There are often a few major issues on everyone’s lips in the international community of tax lawyers. This was the case also at The International Fiscal Association’s (IFA) 69th Congress in Basel, Switzerland. One of the main subjects in the congress was how tax payers’ rights can be most efficiently… – Continue reading
The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is like a global think tank for advancing ideas and policy for the leading developed nations. Based in Paris with 2,500 staff, the OECD gathers social and economic data from member states which is analysed, discussed and edited into digests with recommendations… – Continue reading
Before the economic crash, OECD reports on its member countries focused on the structural problems afflicting the individual economies, be it the dominance of a national telecoms company or so-called sheltered areas of the economy which didn’t face competition, including the professions such as lawyers or pharmacists. Even mild recommendations… – Continue reading
ABOUT R80bn is leaving SA illegally each year in what is known as illicit financial flows (IFFs), a parliamentary workshop on base erosion and profit shifting heard. Base erosion and profit shifting are defined as “businesses exploiting gaps in the international tax system to artificially shift profit and avoid paying… – Continue reading
EU commissioner urges member states to ensure fair share of tax is paid EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici reiterated his commitment to re-launch the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base yesterday, urging all EU member states to ensure that companies pay their fair share of tax. Speaking following a meeting of… – Continue reading
Speaking at an informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) in Luxembourg, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna once again expressed Malta’s opposition to tax harmonization. “Taxation remains a sensitive area for Malta, not only because of its obvious role in the revenue collection process, but also as an important… – Continue reading
The OECD has told the Group of Twenty nations (G-20) that it will deliver its final recommendations to tackle base erosion and profit shifting on schedule, in October. At the G-20’s meeting on September 21-22, 2015, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said: “I hope to present in Lima [on October 8]… – Continue reading
This week, MEPs discussed a draft report on tax rulings, with a view to a vote in the next plenary session in Strasbourg. The report proposes a comprehensive overhaul of corporate tax practices as part of the EU’s battle to tackle tax avoidance. Parliament’s special committee on tax rulings (TAXE)… – Continue reading
Johannesburg – The South African economy has been crippled by decades of transfer pricing and other forms of illegal capital flight by multinational companies, especially in the mining sector. This partly explained the country’s poisonous labour relations environment and led directly to the Marikana killings three years ago. These were… – Continue reading
EFFORTS by rich countries to find international solutions to prevent the erosion of a country’s tax base are being met with suspicion and cynicism from poor countries, tax experts warned at the annual Tax Indaba in Sandton on Tuesday. The base erosion and profit shifting (Beps) project was set in… – Continue reading
The international financial sector faces a perilous future. Major challenges loom over an uncertain global economy, while a decidedly negative political climate poses an existential threat to the offshore financial community. With each passing year, thanks to demographic changes and poorly designed fiscal policies, politicians from high-tax nations will be… – Continue reading
A continent so rich with natural resources, but yet there is still a wide economic inequality gap. Money is lost due to base erosion and profit shifting, thus minimizing the opportunity to advance development. CNBC Africa is joined by Ernie Lai King, head of tax and Asia practice, at Hogan… – Continue reading
Multinational companies are facing far more expansive and complex audits by tax authorities fighting over the same pot of profits as budget deficits continue to increase, reports BD Live. An inevitable outcome of efforts globally to prevent tax bases from erosion is double taxation and increased disputes over adjusted assessments… – Continue reading
The government is looking to adopt a global standard on exchange of financial information in 2017 in the hope of addressing the country’s tax revenue issues, according to a Cabinet minister. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the move would enable the government to collect financial data on accounts belonging to… – Continue reading
G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors released their third communique of 2015 over the weekend. Their rhetoric is notable for the calm statement of positive reassurance on the macroeconomic environment, although the direct policy commitments appear to be light on. In the communique, Ministers and Governors recognised the significant… – Continue reading
At the 69th IFA Congress in Basel, Taxsutra’s Arun Giri, accompanied by well known tax expert Mukesh Bhutani, interviewed India’s Competent Authority Akhilesh Ranjan. Mr. Ranjan is leading the country’s charge on BEPS, and offers candid views on various issues including confidentiality of information, possibility of a BEPS outcome that… – Continue reading
On 17 June 2015, the European Commission launched its action plan for fair and efficient taxation in the EU. Within the package to be consulted upon are plans for a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) and a number of administrative measures around cross-border cooperation, dispute resolution and greater transparency…. – Continue reading
A number of further publications have been released this quarter as part of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. These include: The 8 June 2015 publication by the OECD of a package of measures relating to “country- by-country reporting” (relevant to… – Continue reading
The inquiry raises some larger and perhaps more challenging questions about Australia’s corporate tax system and what is acceptable and unacceptable tax minimisation. On 18 August 2015, the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance tabled a long-awaited interim report, with the subtitle “You cannot tax what you cannot see”. The… – Continue reading
On August 12 the IRS issued final guidance (Rev. Proc. 2015-40) significantly updating procedures for requesting and obtaining an advance pricing agreement (APA) from the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement (APMA) program. All new APA requests will need to be filed under these “new procedures”, however, an APA request may… – Continue reading
Three-quarters of global business leaders would accept higher taxes in exchange for greater clarity on acceptable tax planning, the Grant Thornton International Business Report has found. The survey of 2,580 businesses in 35 countries noted a significant increase from the last time the question was asked – last year –… – Continue reading
U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Ways and Means Committee chairman, sent a letter on Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, outlining concerns regarding the country-by-country (CbC) reporting requirements in the works at the Treasury Department. The letter… – Continue reading
On 4 August 2015, the Senate Economics References Committee tabled its report, Digital currency – game changer or bit player making a number of recommendations including: digital currency transactions should be treated in the same manner as money for the purposes of the goods and services tax (GST) and recommends… – Continue reading
Proposals for consistent global rules on company tax cause worries all round CLARITY or chaos? Supporters of the Base Erosion and Profit-Shifting (BEPS) project, being worked on by the OECD, argue that it will bind multinationals to a consistent set of global tax rules, providing them with less licence than… – Continue reading
India and Germany have agreed to resume negotiations on partial revision of double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA), the government said on Friday. The two countries have agreed to explore possibilities of enhancing tax related information while continuing to share information on the basis of existing agreements, the ministry of finance… – Continue reading
The two top Republican tax writers in Congress are warning the Treasury Department not to get ahead of Congress as it negotiates new international tax rules, questioning whether the administration is seeking to wield power it does not have. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and House Ways and… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance is making all possible attempts to resolve tax related disputes through proper dispute mechanism framework agreement with global as well as domestic companies with a spirit of equity and fairness so that the growth being aimed at is scaled and additional employment opportunities created as intended… – Continue reading
A working party of the EU Council is meeting on September 2, 2015, to discuss policy responses to base erosion and profit shifting. The working party will discuss a number of inter-related issues, including minimum effective tax rates; the EU’s Code of Conduct on business taxation, which is used to… – Continue reading
This month’s feature examines proposals for new tax information reporting requirements for large multinational businesses as part of wider and ongoing changes to the international tax system – proposals which have been described by international tax experts as the most significant development in the field of transfer pricing since TP… – Continue reading
Next week, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will gather for their third meeting during Turkey’s presidency. With just two and half months until leaders assemble in Antalya for this year’s summit, these meetings give the G20 an opportunity to confirm 2015 outcomes and demonstrate that the G20 remains… – Continue reading
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) producing or selling their products in China have had to contend with the commercial, legal, and tax challenges of managing how their intellectual property (IP) is used in relation to their Chinese operations. Regulatory approvals for joint ventures operating in China have often required that IP rights… – Continue reading
At their meeting in Salzburg, Pierre Gramegna, Austrian Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling, Liechtenstein Prime Minister and Finance Minister Adrian Hasler, the Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble employed in particular with international tax policy, the fight against tax optimization models overlooking the BEPS Initiative… – Continue reading
India will soon settle international tax disputes with close to 120 American companies as well as entities from Japan and other such countries, according to the nation’s Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das. Earlier this month, India announced a Framework Agreement under the mutual agreement procedure provision of the India-US tax treaty… – Continue reading
What has happened? On 2 October 2014 the Senate referred an inquiry into corporate tax avoidance to the Senate Economics References Committee for inquiry and report. The Committee conducted public hearings1 in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra and received submissions from a number of senior executives from high profile multinational corporations… – Continue reading
India opposed the proposal saying it impinges on the sovereign rights of developing countries in taxation New Delhi: An international proposal to make arbitration mandatory and binding under mutual agreement procedures (MAP) in tax treaties has been dropped after India strongly opposed it. Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation… – Continue reading
On 17 June 2015, the European Commission launched a public consultation on further corporate tax transparency, which suggests a variety of tax transparency measures including country-by-country reporting (see here). The consultation is intended to gather feedback on which companies should offer more tax transparency and to whom. The deadline for… – Continue reading
The Australian Senate inquiry into tax avoidance has released its interim report, which makes 17 recommendations, including the introduction of a mandatory tax reporting code. The Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax Avoidance was referred to the Economics References Committee in October 2014. The first hearing was conducted in April 2015,… – Continue reading
At first glance the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project is difficult to understand. There has been no decline in corporate tax revenues in recent years, and nations already possess a variety of tools to respond to erosion when needed. BEPS is thus drawing an inordinate amount of… – Continue reading
The IRS on 12 August 2015 released Rev. Proc. 2015-40 with respect to requesting competent authority (CA) assistance, and it is generally effective for CA requests filed on or after 30 October 2015. Rev. Proc. 2015-40 updates and supersedes Rev. Proc. 2006-54. The IRS concurrently released Rev. Proc. 2015-41 as… – Continue reading
FATCA was enacted into law by section 501(a) of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employments (HIRE) Act 2010 as a revenue offset to help pay for the continuation of unemployment benefits for workers laid off during the 2008-2010 financial crisis. In July 2008, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations… – Continue reading
In its Resolution of March 25, 2015, on the Annual Tax Report (2014/2114(INI)), the European Parliament renewed its commitment to combating tax havens and tax avoidance. To be sure, most aspects of the resolution have been discussed before. Bundling these aspects into one comprehensive package, however, provides an intriguing snapshot… – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has confirmed that the European Commission has no plans, formal or informal, to harmonize corporation tax rates across the European Union. In a written question to the Commission, Jonathan Arnott, a UK Member of the European Parliament, asked the Commission to confirm its latest position on… – Continue reading
The private equity industry has long been known for its ability to take advantage of tax rules. But international changes are set to have an impact on their businesses. After a string of multinationals such as Apple, Google and Starbucks came under fire for paying minimal tax on their British… – Continue reading
In short… The current balance of competences between the EU and the UK on tax is quite intricate, with a tension between member states’ desire to determine their own tax systems and the EU-led aim of a level playing field. The EU most obviously influences member states’ indirect taxation (particularly… – Continue reading
BENGALURU, AUGUST 17: To conduct research on present tax regulations, address uncertainties arising out of interpretation and ensure higher FDI, the International Tax Research and Analysis Foundation (ITRAF) was launched here on Monday. Headed by Parthasarathi Shome, an economist and former head of the panel on General Anti Avoidance Rules… – Continue reading
Introduction In 1934 distinguished US jurist Judge Learned Hand famously opined that “one may so arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to… – Continue reading
A “legislative requirement” for large businesses to publish their tax strategy could create commercial confidentiality risks IN an age where large corporates continue to engage in tax avoidance or aggressive tax planning, compelling businesses to disclose their tax strategies is, at heart, a good idea. There is a risk, however,… – Continue reading
The latest estimate of the tax potentially underpaid by the UK’s biggest businesses suggests that “the era of billion-pound tax settlements might be over” with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) increasingly focusing on mid-tier firms, an expert has said. Heather Self of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, was… – Continue reading
Only 23 percent of business leaders feel that recommendations from the OECD on base erosion and profit shifting will be successfully implemented, according to the findings of a new survey by Grant Thornton. Three quarters of business leaders would pay more taxes in exchange for greater clarity from authorities on… – Continue reading
Would businesses really be willing to pay more tax if they had more certainty on what is acceptable for cross-border tax planning? According to a recent Grant Thornton International Business Report, three quarters of business leaders would in fact be ready to pony up more taxes in exchange for greater… – Continue reading
