. may need to accommodate activist shareholders with a merger or buyout. Starwood, which owns high-end hotel chains such as W and Westin, has one of the worst stock-return and growth outlooks in the industry. It’s also entering the second month of searching for a… – Continue reading
Foreign owners of UK property assets are being advised to seek property valuations to avoid falling foul of changes to Capital Gains Tax, writes David Westgate – Managing Director, Andrews Letting & Management CHANGES to Capital Gains Tax for UK property investors based overseas were first announced by George Osborne… – 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
Portugal’s deputy prime minister, Paulo Portas, and Saudi Arabia’s minister of trade, Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, recently signed an agreement abolishing double taxation between the two countries, as part of a continued broader effort by Portugal’s government to boost exports and investment. The document was signed after a meeting in… – Continue reading
Rome, April 16 (CNA) Italy’s Chamber of Deputies passed legislation Wednesday aimed at avoiding double taxation with Taiwan. It is the first time Italy’s parliament has passed legislation related to relations with Taiwan. The bill gained the support of the center-left Democratic Party, the largest party in the Chamber of… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The government has set the record straight on tax disputes, maintaining they are not covered by the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPA) and need to be judicially and legally settled. “…But again on the BIPA issue, let me mention, it has been our consistent view that… – Continue reading
Sydney Airport is refusing to display a billboard that denounces tax evasion by multinational companies. The airport, which was last year forced to pay a $69 million settlement to the Australian Tax Office to end an audit of suspect tax deductions, claimed the proposed Labor billboard would contravene its policy… – 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
Director of Institute for Fiscal Studies claims coalition’s move to cut the tax-free personal allowance achieves a similar outcome for low-paid workers The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank has rubbished one of Labour’s key policies for tackling in-work poverty, the 10p starting rate of income tax, describing… – Continue reading
Wealthy Americans are running out of ways to hide their money. The IRS has been relentless in prying open the secret Swiss bank account—dozens of Swiss banks are cooperating with the agency. Just last month, a settlement with the private bank BSI revealed bankers used coded language and nameless credit… – Continue reading
As foreign portfolio investors balk at India’s claim of $6.4 billion in back taxes, the finance ministry’s latest demand isn’t damping interest in the nation’s stocks and bonds. Foreigners were net buyers of local equities every day barring one since the finance ministry said April 6 it is well within… – Continue reading
Cross border transactions involving German entities investing in French real estate may need to be restructured as a result of proposed changes to the France/Germany double tax treaty, according to two experts. French tax expert Franck Lagorce and German tax expert Werner Geisselmeier, both of Pinsent Masons, the law firm… – Continue reading
In This Issue: – Fifth Circuit Ruling in BMC Software, Inc. v. Comm’r. Is Good News for Taxpayers – When Is a Second Inspection Not a Second Inspection? – Captive Insurance Litigation: Key 2014 Cases – Excerpt from Fifth Circuit Ruling in BMC Software, Inc. v. Comm’r. Is Good News… – Continue reading
The IRS is growing increasingly uncomfortable that an increasing number of smaller companies and professional firms have been doing what larger companies do — creating their own or joining a captive insurer, reports Insurance Journal. The IRS believes some of these smaller companies are creating these so-called “microcaptives” in order… – Continue reading
Claims of using Malta to reduce tax liability ‘malicious and libellous’ – Lynton Crosby British Prime Minister David Cameron’s electoral guru, Australian Lynton Crosby, has rejected a Labour attack on his personal tax affairs as a “made up negative story”. On Thursday the British Labour Party called on Mr Crosby… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street banks and other financial firms should pay new fees to bankroll their own government oversight, according to a member of the top U.S. derivatives regulator. Sharon Y. Bowen, a Democrat on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said Congress should let the agency set fees on banks… – Continue reading
HSBC has appointed headhunters to find new non-executive directors in an effort to freshen up its board. Europe’s biggest bank has previously said its next chairman will be an external candidate, and it has also been reported that one of the new non-executives was likely to be a replacement for… – 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
NEW YORK • When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from 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 funds management industry has welcomed a commitment from Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to make tax and corporate law changes that will boost the export of asset management services to Asia. Complex and uncompetitive legal and tax settings in Australia have acted as a handbrake on the export of financial… – Continue reading
Baker & Hostetler LLP On Tax Day it is a helpful reminder that a variety of income tax reporting obligations are associated with offshore assets. Any ownership of an asset that gives rise to income when those assets are located outside of the United States may need to be reported… – Continue reading
Introduction Soft commodity prices, divergent monetary policies across major economies, high unemployment rates and weak world trade have all conspired to slow down global economic recovery over the past seven years. Consequently, governments have had to cut spending as future revenues remain uncertain. This has led governments to look for… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: India’s syndicated loan borrowing in overseas markets has collapsed in the January-March quarter as Indian companies have taken the bond route to fund their expansions, and investments are yet to pick up. Loans denominated in US dollar, Japanese yen or euro dropped 75 per cent year-on-year. India G3 syndicated… – Continue reading
Increased mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals space has been a boon for healthcare-heavy Israel exchange traded funds. Year-to-date, the Market Vectors Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA) and the iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EIS) are up an average of 11.6%, an advantage of 260 basis points over the MSCI… – Continue reading
Beijing enlists seven firms, including PwC, to investigate projects and holdings this year Beijing has appointed seven audit companies, including international firm PwC, to look into the overseas assets of major state-owned enterprises as it tightens the reins on the business giants. The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac)… – Continue reading
Increased mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals space has been a boon for healthcare-heavy Israel exchange traded funds. Year-to-date, the Market Vectors Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA) and the iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EIS) are up an average of 11.6%, an advantage of 260 basis points over the MSCI… – Continue reading
New Delhi: With overseas investors pumping in over Rs 2,000 crore in the Indian capital markets so far this month, total foreign fund inflows have crossed the Rs 81,000 crore mark since the beginning of the year. Analysts expect the inflows to accelerate further going ahead, helped by clearance of… – Continue reading
Guernsey’s fiduciary sector was represented at a prominent international estate planning conference in the United States. Three representatives of Trust Corporation International attended the 11th annual International Estate Planning Institute event in Times Square, New York, where the firm was also a gold sponsor. A distinguished panel of experts debated… – Continue reading
Everyone’s “favorite” day of the year is less than 24 hours away – Tax Day. And the big question is: Have you filed your return yet? (If you haven’t, stop reading this and go take care of that. This will still be here when you’re done.) By now, most people… – Continue reading
As the saying goes, there are two certainties in an uncertain world: death and taxes. The corporate world, while unable to eliminate the former, is doing everything in its considerable power to eliminate the latter. As recent developments over the past couple of years show, transnationals are determined to not… – Continue reading
The South Korean government is going to construct a natural gas plant in Turkmenistan, which has the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves. The government is supporting a US$13 billion scale project in total, which includes natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant construction and the modernization of essential oil factories. South Korean… – Continue reading
EU’s Highest Court Rules on Information Exchange On 19 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a significant judgment on the application of EU competition law to information exchange between competitors. The case was an appeal from the European Commission’s 2008 decision to fine banana importers Dole,… – Continue reading
Duncan Card believes that his new law firm will be instrumental in attracting foreign investment to the Island. Bennett Jones (Bermuda) Ltd, which practises in association with the Canadian law firm of the same name, will be led by managing principal Mr Card, a Bermudian who has returned with his… – Continue reading
Swiss banks, for decades the bastions of secrecy, are preaching the virtue of transparency to their U.S. clients as they try to head off billions of dollars in potential fines for helping Americans evade taxes. Faced with the threat of penalties that could bankrupt some of them, almost 100 of… – 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
Research by the Guardian and the Tax Justice Network reveals 28 English clubs with substantial shareholdings overseas, opening up the football leagues to criticism for allowing ownership structures that could be used for tax avoidance Almost one in three of the 92 Premier and Football League clubs are now substantially… – Continue reading
Analysts upbeat on the company’s standalone prospects The recent share price performance of Shire Plc (LON:SHP), the London-listed drugmaker left at the altar by US pharma giant AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last year, suggests that the company will continue to thrive on its own, a view supported by recent analyst comments on… – Continue reading
When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the corporate income tax…. – 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
The Panama Government on its continuous interest of complying with the requirements of international organizations and global standards of highly reputable financial centers has decided to take measures to accelerate the entry into force of Act 47 of 2013, which establishes a regime for the immobilization of Bearer Shares, and… – Continue reading
Only one change in expat offshore money rates for the week – a new account launched by Skipton International. The 18 month fixed rate bond follows the market lead in offering shorter fixed terms. The rate is 1.75% and savers can open an account with £10,000. The savings market is… – Continue reading
His softball sentence of two years probation ended five years ago. But billionaire real estate developer Igor Olenicoff still can’t put behind him his December 2007 guilty plea to lying on his federal tax return about some $200 million he kept offshore. For that, he can blame his own litigiousness… – Continue reading
Bank appoints headhunters MWM Consulting after revelations about its Swiss banking arm have brought board composition under intense scrutiny HSBC is preparing to bring in new non-executive directors to overhaul a board that has faced intense scrutiny following revelations of its Swiss arm’s involvement in tax evasion. The appointment of… – 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
