Category: Activity

Why is HMRC going to punish inadvertent tax avoidance as harshly as wilful evasion?

Mark Davies is not happy that accidents are going to cost you as much as intentions Recently, the government issued a consultation document on new legislation to extend HM Revenue & Customs’ powers of retribution for undeclared income and gains hidden offshore. It believes that offshore tax evasion is difficult… – Continue reading

Improving Transparency and Combating Tax Avoidance to Top Agenda of Ninth Forum on Tax Administration, on 23-24 October 2014 in Dublin, Ireland

21/10/14-Tax administrations will play a central role as governments move to implement the measures they have agreed to counter offshore evasion and combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises. Global initiatives like the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project and the move toward automatic exchange of financial account account… – Continue reading

Tax Law Blog: IRS Revises Offshore Voluntary Compliance Programs

As of July 1, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has implemented several changes to the streamlined filing procedures for offshore compliance, as well as the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). These programs provide taxpayers with offshore assets an avenue to bring their tax obligations into compliance. The expanded programs… – Continue reading

UK: Charities And VAT ‘Abuse’

There is a common misunderstanding in the charity world that tax avoidance, and its ugly sister – tax abuse, cannot be regarded as applying to charities except where charities are ‘hijacked’ to line the pockets of wealthy ostensible donors. But that is simply not the case. A charity which seeks… – Continue reading

The Singapore-India Connection: A Robust Past and a Compelling Future

In determining the optimum gateway for investing into India, reliance on industry data may be the most prudent opening gambit. Data released by India’s Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion peg Mauritius and Singapore as the top two destinations through which foreign direct investment and private equity capital is routed… – Continue reading

Black Money Names Will Embarrass Congress: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to NDTV

NEW DELHI:  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government has never said that it will not reveal the names of Indians who have undeclared income parked in foreign bank accounts. “The Congress will be embarrassed by the names when we reveal them in court,” said Mr Jaitley in an exclusive… – Continue reading

Swiss bank secrets begin to emerge

Echegaray says account holders can take part in country’s fiscal amnesty If Argentines who hold 4,040 undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland don’t normalize their fiscal status and pay their debts, the AFIP tax bureau will file a complaint before the Office of Economic Crime and Money-Laundering (PROCELAC) requesting it investigates… – Continue reading

Tax breaks for rich foreigners under fire in Switzerland

Lump sum taxation, the tailor-made measure tax regime designed to attract wealthy foreigners to Switzerland, is facing a crucial test as voters head to the polls on November 30 to decide whether or not to abolish the system for good. Proponents of the initiative say lump sum taxation is unfair… – Continue reading

India: Vodafone Victorious In Multi Million Transfer Pricing Battle, Yet Again!

Bombay High Court holds that shares issued at a premium by a resident entity to a non-resident entity is a capital account transaction and does not give rise to any income; Income arising from an International Transaction between AEs must satisfy the test of ‘income; as provided under the ITA… – Continue reading

Cash-strapped countries eye trillions held offshore

Foreign structures are tempting targets for governments, says Vanessa Houlder. When governments around the world embarked on a drive to plug tax loopholes in 2012, the urgency of the move was underpinned by rising tensions over austerity and inequality. Widespread public outrage over alleged tax-dodging by wealthy individuals and multinationals… – Continue reading

Malta: The Residence Programme Rules, 2014 For Individuals Who Are EU, EEA Or Swiss Nationals

A Residence Programme (“TRP Rules”) has been introduced with effect from 1 July 2013 for individuals who are nationals of the EU, EEA or Switzerland (but not Maltese nationals) in terms of Legal Notice 270 of 2014 and Articles 56(23) and 96 of the (Malta) Income Tax Act, Chapter 123… – Continue reading

Texas Billionaire Files for Bankruptcy

DALLAS (CN) – Former Texas billionaire Sam Wyly filed for bankruptcy protection after a federal jury ordered him to pay as much as $400 million for using offshore trusts to hide stock trades.      A noted philanthropist and contributor to Republican causes, Wyly, 77, of Dallas, made his fortune… – Continue reading

FATCA Wilfulness Problems For US Taxpayers

If you are a US taxpayer with overseas bank accounts or investments, you need to take immediate steps to show you are reporting your overseas earnings to avoid tax penalties under Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Now FATCA is in full swing with foreign financial institutions filing reports on… – Continue reading

ATO Commissioner Urges Int’l Collaboration On BEPS

Unprecedented international collaboration is needed to overcome a single-, isolated-country view to tackling base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) issues, Andrew Mills, Second Commissioner of Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for Law Design and Practice, has said. In a speech delivered at the Second Annual Tax Forum organized by the Tax… – Continue reading

BEPS already an issue, says CICA

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) plan for base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is already affecting corporations, according to speakers participating in a Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) transfer pricing webinar. Polling results during the webinar revealed attendees’ opinions were in line with tax industry surveys indicating… – Continue reading

NSW to add offshore data rules into privacy legislation

Privacy Commissioner welcomes the news. The office of NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard has confirmed the government’s intentions to update the state’s privacy legislation to make it clear where agencies and healthcare providers stand when it comes to storing data offshore, particularly as part of cloud computing arrangements. The NSW Privacy… – Continue reading

Tax must be paid on dividend unless rules change

Dividend represents a share of the company’s post-tax profit that is divided among its shareholders. In other words, once corporate tax has been paid on profit, the remaining earnings are distributed amongst shareholders as dividend. So far, so good. Then, this dividend is characterised as income in the hands of… – Continue reading

After Decades of Pressure, Luxembourg Drops Bank Secrecy Rules

European Union finance ministers have reached a breakthrough agreement that will make it more difficult for tax cheats to hide their money.  The new legislation, which had been blocked for years by countries with a reputation as tax havens, was approved last week after Luxembourg and Austria agreed to lift… – Continue reading

Luxembourg: Update Of The OECD Model Tax Convention

On July 15th 2014, the OECD published its 2014 update of the Model Tax Convention (“2014 OECD Update”). This update is the outcome of the work accomplished between 2010 and the end of 2013. It does not however take into account the OECD conclusions of the “Action Plan on Base… – Continue reading

Davis Tax Committee mulls ways to ‘detect and deter’ corporate tax avoidance

The revenue implications for South Africa of ‘base erosion and profit shifting’ by corporate taxpayers are firmly in the crosshairs of the Davis Tax Committee (DTC) and Judge Dennis Davis hinted on Monday that recommendations were being considered to “detect and deter” tax-avoiding financial flows. Speaking at a G20 study… – Continue reading

Switzerland Extends Olive Branch To India On Tax

Swiss authorities have confirmed that, if asked, they will assist India in efforts to confirm the genuineness of bank documents and will swiftly provide information on requests relating to non-banking dossiers. The commitment was made in a joint statement following a meeting between the Swiss State Secretary, Jacques de Watteville,… – Continue reading

The changing business model

There has been a lot of press coverage recently around the pricing and tax arrangements of multinationals, in particular Apple, Starbucks and Amazon. In this respect, the EU is undertaking in-depth investigates into these companies to establish whether the companies’ tax arrangements have breached EU State Aid rules. These cases… – Continue reading

United States: Tax Aspects Of Foreign Ownership Of US Residential Real Estate

Representation of foreign individuals who wish to purchase US residential property should include careful attention to the manner in which the income and gain from the property will be taxed in addition to the other aspects of ownership. In addition, it is important to be aware of the manner in… – Continue reading

Foreign lending picks up in second quarter, offshore centers attract credit

(Reuters) – International banking activity expanded for a second straight quarter between April and June with banks lending more to emerging markets, particularly China, and to investment funds in offshore centers such as the Cayman Islands, data showed on Monday. Foreign lending to offshore centers rose to $2.269 trillion in… – Continue reading

FATCA Alert

In recent years, the United States has increased initiatives to counter tax evasion committed by U.S. persons who are not reporting and paying U.S. income tax on earnings derived from foreign financial assets. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) represents the latest major initiative in this regard, having been… – Continue reading

The optimum income taxation

Obama finds foreign a tax rate that is both fair and efficient What is the maximum income-tax rate that anyone should be expected to pay? Some questions are never settled, in part because people often ignore the theoretical and empirical evidence, and history that can help answer the question. The… – Continue reading

FATCA Tracker – October 01, 2014

Nearly 105,000 financial institutions are listed on the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) database of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) organisations complying with the tax reporting rules for US citizens. The latest list was published on October 1, 2014 by the IRS and shows 104,344 financial organisations have signed… – Continue reading

LatAm: corruption, tax evasion fuel inequality

These crimes hinder the development of societies, prevent strengthening the legitimacy of democracy SANTIAGO — Corruption and tax evasion are flagrant violations of human rights in Latin America, where they contribute to inequality and injustice in the countries of the region, according to studies and experts consulted by IPS. “Tax… – Continue reading

Black money row: Left says BJP and Centre stand exposed

New Delhi: Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Saturday criticized the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government at the Centre for not disclosing the names of persons having money stashed away in safe havens abroad, and alleged that it exposed the utter hypocrisy and double standards of… – Continue reading

Dirty money: 19 UK firms alleged ‘complicit’ in $20bn laundering scam

Some 19 British firms are at the center of an investigation into in a mammoth global money-laundering operation. The scheme was allegedly contrived to make $20bn (£12.5bn) worth of ill-gotten gains appear legitimate. The illicit funds are thought to have originated from criminal gangs and corrupt officials across the globe,… – Continue reading