Bonds of Greenko Group Plc fell to a record after India’s central bank banned the method used by the hydro and wind power company to raise funds from overseas. The company used an offshore entity to sell U.S. dollar notes at a spread higher than the limit set by the… – Continue reading
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), once again finds itself deep in controversy and this time, on foreign shores. The company has been hit with a $140 million in taxes and interests presented by the Chinese government. This came to light in a rare incident of cross-border tax invasion. An article was published by… – Continue reading
UPDATE 1-Argentina charges HSBC with aiding tax evasion via Swiss accounts AFIP said it received the information on the secret accounts from France, which last week placed HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm under formal investigation for possibly aiding tax evasion. “We denounce the existence of an illegal platform created by… – Continue reading
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s tax agency accused the HSBC bank on Thursday of helping more than 4,000 Argentines evade taxes by placing their money in secret Swiss accounts. The head of country’s AFIP tax agency, Ricardo Echegaray, said Argentine citizens had evaded about $3 billion in taxes that were handled… – 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
RBC Wealth Management has announced plans to discontinue its private wealth management business in the Caribbean. The strategy to “realign certain businesses within [its] international operations” was presented to staff in an internal memorandum last Thursday. It is not clear whether the business will be closed or sold. Paul French,… – 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
One of George Osborne’s flagship policies is set to be reformed in next week’s Autumn Statement following the resolution of a protracted spat with Germany over the controversial tax break. The so-called Patent Box took effect last year and allowed companies to pay lower tax bills on profits derived from… – Continue reading
Companies based in the United States now have over $2.1 trillion stashed overseas shielded from U.S. taxes. That’s a sixfold increase in 12 years, NBC News reported citing research provided by Capital Economics. Generally, the U.S. tax policy allows companies based in the country to defer any tax obligation on… – Continue reading
Sit down before you read this: Internet companies pay more corporation tax than the European average, in some cases many times more. According to the European Commission the average ‘effective’ corporate tax rate in the European Union and EFTA is 12.9%; in 2012 Amazon had a whopping 78% in corporation… – 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
An increasing number of South Africans are sending substantial amounts of money offshore each year due to frequent travel, a greater appetite for offshore investing, business interests abroad and a growing trend to educating their children there. The UK has proven to be the popular choice due largely to the… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Parent HDFC will pare its stake in HDFC Bank to create room for foreign investors. HDFC, the country’s oldest mortgage lender which owns 22.5 per cent in HDFC Bank, will not step in as a buyer when the bank issues shares to local and foreign investors to raise Rs… – Continue reading
Russia’s upper house of parliament has approved an “anti-offshore” law requiring individual and corporate taxpayers to report foreign profits. The Russian government aims to prevent capital outflow via “offshores,” estimated at $200 billion in 2014. The law requires Russian tax authorities to be notified of all foreign dealings. The government… – Continue reading
Is corporate CEO pay really out of control? Well, consider Fleecing Uncle Sam, a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and the Center for Effective Government. Of the 100 highest-paid CEOs in the US, the study finds, twenty-nine of them received more compensation than their companies paid in… – Continue reading
Seven of the biggest U.S. corporations received billions of dollars in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, while dolling out an average of US$17.3 million to CEOs. While Congress is set to renew a slew of corporate tax breaks, new research published Tuesday found some of United States’ biggest… – Continue reading
CEG says the U.S. corporate tax system is in desperate need of reform A recent report from the Center for Effective Government (Fleecing Uncle Sam) highlights that many large U.S. companies pay little to no corporate taxes, and a few even get tax rebates from the federal government. Moreover, in… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS—A Belgian judge on Monday formally accused a Swiss unit of banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC with helping wealthy Belgians evade taxes on billions of dollars of offshore holdings, the latest of numerous tax-fraud investigations to hit the Swiss banking industry.
Move over, Ireland. Companies from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. scouring Europe for fiscally attractive shores are turning to an unlikely country: France. As a base for research and development teams, that is. Tax breaks for R&D, 5.6 billion euros ($7 billion) this year alone, combined with… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Regulators fined six major banks a total of $4.3 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, following a yearlong global investigation. HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, UBS AG and Bank of… – Continue reading
Regardless of how M&T Bank Corp.’s planned acquisition of Hudson City Bancorp plays out, one thing is clear: M&T will end up with a much stronger system for fighting money laundering. Buffalo-based M&T and New Jersey-based Hudson City Bancorp still want to complete their $3.7 billion merger – a marriage… – Continue reading
Papers show firms used internal loans and interest payments to cut tax bills Leaked tax documents show arrangements were signed off by EU state They are legal, but are predicted to trigger calls to stop firms avoiding taxes British companies using scheme include Dyson and drugs group Shire Some of… – Continue reading
FIRST National Bank has moved to capture a bigger slice of the offshore banking market. The FirstRand subsidiary will open its first Channel Islands branch in 2015 in the tax haven of Guernsey. When approached by Business Day, FNB confirmed it plans to open the branch with Stuart Talbot, formerly… – Continue reading
G20 leaders are under pressure to go further in their efforts to crack down on tax avoidance after the revelation that thousands of companies, including several major Australian firms and multinationals operating in Australia, have legally avoided tax with complicated deals negotiated through Luxembourg. The chairman of a Senate inquiry… – Continue reading
Beijing (ANTARA News) – The Chinese government has agreed to exempt Garuda Indonesia from business tax after the national flag carrier flies to China for ten years. The agreement will take effect next year, Indonesian Ambassador to China and Mongolia Soegeng Rahardjo said here on Wednesday. Under article 8 of… – Continue reading
CBC probe finds civil servants’ pensions invested via Luxembourg shell companies to avoid foreign tax Cabinet Minister Tony Clement has moved to distance the federal government from a Crown corporation’s decision to set up a complex arrangement of offshore companies as part of a tax “avoidance scheme” on pension investments… – Continue reading
Vodafone sign in India. Photo: Ishan Khosla. Used under Creative Commons license. Vodafone recently won a rare – but potentially very significant – victory over Indian tax authorities. The Bombay High Court dismissed the government demand for the company to pay 30 billion rupees (about $490 million) for a share… – Continue reading
PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–On September 2, 2014, under the aegis of the President of the Commercial Court of Paris, LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton (“LVMH”) and Hermès International (“Hermès”) entered into a settlement agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) aimed at restoring a climate of positive relations between them. “Communiqué – Distribution exceptionnelle… – Continue reading
Foreign profits sit on sidelines as companies seek tax reform. WASHINGTON — They are all companies that call Minnesota home: Medtronic, 3M, St. Jude Medical, General Mills and Ecolab. But they also all hold 90 percent or more of their cash outside the United States. Amid a growing national political… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Former minister of state for external affairs in the UPA regime, Preneet Kaur, figures in the list of 627 names of Indians holding accounts in foreign banks, which was submitted by the Centre to the Supreme Court. Kaur, wife of former Punjab CM and Congress’s deputy leader in… – Continue reading
New Delhi,Oct 30 (TruthDive): Black money stashed abroad could have been easily got back if India had been a signatory to a UN convention of double taxation treaty agreements (DTAA). By signing to this convention, India can renegotiate DTTA and bring it in line with the country’s taxation law and… – Continue reading
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times New Delhi, October 29, 2014 First Published: 09:16 IST(29/10/2014) | Last Updated: 10:26 IST(30/10/2014) The government on Wednesday submitted a list of 627 Indians holding accounts in HSBC Bank, Geneva, to the Supreme Court, which directed its special investigating team (SIT) to examine them and take… – Continue reading
Furious at what it sees as the Modi government’s flip-flops on the black money issue and selective revelation of names of Indians holding foreign bank accounts, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered it to disclose by Wednesday the names of around 800 holders of accounts abroad. A bench led by… – Continue reading
US banana producer and distributor Chiquita has decided to terminate its proposed inversion with its rival Fyffes, in a deal which would have involved moving its tax residence to Ireland, and will instead be acquired. Chiquita’s decision comes after the announcement of non-legislative measures by the US Treasury Department on… – Continue reading
The government may have revealed the names of three black money account holders, but will it be able to get the money back or catch big fishes who have stashed the illegal money in tax havens across the globe. As of now it seems impossible. With at least three different… – Continue reading
In a recent Senate Estimates hearing, Greens Senator Christine Milne probed ASIC representatives to explain why they consider Facebook Australia a ‘small’ company, especially considering the parent organisation is worth a staggering $US33.3 billion. Facebook Australia is a ‘small’ company by its own determination and it is registered as such… – Continue reading
On October 14, 2014, the Irish Minister for Finance released proposals as part of the 2015 Irish Budget that would cause Irish incorporated non-resident (“INR”) companies to be treated as tax resident in Ireland beginning January 1, 2015. The goal is to shut down the use of so-called “Double Irish”… – Continue reading
Christine Milne says Australian Securities and Investments Commission should target ‘smaller enterprise’ exemption Facebook Australia has not lodged annual accounts since 2009 because it says it is a smaller enterprise and exempt from having to file. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images The Greens are calling on the Australian financial services watchdog… – Continue reading
A week after a high-level delegation of the revenue department met Swiss authorities in a bid to persuade them to assist with details of the 700-odd Indians who are reported to have bank accounts with the HSBC Bank in Geneva, the NDA government is set to send the first batch… – Continue reading
In June, the European Commission (“EC”) announced the opening of three investigations into tax rulings in Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and, in particular, into tax rulings applied by Ireland to Apple, by Luxembourg to Fiat Finance and, last, by the Netherlands to Starbucks. In October 2014, the EC announced… – Continue reading
Facebook was today facing a fresh row over offshore tax avoidance as UK accounts showed it paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row while granting shares worth tens of millions of pounds to London staff. Research firm eMarketer estimates Facebook’s London operation in Euston made £371… – Continue reading
Internet giant plays down speculation it is considering closing Bermudan arm Google has played down speculation in France that it is considering shutting its Bermudan arm and boosting its operations in Dublin, following the closure of the Double Irish tax loophole in last week’s budget. Le Monde yesterday reported that… – Continue reading
There may some benefits to the closed-down loopholes Unbearable pressure was exerted on this State by our neighbours in Europe to take action unilaterally to close down corporate tax avoidance loopholes such as the Double Irish, upon which time was called in last week’s budget. The pressure and the Irish… – Continue reading
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
New Delhi: A delegation led by Shri Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary and consisting of Shri K.V. Chowdary, Chairman, CBDT and ShriAkhileshRanjan, Joint Secretary (FT&TR) visited Switzerland on 15.10.2014 and held discussions with Swiss Finance and Tax Authorities on issues relating to Exchange of Information in tax matters. The Swiss delegation… – Continue reading
Ireland puts an end to a tax loophole that saved Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook billions in taxes “Double Irish” might sound like a drink that corporate tax lawyers reach for at the prospect of paying higher tax bills, but it’s actually the name of a controversial — albeit legal… – Continue reading
Ireland has this week moved to change its tax law, closing the “double Irish” tax avoidance technique widely used by multinational enterprises including Google and Microsoft. Picture: Getty Images In very broad terms, the current Irish tax law allows a company incorporated in Ireland to be a tax resident of… – 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
Europe’s antitrust regulator is encroaching on what has been the preserve of national governments. There’s a new tax sheriff in town. Europe’s top antitrust regulator, the Brussels-based European Commission, has launched an unexpected assault on what it suspects are sweetheart tax deals for multinational companies, plowing into an area traditionally… – Continue reading
Blue-ribbon corporations are deserting our country “to avoid paying taxes but expect to keep receiving the full array of benefits that being American confers, and that everyone else is paying for,” Fortune magazine reports. That’s right, Fortune wrote it; not Pravda. In a scathing article titled “Positively Un-American” by Allan… – Continue reading
