As Deputy Prime Minister, the holier-than-thou Nick Clegg made huge play of how his Lib Dems forced their Tory Coalition partners to crack down on tax avoidance. Offshore tax havens, in particular, were his target, when he said: ‘There are millions of people who pay their taxes . . …. – Continue reading
The Coalition’s decision to vote down its own measures to crack down on multinational tax avoidance is just the latest instalment in an increasingly unfocused taxation debate Well that’s a courageous decision – in the Sir Humphrey Appleby sense of the phrase. Just as it is encouraging a “debate” about… – Continue reading
The widow of Texas billionaire Charles Wyly told a judge the IRS wrongly accused her of a “sinister” tax-avoidance plot to bolster the agency’s $1.2 billion claim in her bankruptcy case. Caroline “Dee” Wyly, who is in her early 80s, asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas to toss out… – Continue reading
Two decades after Ken Dart renounced his U.S. citizenship and took his tax attorney with him to the Caribbean, the billionaire bond investor and local kingpin is reinventing himself as the Cayman Islands’ biggest real estate owner. In a rare glimpse into Dart’s holdings, Mark VanDevelde, chief executive of the… – Continue reading
Paul Singer has a good track record as a money manager. In 1995, he bought $20 million worth of Peruvian debt at a discounted price of $11.4 million, then forced Peru’s government, through lawsuits, to eventually pay nearly five times his initial investment — some $58 million. In 2002 and… – Continue reading
Billionaire JP McManus sought to pay just €200,000 in tax on gambling earnings of €15.8m. The disclosure was made in filings to a US court, where the horse owner and philanthropist is seeking the refund of $5.2m (€4.7m) in taxes taken from his winnings by the US government. Authorities there… – Continue reading
The government has been accused of opening a loophole that allows super rich individuals and multinational companies to avoid taxes. The Tax Justice Network (TJN), a lobby group, has sued the government over agreements, which it says are robbing Kenya of the ability to raise revenues domestically, driving the country… – Continue reading
Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has made good on his promise to appeal against a Football League ban for tax evasion. The Italian had until Wednesday to launch the appeal against his disqualification, and Sportsmail understands the relevant papers have been handed in. The Football League announced last Monday that… – Continue reading
The New York billionaire is aiming his financial might at members of Congress who aren’t willing to cut deals on corporate tax policy. Sure, Carl Icahn might make money—lots of money—on his $6 billion stake in Apple Inc. if a political campaign he announced Wednesday to cut taxes on companies’… – Continue reading
Tunis, — The process of returning Tunisian property and assets frozen in a number of foreign banks in general and in Switzerland, in particular, has not moved an inch. More than four years have elapsed since the fall of former President Ben Ali without any hope of progress on the… – Continue reading
Major tax administration reforms are expected after Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini was made to cut short the release of quarter one performance on Monday following a call from State House. KRA has already moved to deepen its capacity by inviting former employees to boost its capacity… – Continue reading
Carl Icahn, the iconic activist investor, has shifted, if only for today, his cross-hairs of contempt from the boardrooms of corporate America to the nation’s capital. Icahn sends members of Congress a word of warning Wednesday saw Carl Icahn warn several members of Congress a letter laying out his plans… – Continue reading
Hillary Clinton is repeating the Democrat trope about “offshore tax havens” that immorally divert profits from workers and the taxman. Closing these is a central plank of her promised agenda as President, she explains in an op-ed laying out her economic agenda. Setting aside the economic merits of her plan,… – Continue reading
Several close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin may have benefited from Deutsche Bank AG trades that are now coming under the glare of U.S. prosecutors, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Germany’s biggest bank properly vetted as much as $6… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The Vodafone Group has started “preparatory work” for an initial public offering of its Indian unit, although no dates have been set yet, the British telecom company’s CEO said, expressing optimism about the emergence of a new India. Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, however, argued against the government’s proposal… – Continue reading
A trial in Switzerland has been adjourned against Hervé Falciani, the former IT worker from the HSBC Private Bank in Geneva who leaked data about thousands of suspected tax evaders. Falciani, 43, now living in Spain, failed to appear in the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in the canton of… – Continue reading
The court overruled the order of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal issued last year suggesting that the income tax dept has jurisdiction in this dispute Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday ruled in favour of the Indian arm of Vodafone Group Plc. in a Rs.8,500 crore transfer pricing tax dispute…. – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The finance ministry, seeking to build on the recent success in pitching India as an attractive destination, is looking at burying for good the remaining high-profile acrimonious tax tangles involving Cairn India and Royal Dutch Shell, which have tarnished the country’s administration. North Block is likely to replicate… – Continue reading
Coalition bill to scrap taxation transparency requirements for privately held companies with incomes of $100m or more examined in Senate hearing The Australian federal police had not been approached by the tax office over fears that publishing the tax details of wealthy individuals would lead to an increased risk of… – Continue reading
A small office shared with three other companies deep in the bowels of the Outsource IT Tower on Auckland’s Khyber Pass Road opposite a reservoir isn’t necessarily where you’d expect to find the global headquarters of a financial service provider that claims to be following in the footsteps of three… – Continue reading
Nigeria’s 85 percent tax on onshore crude oil production is dissuading local investors from taking over assets from international oil companies, said Folorunso Alakija, an energy tycoon and the nation’s richest woman. Famfa Oil Ltd., founded in 1991 by Alakija, 64, has sought to acquire stakes in onshore oil fields,… – Continue reading
In September 2014, the Hurun Research Institute published its annual listing of the richest people in China. It showed that IT tycoon Ma Yun had increased his personal fortune during the last year by 500% to $25 billion and in doing so, had climbed to first position on the list…. – Continue reading
Stanley Amland threw it off. So did Ingrid Bracke. Rhoda May Derksen ditched hers, too. The names, picked at random for this article from the Federal Register, are among the 3,415 Americans who renounced their U.S. citizenship or relinquished their residency permits last year. As a national debate rages about… – Continue reading
In May of 2012, and soon before Facebook’s IPO, Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship. Saverin was a co-founder of the social-networking site, and the consensus was that he gave up his citizenship to avoid U.S. taxes that would be levied after the offering. Saverin was widely denounced for his… – Continue reading
Questions over tax — hotly denied — feature in a row centring on one of the capital’s biggest art collectors One of London’s wealthiest but most secretive families is locked in a bitter feud over the ownership of its empire, which spans high-end London properties to African tobacco-trading businesses. A… – Continue reading
Nerijus Numavičius, large owner of Maxima Group and one of the richest businessmen in the Baltics, is being accused of tax evasion by his business partner, writes Äripäev. According to small shareholder Mindaugas Marcinkevičius, various tax schemes employed by Maxima amount to over 200 million euros in tax evasion, of… – Continue reading
Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to offer much more than just his best intentions to clean up India’s whimsical tax regime to help convince insurers. Companies from Allianz SE to American International Group Inc. are avoiding offering tax-liability coverage in India’s cross-border mergers and acquisitions market because of a relatively… – Continue reading
Billionaire offshore tax cheat Igor Olenicoff has won a big one in his long running court battle with his former Swiss bank, UBS AG, and his former UBS banker turned whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld. In a ruling from the bench Thursday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim G. Dunning shot down… – Continue reading
Over the past few months, several foreign portfolio investors registered in India have received notices from the Indian tax authorities demanding payment of Minimum Alternate Tax in respect of transactions which took place over the course of prior assessment years. The Indian Government has indicated that it could raise several… – Continue reading
On Friday, the Seventh Circuit upheld what it determined to be a substantively reasonable sentence for billionaire Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies. We previously blogged about Warner’s district court sentencing, during which Judge Kocoras found that Warner’s “very unique” circumstances warranted a non-incarceration sentence – well below the… – Continue reading
Nathaniel Simons might not be as well known as Tom Steyer, but they are both listed among a handful of billionaires that have made major financial donations to environmental groups and organizations promoting “green” energy sources, Fortune magazine reported recently in an article titled “Billionaires versus big oil.” They believe… – Continue reading
Ian Barlow previously ran UK tax department at KPMG and was close associate of controversial One Hyde Park property tycoons Nicholas and Christian Candy The chair of HM Revenue & Customs has confirmed that he gave advice of a “general business nature” to the property tycoons behind One Hyde Park,… – Continue reading
The children of craft store kingpins Charles and Sam Wyly say they shouldn’t suffer for their fathers’ transgressions. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission says they shouldn’t be allowed to spend the proceeds of the brothers’ fraud. The Wyly brothers used gains from secret, illegal, offshore transactions “as their own… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is taking a close look at 120 transfer pricing disputes with a view to settling them as the Narendra Modi government tries to rid India of the label that it’s overly aggressive on taxation. While the government aims to sign the 120… – Continue reading
Bankrupt ex-billionaire Samuel Wyly won a judge’s approval to sell his family’s Colorado ranch, the site of six custom-built homes. The bankruptcy judge in Dallas Wednesday also said Wyly could provide a loan to pay for the ranch’s upkeep before it’s sold. The property will be listed for $50 million,… – Continue reading
Three of the biggest banks in Moldova reached the brink of collapse in November after suffering losses totaling $US1 billion – a shocking sum in an impoverished Eastern European country with a gross domestic product of less than $US8 billion. Now shock is turning to anger. In a report made… – Continue reading
Bradley Birkenfeld was released from federal prison in August 2012 after serving 2½ years for his role as a Swiss banker hiding millions of dollars for wealthy American clients. Five weeks later, he found himself in the kitchen of a small rental house in Raymond, New Hampshire. At that moment,… – Continue reading
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the IRS are opposing bankrupt billionaire Samuel Wyly’s motion to sell his Woody Creek ranch because they believe he would hide sales proceeds in offshore accounts, according to court filings made earlier this month. Wyly, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Oct. 19… – Continue reading
Regular Pitch readers know that key elements of the ongoing criminal tax case against Mission Hills businesswoman Cheryl Womack rest on how the government obtained evidence against her. Womack remains under an indictment issued by a federal grand jury in 2013 that accuses the self-made millionaire of misleading government investigators… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeking to recoup $2.03 billion from Texas businessman Samuel Wyly and $1.19 billion from his brother’s estate. The massive bill owed by Sam Wyly and the estate of Charles Wyly is believed to be the biggest in history. Brothers used trusts to avoid taxes… – Continue reading
Bankrupt ex-billionaire Samuel Wyly was accused by regulators of hiding the ownership of a luxury Colorado ranch in a possible bid to avoid paying creditors as much as $50 million in future sale proceeds. Wyly’s proposed plan to sell the 244-acre property — the site of several mansions used by… – Continue reading
As foreign portfolio investors balk at India’s claim of $6.4 billion in back taxes, the finance ministry’s latest demand isn’t damping interest in the nation’s stocks and bonds. Foreigners were net buyers of local equities every day barring one since the finance ministry said April 6 it is well within… – Continue reading
DALLAS (AP) — The IRS wants $3.2 billion to cover back taxes that it says are owed by a prominent Texas businessman and his late brother who the IRS says hid income by setting up overseas trust funds. The Internal Revenue Service detailed its claim in documents filed Wednesday in… – Continue reading
New Delhi, April 15 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that while the tax authorities could move under the law to raise tax claims against Vodafone, in another case involving the de-merger of its towers business, the assets transfer, as such, cannot be blocked. The apex court bench of… – Continue reading
The 73 year old was found guilty after it was discovered that she had been hiding millions in an offshore HSBC account. Arlette Ricci, the heir to the Nina Ricci perfume and fashion fortune has been convicted of tax fraud by a Paris court. The 73 year old was found… – Continue reading
The diverted profits tax means multinational companies will finally pay their way in Britain Britain is just over a month away from a monumental decision. Do we stick to the economic plan that has turned Britain around, or head into chaos with Labour? I’ve picked my side. I chose the… – Continue reading
PARIS: The heir to the Nina Ricci perfume fortune went on trial for hiding €18.7 million (£13.9 million) from French authorities in what is seen as a test case concerning the HSBC tax avoidance scandal. Arlette Ricci, 74, is among the first of around 50 wealthy French nationals to face… – Continue reading
Australian retail billionaire Gerry Harvey slammed the country’s powerful business lobby groups for pushing the interests of profit-shifting multinational corporations ahead of Australian companies. Harvey said companies that pay their fair share in taxes have no voice in government. The billionaire retailer spoke after it was publicly revealed that Apple… – Continue reading
On January 14, federal prosecutors told attorneys representing Mission Hills businesswoman Cheryl Womack that she had until the end of the day to take their plea offer or leave it. It had been a couple of months since Womack seemed ready to accept some kind of fate offered up by… – Continue reading
He was known to authorities as Brazil’s black-market central banker, a career criminal who smuggled cash for the rich and powerful by private jet and armored car. Now Alberto Youssef — a rum-runner turned money-launderer turned reputed billionaire — has emerged as a principal player in the biggest corruption scandal… – Continue reading
