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
WASHINGTON–U. S. authorities on Wednesday approved Medtronic Inc.’s$43 billion merger with fellow medical device maker Covidien PLC after requiring the spinoff of a drug-coated catheter business. The Federal Trade Commission required Minneapolis-based Medtronic to sell off Ireland-based Covidien’s catheter business before completing the acquisition. That $30 million sale, to Colorado-based… – Continue reading
Martin Lock was formerly the top withholding-tax specialist at the Tax Office, a role that encompassed oversight of profit shifting by multinationals. He is one of many former officers who have voiced their concerns to Fairfax Media about the challenge of arresting the slide in tax receipts from multinational companies… – 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
The European Commission will use the ‘Luxleaks’ documents uncovered by investigative journalists three weeks ago in its ongoing investigation of tax avoidance at the European level, Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief, said on Thursday (20 November). The documents, known as the ‘Luxleaks’, showed that more than 300 companies, including… – 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
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) today announced that it had completed the mergers of its subsidiaries MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut, MetLife Investors USA Insurance Company, MetLife Investors Insurance Company and Exeter Reassurance Company Limited. The merged company has been renamed MetLife Insurance Company USA and is domiciled in Delaware. All necessary… – 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
Companies can be more competitive in the U.S. if they’re based outside the country, said the chief executive officer of a company that is moving its tax address outside the U.S. Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan Inc., described her company’s proposed tax inversion as a shield against a takeover… – Continue reading
NEIL CHENOWETH Global accounting firm PwC was advising the Australian Taxation Office how to run its transfer pricing unit at the same time that its Luxembourg office was cutting favourable tax agreements for Australian companies. Luxembourg documents show PwC obtained secret tax agreements for more than 30 Australian companies in… – Continue reading
Mitsui, Toyota and Marubeni are likely to be among Japanese companies that would sign the first set of bilateral advance-pricing agreements (APA) with India shortly. These agreements will provide certainty to Japanese multinational firms operating in India and avoid conflicts over sharing of taxes between India and that country. Two… – Continue reading
Sears Holdings and Pinnacle Entertainment have become the latest US companies to announce that they are considering establishing real estate investment trusts (REITs), to unlock tax advantages that have been considered by some companies as an alternative to a corporate inversion. REITS do not pay corporate tax as long as… – Continue reading
Orascom Construction Industries, an international engineering and construction firm, has won a ruling in its favor from the Egyptian Tax Authority’s Independent Appeals Committee, against an earlier USD1bn tax evasion ruling relating to its Egyptian subsidiary. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) SAE said that it had been served with an assessment… – 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
In another bizarre twist to what litigation lawyers have called an “unprecedented” case, counsel for McKesson Canada Corp. are now relying on Tax Court of Canada Justice Patrick Boyle’s recusal from a transfer-pricing case in September as grounds for seeking a new trial. Gavin MacKenzie believes the Court of Appeal… – 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
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
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
NEW YORK — Shifting the address of his Liberty Global Inc. from Colorado to London last year didn’t just put billionaire John C. Malone in a position to reduce his company’s tax bill. He also took precautions to avoid the capital-gains hit that the so-called inversion would trigger for him… – Continue reading
Property purchases in Ireland help Liberty Global chairman John Malone avoid tax Billionaire Irish American businessman John Malone, who owns a number of prestigous properties in Ireland, didn’t just reduce his company’s tax bill when he shifted the address of UPC parent Liberty Global from Colarado to London last year…. – 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
Adds details on P&G halting operations in ARGENTINA, details on impact) Nov 3 (Reuters) – Procter & Gamble said on Monday it had temporarily suspended operations in ARGENTINA after the country’s tax authority, which has accused the company of tax fraud, said it started meetings with the world’s No.1 HOUSEHOLD… – Continue reading
It is all about transfer pricing issue which is not unique to India. Still, the judgment of the Bombay High Court of October 10, 2014, in the case of Vodafone India Services vs Union of India, has drawn a lot more attention than it would otherwise have. The main reason… – 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
For now, while the benefit for American corporations to buy or merge and move overseas may be over, as evidenced by AbbVie cancelling its merger with Shire Pharmaceutical, that doesn’t mean that consolidation within the industry is through. A new research report from Merrill Lynch features three top companies, dubbed… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Italian luxury fashion house Prada SpA said on Monday its chairwoman Miuccia Prada and her husband, chief executive officer and fellow shareholder Patrizio Bertelli, are being investigated by Italian authorities over past taxes. The Hong Kong-listed company said in a statement it had been informed by the Italian… – Continue reading
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
A report claiming Lonmin is engaging in two transfer pricing arrangements is misleading and false, the company said on Thursday. It was responding to a report titled “The Bermuda connection: Profit shifting and unaffordability at Lonmin 1999-2012″, released by the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) on Thursday morning. “Lonmin… – Continue reading
As the Irish government considers closing an infamous tax loophole for corporations, Wall Street has been scrambling to gauge the effect on the pharmaceutical industry. So far, the prognosis seems that damage will largely be minimal. Known as the ‘Double Irish,’ the loophole allows companies to send royalty payments for… – 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
Oslo : Allaying investors fear, President Pranab Mukherjee today said that the Bombay High Court verdict in the Vodafone taxation case, if it prevails, will help Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia as also 26 others. In his interview to Finnish media ahead of his departure to Helsinki, Mukherjee here said the… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s attempt to prevent companies from seeking a tax address outside the country hasn’t stopped Steris Corp. (STE) The Mentor, Ohio-based provider of hospital sterilization products and services announced today that it will buy the smaller Synergy Health Plc (SYR) and establish the combined company’s tax address to… – Continue reading
Cash in companies run by businessman Declan Conway was moved to two offshore companies Shareholders in two Business Expansion Scheme (BES) companies run by businessman Declan Conway have written to him demanding to know why almost €1.6 million was transferred from both firms to a number of offshore entities. Between… – 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
Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) has inked a new cooperation pact with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC, 中國工商銀行), as part of the state-run lender’s move to expand its operations overseas, the Taiwanese bank said yesterday. Mega Bank chairman McKinney Tsai (蔡友才) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of… – 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
Medical device giant Medtronic is close to finishing a deal to move its tax headquarters to Ireland and boost its stock price. But while shareholders face taxes on those gains, the company is shelling out more than $60 million to make sure its CEO and 25 other top officials won’t… – Continue reading
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 might spend it. Snapchat? AOL? Well, here’s one area you shouldn’t expect her to invest in: offshoring more jobs to India. The company… – Continue reading
The following joint press release was circulated by non-governmental organisations ActionAid Zambia, Christian Aid, and Counter Balance, including the full text of their letter appealing to the European Investment Bank (EIB) to publish their findings on possible tax evasion activity at the Mopani Copper Mine, which is owned and operated… – Continue reading
LONDON – The Espírito Santo Financial Group, which at one point held about 25 percent of the bailed-out Portuguese lender Banco Espírito Santo, said on Thursday that it would file for bankruptcy after it was denied creditor protection by a Luxembourg court last week. Espírito Santo Financial is part of… – Continue reading
Medtronic announced last week that it will go ahead with its Covidien buyout despite a recent notification by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service discouraging tax-avoiding corporate inversion deals. Per the new guidelines, companies will not be able to avoid paying U.S. taxes when accessing… – Continue reading
According to a report published in the Sydney Morning Herald on October 6, Tim Cahill may be dealing with an irksome tax problem, stemming from investments made when he was living and working in England. The newspaper claims to have seen documents linking Cahill to a company called Phoenix Film… – 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 non-legislative measures put forward by the Treasury Department on September 22, to deter multinationals from using corporate inversions to move their tax residence abroad and move away from the high United States tax rate, have so far produced a mixed bag of results. The measures are aimed at preventing… – Continue reading
Romanian authorities have ordered the closure of Lukoil’s Petrotel refinery in Ploiesti, Romania. Oleg Malginov, Russia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Romania, announced that the oil refinery had been closed sue to an investigation for tax evasion and money laundering. Malginov, as cited by ITAR-TASS, pointed out that the halt… – Continue reading
Romanian authorities have ordered the closure of Lukoil’s Petrotel refinery in Ploiesti, Romania. Oleg Malginov, Russia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Romania, announced that the oil refinery had been closed sue to an investigation for tax evasion and money laundering. Malginov, as cited by ITAR-TASS, pointed out that the halt… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Mexican authorities plan to ramp up a tax avoidance probe of major multinationals to scour for evidence of evasion, officials said on Tuesday, adding that they were already close to a deal with one company. In January, Mexico said its tax authority, SAT, had launched a probe of… – Continue reading
On June 10, 2014, the Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) delivered its most recent decision on transfer pricing, one which involved a Barbados structure. In Marzen Artistic Aluminum Ltd. v. The Queen[1] (“Marzen”), Justice Sheridan upheld the Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CRA”) transfer pricing adjustment as well as the penalty under… – Continue reading
Socceroo Tim Cahill could be facing a hefty tax bill after he was linked to a British government investigation into a number of high profile celebrities. It is reported that in 2008, Cahill became a director of Phoenix Film Partners, a fund designed to take advantage of tax breaks and… – Continue reading
