Technology companies frequently possess an international tax footprint before expanding their domestic tax footprint. That may soon change as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its G20 member countries undertake an ambitious agenda to fundamentally alter the international taxation system. The OECD released its Action Plan Addressing… – Continue reading
A political candidate has sparked the Reserve Bank and the Financial Markets Authority to visit a foreign-owned company offering “secret” offshore accounts. Grace Haden, an independent standing for election in Epsom, raised concerns with the regulators about Breder Suasso, which is referred to on overseas websites as a New Zealand… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has launched an investigation regarding the income and property that members of the Greek Diaspora have in Greece. Greek-Australians have a deadline until December 2014 to voluntarily declare all their homeland assets in order to avoid being considered as tax evaders and paying the full… – Continue reading
Tax investigators pursuing instances of blackmoney stashed abroad by Indians have finally been able to circumvent the Swiss secrecy code by asking over 100 such account holders to submit on their own details of personal balances in these banks, brought under the tax net recently, for lesser penal action for… – Continue reading
It’s no secret that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has made his opponent’s substantial wealth the main theme of his campaign. From Bruce Rauner not releasing his complete tax records to his businesses sheltering money in the Cayman Islands, Quinn will continue harping on the $53 million man’s Montana-size wallet until… – Continue reading
VietNamNet Bridge – The bad news about tax evasion and debt repudiation cases by foreign invested companies has darkened Vietnam’s foreign direct investment (FDI) landscape. Tuoi Tre newspaper has reported that Austrian Harald Biebl, director of the HCM City-based Bach Hop Company, operational in Vietnam since 2005, has fled the… – Continue reading
On June 25, 2014, the IRS finally issued the instructions to the new version of Form W-8BEN-E, an 8-page withholding certificate to be completed by foreign entities. Previously, foreign individuals and most foreign entities would provide a one-page Form W-8BEN to withholding agents to certify the foreign entity’s entity classification… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is an important development in U.S. efforts to improve tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts.Depending on the amount of the aggregate value of their assets, US individuals are required to file Form 8938 – Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets… – Continue reading
Ireland can adopt ‘wait-and-see’ approach on tax breaks, says Department of Finance Ireland supports the EU review of all patent box regimes – under which certain member states offer tax breaks for intellectual property – and has decided to take a “wait-and-see approach” on the issue until guidance is provided… – Continue reading
Microsoft Corp. is currently sitting on almost $29.6 billion it would owe in U.S. taxes if it repatriated the $92.9 billion of earnings it is keeping offshore, according to disclosures in the company’s most recent annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount of money that Microsoft is… – Continue reading
LITTLE ROCK, AR –Former Little Rock attorney David Patrick Henry, Sr., 71, has been sentenced to five years in prison followed by two years of supervised released, according U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer. Henry, Sr. is also ordered to pay over a million dollars. On March 21, a federal jury found… – Continue reading
PEOPLE with undeclared offshore tax liabilities are being urged to pay what they owe or face prosecution. The new criminal offence of failing to declare taxable offshore income is set out in a new Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) consultation paper. HMRC says people who do no declare their… – Continue reading
MONTREAL • Eugene Melnyk, the billionaire owner of the Ottawa Senators and founder of drug maker Biovail Corp., is waging war against the company that now controls his one-time business. Mr. Melnyk alleges that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is masquerading as a Canadian company to make use of this country’s… – Continue reading
Planting its European headquarters in Luxembourg has afforded Amazon significant tax advantages. That does not sit well in Britain, where members of Parliament from across the political spectrum have expressed outrage at the strategy. t would be hard to find anything better, unless, of course, you’re Cecil or Amazon. A… – Continue reading
The Delhi High Court upholds the non-taxability of gains from sale of shares of overseas entities by the Copal Group to the Moody’s Group. Interpretation of the indirect transfer tax provisions in a restrictive manner. 50% threshold for substantiality based on guidance by OECD/ UN material and Shome Committee Report… – Continue reading
Various reporters, editorialists and politicians are clamoring for Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, to release more of his tax returns — specifically, the detailed schedules that accompany the “top sheets” that he already has released. They probably will be disappointed, even if Mr. Rauner complies with… – Continue reading
TAX avoidance is always a hot topic, never more so than with the recent stream of famous individuals involved in the Liberty scheme. The fact that some of these 1,600 stars risk bankruptcy highlights just how serious these cases can be, and the financial and reputational value at stake. The media… – Continue reading
Tax reform is squarely on the agenda for the G20 Brisbane summit in November. The current international tax regime is broken and it’s going to take significant effort on a global scale to fix it. In a recently released CEDA Report on securing the G20’s future, I recommended the role… – Continue reading
Contractors can have their say on the taxman moving to criminalise people who fail to declare offshore income and gains, even if he cannot prove their intent was to defraud him. Under the ‘strict liability’ offence, convictions could hit a person whose taxable offshore income and gains were not correctly… – Continue reading
Education and Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons said yesterday the Registrar of Companies’ data on new company incorporations for the second quarter of 2014 continues to show a strong positive trend in the number of new company registrations. Results following the close of the quarter in June showed that the… – Continue reading
More private Swiss banks are suffering slumping profits, with a crackdown by the US authorities on tax cheats having a big effect. A study by consultancy firm KPMG and Switzerland’s University of Saint Gallen found that of the 94 they examined more than a third did not make any profit… – Continue reading
Using the code name Hot Lips with Swiss banking representatives, an 83-year-old Delray Beach man conspired to hide more than $1 million from the Internal Revenue Service in foreign bank accounts. Bernard Kramer pleaded guilty Tuesday in New York federal court before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, admitting he… – Continue reading
Reasons given by the bank for refusing to publish findings of an investigation into alleged tax evasion remain unconvincing When commodities giant Glencore publishes its half-yearly report on Wednesday, it is unlikely to mention what may be a significant victory for the firm. This relates to an investigation into allegations… – Continue reading
Companies with links to John George Russell are accused of entering into “tax avoidance” arrangements and are in a $3.5 million fight with the IRD. Russell – who developed a template that the Court of Appeal called a “blatant tax-avoidance scheme” – is a 79-year-old accountant being chased by the… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted in 2010 by the US to target non-compliance by US taxpayers using foreign accounts. FATCA essentially requires foreign financial institutions to report information about financial accounts held by US taxpayers, or by foreign entities in which such taxpayers hold a substantial… – Continue reading
If I say that Spain is a country in love with bureaucracy, your response might be: “Really…I don’t believe you for a minute?!” Sarcasm is rarely better suited to a statement than here. Yes, unfortunately a good proportion (not all) of the 2.7 million Spanish civil servants need to move… – Continue reading
Aug 21 (Reuters) – Leumi, Israel’s second-largest bank, reported a smaller-than-expected decline in quarterly net profit, as the lender’s bottom line was hit by a provision to settle a U.S. tax probe. Leumi said on Thursday it earned 290 million shekels ($82 million) in the second quarter, compared with 474… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc’s Chief Executive Omar Ishrak has insisted that the company’s USD42.9bn deal to acquire Dublin-based Covidien Plc, and, thereby, move its tax residence from the United States to Ireland in a “corporate inversion,” is based on business logic and not corporate tax reduction. Medtronic is among a number of… – Continue reading
A new section 1305A of the UK Corporation Tax Act 2009 (CTA 2009) has been introduced by the UK Finance Act 2014 that applies to payments made from March 19, 2014 under avoidance schemes involving the transfer of corporate profits within a group. This new measure applies if: two companies… – Continue reading
JOHANNESBURG – While numerous asset managers have indicated that global equities currently offer better longer-term investment opportunities than local stocks, some investors are concerned that the rand could strengthen and dilute their offshore gains. Last year, investors with exposure to specific offshore unit trust funds benefited from gains in international… – Continue reading
Authorities in Gibraltar have slammed claims by a top Spanish official that the UK-held territory costs Spain €1 billion ($1.3 billion) a year in lost tax revenues, saying the figure is “a financial flight of fancy”. “The wealth that Gibraltar enjoys cannot continue to be based solely on an economy… – Continue reading
Despite the political and media pressure on offshore financial centers, new incorporations of offshore companies worldwide continue to grow. A new report on offshore company incorporations by law and fiduciary firm Appleby shows that new company registrations increased in most offshore jurisdictions in the second half of 2013. “As the… – Continue reading
Serbia’s Information Commissioner has warned that banks must have the full consent of customers before information is passed to US tax authorities under the terms of FATCA, and that it would be illegal for customers to be declined services if they refuse to give consent. The comments were made by… – Continue reading
Never heard of FATCA? You will. FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act—is America’s global tax law. It was quietly enacted in 2010, and after a four-year ramp up, it’s finally in effect. What is most amazing is not its impact on Americans—although that is considerable—but its impact on the world…. – Continue reading
A tax avoidance scheme that routed a film financing venture’s profits via Employee Benefit Trusts at the behest of the venture’s owner, an ex-accountant, has been blocked by a tribunal. Operated by John Dryburgh, a former partner with Deloitte & Touche, the scheme involved extracting profits from a series of companies named… – Continue reading
The Spanish Government yesterday stepped up its campaign of unsubstantiated accusations against the Rock by claiming that Spain was losing out on one billion euros in taxes every year because of Gibraltar’s fiscal regime. The spectacular claim was made by Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, Secretary of State for the EU… – Continue reading
US has long tried to block tax inversions – with success – See more at: http://www.independent.ie/business/world/us-has-long-tried-to-block-tax-inversions-with-success-30520958.html#sthash.cT9EIpv4.dpuf US authorities have grappled for more than 30 years with corporate deals known as inversions by which American companies shift their tax domiciles abroad to avoid US taxes. Fifty-two substantial deals like this have occurred… – Continue reading
LONDON: Scottish explorer Cairn Energy plc today said it is working with the newly elected government to resolve a tax dispute that has stalled sale of its 10 per cent stake in Cairn India Ltd. “Cairn continues to seek resolution of the tax issue in India and will take all… – Continue reading
Monaco, the tax haven on the French Riviera, is experiencing a luxury-housing boom that includes the world’s most expensive penthouse as developers prepare for an influx of millionaires and billionaires escaping higher taxes or a loss of banking privacy. A “flow” of new residents is emigrating from Switzerland, where financial-secrecy laws… – Continue reading
U.S.-China Agreement Requires Financial Institutions to Increase Transparency and Enhance Reporting Wolters Kluwer Financial Services recommends that financial institutions in China should take steps toward enhancing their data and reporting capabilities on financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in China as part of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This recommendation… – Continue reading
(MENAFN – Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) A double-taxation avoidance agreement between Japan and Oman is expected to enter into force next month, the Japanese Foreign Ministry announced Monday.Japan notified Oman on Sunday of the completion of its internal ratification procedures for the treaty on the avoidance of double taxation and… – Continue reading
The country’s largest biotechnology manufacturer, CSL, says government and community complacency puts Australia at risk of missing out on future jobs as companies invest where workers are more productive, tax rates are lower and governments are more supportive. The $33 billion blood plasma and vaccine maker said Australia urgently needs… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The U.S. government has grappled for more than 30 years with corporate deals known as inversions in which U.S. companies shift their tax domiciles abroad to avoid U.S. taxes. Fifty-two substantial deals like this have occurred since 1983, about half of them since the 2008-2009 credit crisis, according… – Continue reading
Two women have challenged the constitutionality of a Canada-U.S. agreement to share the tax information of U.S. citizens resident in Canada, with the IRS. But an expert in U.S. tax law says that these individuals, most of whom consider themselves Canadians, could be worse off if the lawsuit succeeds. “If… – Continue reading
Law360, Washington (August 18, 2014, 5:20 PM ET) — Medical device manufacturer Zimmer Holdings Inc. is protesting a $79 million Internal Revenue Service assessment arising from transfer pricing adjustments that the agency made on transactions, including licensing agreements, between itself and a Dutch subsidiary, according to court records made public… – Continue reading
Minister of Finance Bob Richards confirmed this week that under the Bermuda-UK FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement [IGA] model 2, Bermuda and the UK have agreed the inclusion of a Limited Capacity Exempt Beneficial Owner Category in Annex II of the IGA. The effect of this amendment will mean that there will… – Continue reading
For years, chief executives have complained bitterly about the United States corporate tax code, arguing that it is too complicated and that rates are too high. The issue has reached a near boiling point this summer as many large American companies have sought to buy smaller foreign rivals so they… – Continue reading
Northern Ireland looks set to be handed the power to slash corporation tax in a move with the potential to significantly boost our stuttering economy. In a development which could transform international investment, senior sources in London and Belfast predict that an announcement will be made no later than October… – Continue reading
To some, US companies switching their tax residency to gain a tax advantage are economic “traitors.” To others, they are victims of a United States tax code that effectively punishes them for investing at home and encourages them to look for opportunities overseas. In this Tax-News Topical Focus, we try… – Continue reading
SRINGFIELD — Republican Bruce Rauner not only has personal investments in the Cayman Islands, but he presided over his former private equity firm as it set up other investment vehicles in the Caribbean tax haven known for its secrecy. The Chicago Sun-Times verified through the Cayman Islands’ government-run online business… – Continue reading
