You may have noted there’s an election in the offing Worstall on Wednesday As the tech news outlet of record has told us, UK chancellor George Osborne is preparing to bring in the “Google Tax”. Properly known as the Diverted Profits Tax, it is supposed to be a way of… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office should be given the power to ignore multinational transactions that fail to pass the “common sense test” and ensure that technology company profits are taxed where they are earned, the Australia Institute submission to the inquiry into corporate tax avoidance says. The submission takes a swipe… – Continue reading
Microsoft and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have agreed to end their battle over documents used in transfer pricing audits of the tech company. On February 24, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Microsoft reached an agreement which resulted in the dismissal of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Planning and Investment has asked Nokia Vietnam to submit a report on how it has fulfilled its investment commitments so that local authorities can consider whether the firm is eligible to receive tax policy incentives. Nokia Vietnam Co. Ltd., now known as Microsoft Mobile Vietnam Co. Ltd.,… – Continue reading
Though the issue of corporate tax avoidance has long been a topic which would find its home in the business pages, it has recently become a regular fixture on the global news agenda thanks to high profile scandals, such as the recent HSBC news. What’s more, global brands such as… – Continue reading
The Business Council of Australia says that the Tax Office is holding company directors and management to account about their tax affairs, despite there only being one company in the nation with a top risk rating. “There is ongoing [Australian Taxation Office] scrutiny of corporate boards,” the BCA said in… – Continue reading
Firms need clear rules, certainty to remain in compliance with tax law, says expert Heightened scrutiny of foreign companies’ tax practices is a sign of China’s effort to modernize its taxation system to keep up with the fast-changing international business environment, but there is another dimension that concerns the foreign… – Continue reading
More than 100 tax disputes involving Indian associates of US companies such as IBM and Microsoft are set to be settled out of court by April this year with the income tax department and the US Internal Revenue Service identifying disputes in the contract research, IT and software sectors for… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will propose that U.S.-based companies pay a minimum 19 percent tax on their future foreign earnings, capturing profits that are now often beyond the government’s reach. Obama will also seek a 14 percent mandatory tax on about $2 trillion in stockpiled offshore profits, said two… – Continue reading
Feb 1 (Reuters) – The Chinese government’s vow to increase tax scrutiny of foreign companies has sent firms rushing to tax advisors ahead of the implementation on Sunday of new rules designed to rein in cross-border tax avoidance. Tax professionals and business lobbies alike have welcomed the move as an… – Continue reading
Microsoft denies a transfer of ownership of its New Zealand business from the United States to Luxembourg is related to the tiny European state’s favourable tax policies. Luxembourg, which has a population of less than 600,000, has been accused of facilitating large-scale tax avoidance by multinationals. Microsoft New Zealand was… – Continue reading
The tech industry is ramping up its lobbying efforts on tax reform, seeking to make sure it doesn’t end up the loser if Washington can finally find a consensus on rewriting U.S. tax laws. The Tax Innovation Equality Coalition, or TIE, a group that counts both technology and pharmaceutical titans… – Continue reading
Lobby groups representing Google, Amazon and other powerful US tech multinationals have launched a fierce attack on global plans to stamp out artificial corporate structures used to avoid tax. In responses to the latest stage of a two-year, G20-led programme of international tax reform, lobbyists for the US tech industry… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India and the US have finalised a framework to resolve transfer pricing cases, some of them pending for five years, in what could end tax trauma for more than 50 American MNCs such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle by the fiscal year-end and send a strong signal to… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s software product startups plan to approach the finance ministry this week to get the ambiguity cleared in this Union Budget on the pending issue of whether software sold in the country should be classified as a product or service. Tax officials have been levying both value-added tax… – Continue reading
Lobbyists representing firms including Google, Amazon and Apple claim ‘fundamental flaws’ in G20-led reforms The World Economic Forum in Davos, where Google, Microsoft and Facebook executives will discuss the digital economy on Thursday. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images Lobby groups representing Google, Amazon and other powerful US tech multinationals have launched… – Continue reading
On Dec. 12, 2014, Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) proposed a new version of his “repatriation holiday” tax plan. The latest version would require multinational corporations to pay a token amount of taxes on their accumulated offshore profits and exempt those profits from any further U.S. income tax. Delaney’s new plan… – Continue reading
In May of 2014, financial firm Credit Suisse AG pled guilty to serious criminal charges. The giant bank aided and assisted approximately 22,000 wealthy U.S. taxpayers (whose names Credit Suisse AG escaped having to send to the Justice Department for law enforcement) for over a decade in filing false income… – Continue reading
Europe’s tax showdown could be headed straight to people’s wallets. With the new year, a change in fiscal rules in the European Union is increasing the tax on many purchases of digital content like e-books and smartphone applications. Under the new rules, first approved in 2008, the tax rate on… – Continue reading
In recent court filings made in various federal district courts in Washington and California, the Internal Revenue Service is seeking to enforce testimonial summonses issued to current or former Microsoft employees, including former CEO Steven A. Ballmer. The summons had been issued earlier this fall. Microsoft’s outside tax counsel responded… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has sued former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and a slate of other former and current executives, seeking to compel them to testify in a long-running investigation into how the company’s sales through subsidiaries affected its taxable income. The Internal Revenue Service has sued former Microsoft Chief… – Continue reading
Think tank targets key aspects of Republic’s role in multinationals’ tax affairs Key features of Ireland’s role in the tax affairs of major technology companies such as Google and Microsoft are being targeted by the OECD’s base-erosion and profit-shifting (Beps) project, it has emerged. Ideas being worked on by the… – Continue reading
Dec. 15— The Internal Revenue Service filed a petition in U.S. district court to enforce a summons against Microsoft Corp. to produce “books, records, papers and other data” related to the pricing of intangibles under two cost-sharing arrangements (United States v. Microsoft Corp., W.D. Wash., No. 2:14-mc-00117, petition filed 12/11/14)…. – Continue reading
Around the world, countries are desperately seeking ways to stop multinational companies from earning profits within their borders without paying taxes on them, while stashing trillions in tax havens like the Cayman Islands. The British government, after a search, says it knows how to tax the profits Google earns in… – Continue reading
Grand Duchy accused of allowing multinational firms to pay virtually no tax Leaked documents reveal more firms used Luxembourg to lower tax There is no suggestion that the tax schemes used by firms are illegal But scandal has dragged in Luxembourg’s former PM Mr Juncker Giant US businesses Disney and… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Tax deals that entertainment giant Walt Disney Co., commodities group Koch Industries [KCHIN.UL] and others agreed with the Luxembourg authorities were revealed on Tuesday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ said the two companies engaged in complex restructurings, and channeled hundreds of millions of… – Continue reading
The EU’s most powerful official is under mounting pressure as dozens more multinational corporate names are dragged into the Luxembourg tax scandal following a new leak of confidential documents on Tuesday. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, has been battling to distance himself from the growing furore over the… – Continue reading
Perhaps it was just a matter of time until the Internal Revenue Service decided to “outsource” its tax audit and litigation function to a private entity, i.e., a law firm. As reported in the December 8th issue of Tax Notes, the Service has hired the law firm of Quinn Emanuel… – Continue reading
The United States won’t give up its right to tax multinationals, and nations will go to war soon with countries like China on taxing rights, a US tax head says. Grant Thornton’s national managing partner of tax in the United States, Randy Robason, is in Australia this week for a… – Continue reading
SHANGHAI: China will toughen its stance on tax avoidance by foreign firms to prevent tax payments being directed overseas, the official Xinhua news agency has said, after Beijing levied $140 million in back taxes from U.S. firm Microsoft Corp last week. Beijing will closely monitor the profit levels of foreign… – Continue reading
Taxation authorities in China said they would tighten their monitoring of foreign companies in order to prevent them from avoiding tax using numerous schemes. The official Xinhua news agency, citing tax officials in the country, reported that China would comprehensively monitor profit levels of foreign companies to make sure that… – Continue reading
The Chinese government has levied a $140 million fine on Microsoft Corp for cross-border tax evasion, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing an article by the Xinhua News Agency which referred to a company identified only as “M.” Chinese subsidiaries of Microsoft will also pay taxes amounting to 100 million yuan ($16.28… – 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
Bloomberg Beijing CHINA was expanding efforts to rein in what authorities said was tax evasion by foreign companies, with Microsoft being required to pay more than $150 million (R1.61 billion), an official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The payments – including 840 million yuan (R1.5bn) in back taxes, interest… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – China has levied about $140 million in back taxes from Microsoft Corp in the first major case concerning cross-border tax evasion in the country, as regulators ramp up pressure on U.S. corporations doing business there. According to an article published by China’s Xinhua official news agency on Sunday,… – 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
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
The venture seed fund has already announced 14 investments in India. Impact investor Unitus Seed Fund (USF) has announced that its India-focused offshore fund vehicle has received commitments from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, besides Concur Technologies’ CEO Steve Singh and Diego Piacentini, SVP (international consumer business) at Amazon.com Inc. It… – Continue reading
Chennai: Issues relating to Nokia erupted during the UPA regime at the Centre and the company disputes escalated when the DMK was in power, said industries minister P. Thangamani. He was responding to the DMK president M. Karunanidhi’s statement about the Nokia debacle. The minister said it was the Congress-led… – Continue reading
The Hackett Group predicted in a 2012 report that this year would be the start of an eight-year death of offshoring to India Yahoo! just made about $9 billion in cash from Alibaba Group’s initial public offering, and investors are licking their lips at the thought of how Marissa Mayer… – Continue reading
BANGALORE, India — One of the world’s biggest cellular phone manufacturing plants, located in the southern India city of Chennai, will stop production of mobile phones and down shutters after Nov. 1. Microsoft, its lone customer, has terminated a subcontract agreement. “Microsoft has informed Nokia that it will be terminating… – Continue reading
The Californian corporation is Cork’s largest private employer, but has not won over all local hearts and minds. Now the city is at the heart of a fight over taxation that involves not just Ireland but also the European commission and the US senate Anger is mounting in Cork. The… – Continue reading
American technology companies are suddenly living in fear. European governments are finally standing up to the power of these giants that are happy to talk about the benefits their digital products and services bring to society while being accused of not paying their fair share of corporation tax, not doing… – Continue reading
George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer over here in the UK, has just announced at the Conservative party conference that he’ll be changing the tax laws to make sure that Google GOOGL +0.16% and other tech multinationals (Facebook, Microsoft MSFT -0.17%, possibly Apple AAPL +0.64%, among them) end up… – Continue reading
The European Commission is expected to announce today that Apple, now one of the world’s biggest listed companies, got special treatment from the Irish authorities, when the American company sought assurances on tax issues in 1991 and 2007 – – from the latter year, Apple’s foreign tax rate tumbled compared… – Continue reading
Nokia, Skype and Minecraft-maker Mojang have more in common than just the fact that they are among Microsoft’s biggest acquisition targets in recent years. They are all also based outside the U.S., and that’s no coincidence. As the debate over so-called inversions heats up and critics — from President Obama… – Continue reading
Medical device giant Medtronic Inc. leads all corporate inverters in the amount of offshore cash waiting to be tapped if their tax inversion deals are consummated. Medtronic is buying Covidien and moving to Dublin, and it has $13 billion of cash outside the United States, according to a report from the Financial Times,… – Continue reading
Microsoft is avoiding paying billions in taxes—and it’s not the only one. a subsidiary of a foreign company, so the firm has not technically engaged in the so-called “inversion” scheme that President Obama and Democrats have lately been criticizing. However, according to a 2012 U.S. Senate investigation, the company has… – Continue reading
You’ll have to forgive Amazon for getting a little flustered when the British Parliament publicly blasted the company for “gaming the system” to dodge paying taxes. Amazon is an American company. They’re used to far more deferential treatment. Responding to how the company paid only $7 million in taxes despite… – Continue reading
I n July, the American pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, maker of the world’s top-selling drug – the arthritis treatment Humira – reached a blockbuster deal to acquire European rival Shire, best known for the attention-deficit medication Adderall. The merger was cheered by Wall Street, not for what the deal will do… – Continue reading
