The US Internal Revenue Service has eased the rules of FATCA compliance by telling banks overseas that they are not required to close the accounts of their accidental Americans clients who have not provided their tax identification number by January 2020. FATCA was passed in 2010 and forces banks wanting… – Continue reading
The new Income and Capital Tax Treaty between Switzerland and Argentina entered into force on 27 November 2015. The new treaty generally applies from 1 January 2015 for withholding taxes and from 1 January 2016 for other taxes and article 25 (Exchange of information). The new agreement will replace the… – Continue reading
On October 5, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) unveiled the consensus plan reached by the Group of 20 and more than 40 other countries regarding its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. BEPS refers to tax-dodging tactics by multinationals that erode a home country’s tax base… – Continue reading
Speed read On 15 September 2015 the Dutch government published its Tax Plan 2016. In this e-alert we discuss the legislative proposals in the Tax Plan which are of interest for companies. 1 INTRODUCTION Today, the Dutch Ministry of Finance published its Tax Plan 2016. In fact, the government sent… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Shareholders in Israel’s Bank Leumi are seeking to file a class action lawsuit worth about 475 million shekels ($119 million) against the bank over its handling of a U.S. probe into alleged tax evasion, Bank Leumi said on Sunday. Leumi, Israel’s second largest lender, said the lawsuit argues… – Continue reading
Argentinean Authorities Allege Bank Aided in Providing Secret Swiss Accounts A group of federal tax bureau agents and 100 police officers raided the downtown Buenos Aires offices of British bank HSBC on Wednesday, January 7. The Argentinean government is investigating the bank over alleged tax evasion and money laundering. In… – Continue reading
Outlook PwC’s request the Luxembourg authorities prosecute the whistleblower who lifted the lid on the vast extent of tax avoidance there is ill-judged and unpalatable. Antoine Deltour did the world a service in leaking the details of thousands of PWC-arranged tax deals in the tiny country. The result is likely… – Continue reading
Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. (LUMI) agreed to pay $400 million and admit it helped American clients evade taxes for a decade, in a case showing that U.S. prosecutors and New York regulators are extending their probes of offshore tax evasion beyond Switzerland. The Justice Department filed a conspiracy charge today… – Continue reading
Dec 22 (Reuters) – Mexico’s tax collection agency (SAT) has reached a deal with a multinational company at the center of a tax-avoidance investigation, and the latter will make a ‘substantial’ payment soon, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday. “We have just closed a case with an… – Continue reading
More leaked documents relating to tax avoidance schemes involving Luxembourg’s government under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker, now President of the European Union (EU) Commission, have intensified the political crisis surrounding the EU. It comes at a time of growing opposition to the pro-business EU and the vicious austerity cuts… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has protected up to £123 million in tax after a tax tribunal upheld a landmark ruling against a stamp duty land tax avoidance scheme. In July 2013, the HMRC won a case against Project Blue, which used the scheme. According to the HMRC the scheme… – Continue reading
Three men accused of running a VAT scam; face 10 years in jail Prague, Dec 12 (ČTK) — The Czech Police have accused three men over tax evasion worth 261 million Kč caused by fictitious exports of tools and design services to the US, anti-corruption police spokesman Jaroslav Ibehej told… – Continue reading
Bernard Madoff’s former teenage secretary, who went on to run the investment-advisory business at the center of a $17.5 billion fraud, was sentenced to six years behind bars by a New York judge, less than half what prosecutors sought and four years shy of what her own lawyer suggested. Annette… – Continue reading
Fund wanted to buy distressed debt in media and communications companies Ireland played a key role in international tax and funding structures set up by a $100 million Cayman Islands fund that wanted to buy distressed debt in media and communications companies in 2010. Accountancy firm Ernst & Young (now… – Continue reading
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on Monday held a hearing on the role of accountancy firms in tax avoidance and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), the Big 4 accounting firm, was represented by Kevin Nicholson, PwC head of tax in the UK and former HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) tax inspector,… – Continue reading
NEW YORK (InsideBitcoins) — Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan are suing Deutsche Bank, stating that the German bank owes the US Government roughly $190 million in unpaid taxes. The claims of tax evasion stem from gains related to the sale of Bristol-Meyers shares in 2000. Prosecutors… – Continue reading
A new leak of confidential documents expands the list of big companies seeking secret tax deals in Luxembourg, exposing tax-saving maneuvers by American entertainment icon The Walt Disney Co., politically controversial Koch Industries Inc. and 33 other companies. Disney and Koch Industries, a U.S.-based energy and chemical conglomerate, both created… – Continue reading
The lesson from the ongoing trial of former UBS wealth management chief executive Raoul Weil really shouldn’t be a surprise, but we’ll say it anyway: Do not fail to declare income from offshore investments to avoid taxes. Unless, that is, you and your clients would prefer a really close relationship… – Continue reading
Germany’s Deutsche Bank dodged over $100 million in federal taxes, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York Monday afternoon. “Through fraudulent conveyances involving shell companies, Deutsche Bank tried to make its potential tax liabilities disappear. This was nothing… – Continue reading
The factbox devoted to two years of the so-called Magnitsky Act passed by US Senate. This act allows Washington to deny visas and freeze assets of Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Five years ago, on November 16, 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, a tax and… – Continue reading
A Swiss banker accused of helping American clients cheat on their taxes is a fugitive who must show up in a New York courtroom if he wants bail, U.S. prosecutors argued in a legal filing. Stefan Buck, who was Bank Frey & Co.’s head of private banking in Switzerland and… – Continue reading
Bucharest prosecutors and officers within the Capital’s police direction are conducting 41 searches on Thursday in Bucharest and counties Dambovita, Ilfov, Arges, Braila in a tax evasion case with RON 6 million in damages that is directed at MediaPro. At least 27 people will be taken in for questioning, according… – Continue reading
A Swiss banker accused of helping U.S. clients cheat on their taxes wants a judge to grant him bail without his having to appear first in a New York courtroom. Stefan Buck, who was Bank Frey & Co.’s head of private banking in Switzerland and an executive board member, was… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) will pay $12.5 million to settle claims that its Swiss private-banking unit solicited U.S. investors without being registered. HSBC Private Bank Suisse SA improperly amassed as many as 368 U.S. client accounts after starting to provide cross-border services more than 10 years ago, the SEC said… – Continue reading
The Future of the Department of Justice’s High Visibility Offshore Tax Evasion Initiative. On August 29, 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Tax Division announced the Program for Non-Prosecution Agreements and Non-Target Letters for Swiss Banks (the “Program”). The announcement of this unprecedented program was the culmination of the… – Continue reading
Arlette Ricci accused of hiding money from France’s tax authorities in test case related to the HSBC tax-avoidance scandal Arlette Ricci’s name is on a list handed over by an HSBC Private Bank employee of French citizens alleged to have hidden cash in offshore accounts. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images The… – Continue reading
HMRC’s controversial tactic of publishing a list of tax dodgers’ details has outed 77 individuals and businesses this year. How exactly did they make the list? HMRC’s list of people who dodge thousands of pounds of tax – and subsequently try to cover it up – could soon be bombarded… – Continue reading
Credit Suisse AG (CSGN)’s $2.6 billion plea bargain resolving allegations it helped wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes faces a final hurdle from a federal judge who will decide whether to accept it or throw it out. The first global banking unit in more than a decade to plead guilty to… – Continue reading
French magistrates examining whether the bank helped wealthy clients avoid a new tax, the European Union Savings Directive French judges have put the Swiss branch of HSBC under official investigation over allegations that Britain’s biggest bank helped wealthy clients avoid taxes. It was revealed on Friday that the unit had… – Continue reading
Washington, DC – Credit Suisse AG was sentenced today for conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. taxpayers in filing false income tax returns and other documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to conspiracy on May 19. The sentencing of the Swiss corporation is the result… – Continue reading
Criticism of slow prosecution of tax avoidance schemes ignores HMRC’s impressive success in closing down the aggressive tax avoidance industry in recent years Tuesday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report and the associated media drive, which accuses HMRC of being ‘unacceptably slow’ in pursuing tax avoidance schemes, is the latest in… – Continue reading
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Shantelle P. Kitchen, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), announced today the indictment of MARTIN DUNKI, a former client advisor and Senior Vice… – Continue reading
Delhi Tribunal holds that the mere fact that one of the steps in a transaction resulted in capital loss for the taxpayer would not make the series of transactions a sham. Karnataka High Court holds that shares bought at a premium, and sold at a lower value to individuals (ex-employees… – Continue reading
ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt called on Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to come clean Thursday (6 November), following revelations of massive tax-avoidance practices in his native Luxembourg, during Juncker’s premiership. In a communiqué, Verhofstadt stated that the Commission should come to the European Parliament immediately, in order to explain if the… – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has rapidly abandoned several agreements with multinationals aimed at giving companies certainty about the tax they are required to pay in Australia in future years, after deeming they had misled and engaged in “aggressive tax planning”. Taxpayers can enter into a deal to lock in the… – Continue reading
After the US bailed out the insurance conglomerate AIG in 2008, the company’s employees kept to business as usual—which included setting up complex tax structures to avoid taxes in Europe and Japan. In 2008, the company was on the brink of a bankruptcy that would have created huge losses throughout… – Continue reading
Spanish soprano to pay fine after already returning the €500,000 she withheld in 2010 World-famous soprano Montserrat Caballé is close to ending the darkest chapter of her career. The opera singer has reached a deal with the Spanish tax authorities over more than €500,000 that prosecutors claim she withheld in… – Continue reading
Onetime Texas billionaire Sam Wyly and the estate of his late brother Charles just can’t seem to outsmart the Securities and Exchange Commission. Their latest attempt to evade the consequences of their allegedly fraudulent offshore trust scheme failed Monday, when U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin of Manhattan, in a ruling… – Continue reading
For more than a decade, tax gurus at PricewaterhouseCoopers helped Caterpillar Inc., the U.S. heavy equipment maker, move profits produced by its lucrative spare-parts business from the U.S. to a tiny subsidiary in Switzerland. Little changed except the bookkeeping. Parts were still shipped from suppliers to a warehouse in Morton,… – Continue reading
Ingenious v HMRC, the case which begins at the Competition Tribunal in Bloomsbury Place London today, marks the culmination of almost a decade of wrangling between the blue chip British media investment company and the Revenue. Newspapers have been intrigued by the case because of the celebrity investors involved. David… – Continue reading
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla./ZURICH — From bundles of cash inside scraps of newspaper to setting up shell companies, the trial in Florida of a former UBS executive is a reminder of the extreme methods some Swiss bankers used to hide clients’ cash. Raoul Weil, 54, is the highest ranking Swiss banker… – Continue reading
Multinational life sciences companies should review their organizational structures and perform scenario planning to assess the likely impacts of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), says a new report from KPMG. “The Post Base Erosion and Profit Shifting World”… – Continue reading
There is nothing illegal about tax planning. Yet some things are legal while others are not, and the lines can sometimes get fuzzy. Add to that the fact that some people go to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying taxes, and it can be a recipe for disaster. Increasingly, if you… – Continue reading
Hundreds of people tip-off the authorities on suspected tax dodging a day HMRC pay up to £1,000 for useful information that leads to a ‘big win’ The taxman has paid out more than £400,000 in a year to informants Nearly 100,000 people phoned the tax dodging hotline in the last… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75090936-5aa2-11e4-b449-00144feab7de.html#ixzz3HLsJSGv7 Fears have been raised that the government may clamp down on a popular means… – Continue reading
Officials from the Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have been meeting with representatives of the PPP/ PFI industry to discuss the implications for infrastructure projects of possible restrictions to interest relief.24 Oct 2014 Corporate tax Tax Projects Construction Advisory & Disputes Infrastructure UK Europe In a report on… – Continue reading
“The issue of substance and taxation is, and always will be, a core column of the Irish taxation system,” Michael Noonan, Ireland’s Finance Minister, said at his Department’s Tax Policy Conference on October 21, 2014, underscoring that Ireland’s strategy is to play fair but play to win. Beginning by discussing… – Continue reading
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
A plastic surgeon with a practice in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards has been accused of evading federal income taxes on more than $10 million of income. By ripping off the federal government, authorities said, David Evdokimow, 54, of Harding, led a lavish lifestyle. Now he is facing prison… – Continue reading
The private equity owners of video games retailer Game used tax havens in the two years they owned it, accounts have revealed. US buyout group Elliott Advisors snapped up Game Group after it collapsed into administration in 2012. It set up Game Digital in April 2012 in a deal masterminded… – Continue reading
