British MEP Anneliese Dodds has accused national governments of hampering progress in tackling corporate tax dodging, warning that EU capitals are “far too focussed on their own self-interests”. On the anniversary of the breaking of the LuxLeaks scandal, Dodds said MEPs had made some progress in stamping out aggressive tax… – Continue reading
Since Minister Noonan announced in October 2014 that Ireland would introduce a “best-in-class” Knowledge Development Box (“KDB” ), there has been a lot of speculation about ‘how low would he go’. Budget 2016 announced that the rate of tax which will apply for income qualifying under the new KDB will… – Continue reading
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance on 3 November 2015 released final guidance notes for implementation of the FATCA regime. An intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed by Germany and the United States follows the Model 1 IGA. Accordingly, financial institutions in Germany are required to report information concerning assets held by U.S…. – Continue reading
A delegation from the UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) is on its official visit to Denmark, where it seeks to strengthen trade relations and sign an agreement on the exchange of information for tax purposes at the Danish Ministry of Taxation. The agreement was signed by Obaid Humaid Al Tayer,… – Continue reading
Liechtenstein’s Prime Minister, Adrian Hasler, has welcomed recognition from the international community for its efforts to improve tax transparency. The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) recently rated Liechtenstein “largely compliant” with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standards on tax transparency…. – Continue reading
The European Network on Debt and Development (also known as “Eurodad”), a network of NGOs, has issued a recent report identifying European nations that have served as havens for tax evasion and money laundering. According to the report, Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain are among the most egregious offenders. By turning… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has won a judgement that Rangers’ use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) broke tax rules. Rangers used the scheme from 2001 until 2010 to give millions of pounds of tax-free loans to players and other staff. In what became known as the “big tax case”,… – Continue reading
Technology company made the largest profit in its history in year to end of September Apple’s latest annual report indicates a substantial increase in the amount of tax it may be paying in Ireland. The latest annual report from Apple, filed last week in the United States, indicates a substantial… – Continue reading
The visit aimed to explore ways of developing and promoting the technical partnership as well as exchanging experience on financial and economic affairs between the two parties. The UAE delegation started off with a visit to the Capital of Norway Oslo, during which the Ministry of Finance (MoF), signed an… – Continue reading
The UK government has a ‘Janus-faced’ approach to tax, a new report suggests: promising an increasingly intolerant approach to evasion and avoidance while being an aggressive participant in global tax competition and tolerating the UK tax havens which facilitate financial crime across the world. The report, Fifty Shades of Tax… – Continue reading
A former finance minister yesterday slammed as “patently false” suggestions by a prominent tax advocacy group that the Bahamas is “disregarding the rules” and flouting global information exchange and transparency standards. James Smith, also an ex-Central Bank governor, hit out at the Tax Justice Network after its 2015 Financial Secrecy… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs is failing to prosecute wealthy tax evaders who hide their fortunes in overseas, MPs have warned, reports the Isle of Man Today. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said HMRC’s record of just 11 prosecutions for offshore tax evasion in the past five years was “woefully inadequate”… – Continue reading
Croatia’s National Bank announced a reduction in the bank discount rate, from 7% per annum to 3% per annum, effective 31 October 2015. This rate reduction has tax implications. Accordingly, for Croatian corporate profit tax law purposes: (1) the maximum amount of deductible interest on loans from a Croatian tax… – Continue reading
The blacklisting of Hong Kong by the European Union is over for the moment with Spain explaining to the EU it didn’t have HK on its list. In the course of investigation, Harbour Times receives a quick response from the Latvian embassy in Beijing to clarify their stance on Hong… – Continue reading
Barbados and Slovakia signed a double tax agreement on October 28, 2015, to boost investment and trade prospects. The DTA allocates taxing rights to the two territories, to ensure that cross-border income is not taxed twice. It further stipulates that cross-border income from dividends will be subject to a withholding… – Continue reading
Sixteen peer review reports were released at the recent plenary meeting of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes on October 29-30, 2015. The release of the reports follows reviews of those territories’ legislation for the exchange of tax information and their frameworks for… – Continue reading
The timely and effective implementation of the automatic exchange of tax information was a key theme during the Oct. 29-30 meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes held in Bridgetown, Barbados. The meeting, which brought together delegates from the Global Forum’s 128 member… – Continue reading
PanARMENIAN.Net – The negotiation of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty will be on the agenda of the upcoming U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force meeting, an annual bilateral gathering taking place in Washington, DC on November 19. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed the initiative, suggesting that the Administration support… – Continue reading
Eurodad’s country comparison table, showing how each of the studied countries fared in the evaluation of four tax-related categories. Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain are egregious offenders in “supporting an unjust global tax system,” according to a new report from the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), a network of… – Continue reading
The finance ministry is streamlining safe harbour rules and advance agreements, two mechanisms to determine the price of services rendered by a multinational to its subsidiary in India. Safe harbour rules – directives on margins the tax authorities should accept for the transfer price declared by an assessee – have… – Continue reading
04/11/2015 – Uganda today signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. It is the 8th country of the African continent to sign the Convention and the 90th jurisdiction to join it. Her Excellency, Nimisha Janat Madhvani, Uganda’s Ambassador to France, signed the Convention in the presence… – Continue reading
TThe Income and Capital Tax Treaty between Cyprus and Switzerland entered into force on 15 October 2015. The provisions of the treaty will become effective on 1 January 2016. The treaty was signed on 25 July 2014. In accordance with the treaty, the following withholding taxes will apply: Dividends: 0%… – Continue reading
The President of the European Council Donald Tusk and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, who are representing the European Union at the G20 summit in Antalya (Turkey) on November 15th and 16th, have set out the EU’s agenda in a joint letter sent to EU Heads of… – Continue reading
One year after the announced closing off of the Double Irish tax arrangement, U.S. multinationals once again turned their attention to Dublin as Ireland announced details of the Knowledge Development Box, or KDB. This new component to its corporate tax regime will allow companies to pay a reduced corporate tax… – Continue reading
Whilst the growth of India as an emerging market for foreign investment is nothing new, we are seeing some new trends in the way in which offshore Cayman vehicles are being used as an avenue for investing in that market – specifically, voluntarily registering master funds as regulated master funds… – Continue reading
Treasury says making available documents detailing tax policies tailored for multinational firms would jeopardise ‘open and frank discussions’ The UK has joined Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium in blocking attempts by a committee of MEPs to gain access to secret European archives that detail some of most controversial tax policies… – Continue reading
The Bahamas will likely suffer a 25 per cent contraction in the number of financial services industry players, a senior international private banking executive said yesterday, as institutions merge to acquire scale and maintain profitability. Ricard Tubau, Andbank’s global chief executiv, said that not only is the financial services industry… – Continue reading
Today the EU and Andorra initialled the text of a new tax transparency agreement, marking another important step forward in the fight against tax evasion. Under the new agreement, Andorra and EU Member States will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of each other’s residents from 2018. Pierre Moscovici,… – Continue reading
LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – British authorities must start reporting the full scale of aggressive tax avoidance and prosecute more people for evading tax by moving money offshore, lawmakers said on Wednesday. The Public Accounts Committee of Britain’s parliament said the government’s tax agency, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), should… – Continue reading
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is “still failing UK taxpayers” because of its “abysmal” performance in dealing with queries from taxpayers. The cross-party committee of MPs stressed that the “unacceptable” quality of HMRC’s customer service is a “genuine threat” to the collection… – Continue reading
Hong Kong is the world’s second least transparent financial center, making it vulnerable to tax evasion, money laundering and other wrongdoing. It is topped only by Switzerland in a global survey by Tax Justice Network, a coalition of researchers and activists focused on tax avoidance issues. The United States ranks… – Continue reading
The number of U.K. prosecutions for offshore tax evasion is “woefully inadequate” and the tax agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, is failing to provide lawmakers with the information they need to close loopholes used for avoidance, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said. The agency should also publish… – Continue reading
The UK’s tax authority has made “little or no progress” on revealing the scale of aggressive tax avoidance happening in Britain, an influential committee of MPs has warned. In a report released on Wednesday the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the tax authority had ignored previous recommendations to provide specific… – Continue reading
Frustrations are mounting, as foreigners keen to do business in New Zealand are getting tangled in red tape aimed at regulating overseas property speculators. EY tax partner, Aaron Quintal, warns the new laws requiring “offshore persons” to have a New Zealand bank account to get an IRD number, are causing… – Continue reading
They say the only certain things in life are death and taxes, but a large number of non-U.S. citizens may have found a way to avoid at least one of those. Under U.S. tax law, the estates of foreign holders of U.S. assets, such as stocks, real estate and valuables,… – Continue reading
Speed read Europe’s highest court has turned the US into a privacy pariah, and the fallout could have a major impact on New Zealand businesses. Tech companies and cloud computing providers, big and small alike, are staring down the barrel of increasingly uncertain privacy compliance challenges, as are their customers…. – Continue reading
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the Netherlands wants to make as much progress as possible in clamping down on tax avoidance by multinational corporations during its EU presidency, after criticism from the European Commission, reports Reuters. The Dutch tax system has enabled some corporations to pay almost no taxation… – Continue reading
The US has overtaken Singapore, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands as an attractive haven for super-rich individuals and businesses looking to shelter assets behind a veil of secrecy, according to a study by the Tax Justice Network (TJN), reports The Guardian. The US is ranked third, behind Switzerland and Hong… – Continue reading
Payments made to Luxembourg, Cyprus, and the Seychelles during the current tax period are no longer required to be reported, according to the findings of a 29-30 October 2015 meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The conclusion of the October 2015 meeting… – 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
Pharmaceutical giant Shire, which is headquartered in Ireland for tax purposes, has agreed to buy US rare disease specialist Dyax Corp for about $5.9bn (€5.35bn), and potentially up to $6.5bn, while still pursuing a five- times larger unsolicited bid for biopharma firm Baxalta Inc. The Dyax deal, the latest in… – Continue reading
Tax authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have purchased a USB stick reported to hold evidence of tax avoidance and illegal deals worth more than €600m (£427m). Investigators are believed to have paid more than €5m for the data, the highest amount handed over for such information, according… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Banque Bonhôte & Cie SA (Banque Bonhôte) has reached a resolution under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. The Swiss Bank Program, which was announced on Aug. 29, 2013, provides a path for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States…. – Continue reading
Major implementation milestones are being met by members of the world’s leading forum on tax transparency as the international community continues to move ahead towards greater tax transparency. The imminent shift to the automatic exchange of information will send a strong warning to tax evaders. Significant strides towards a major… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s refusal to take part in a global system for exchanging bank data has moved it above the Cayman Islands in a financial secrecy list compiled by the Tax Justice Network. The U.S. trails only Switzerland and Hong Kong in a league of offshore havens after refusing to… – 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
Secretary general of he Union of Arabs and Sam Fattouh for an international approach to the globalization of law “Vta” American FATCA, any tax compliance with the Law on Foreign Americans accounts, to become international law under labeled GATCA “Gta” (Global Account Tax Compliance Act), any tax compliance law global… – Continue reading
The Republican front-runner says high corporate tax rates are the real villain. Donald Trump isn’t blaming Pfizer Inc. for the problem of corporate inversions. The Republican front-runner said Pfizer’s planned merger with Allergan Plc was understandable since it would allow the company to relocate its headquarters to Ireland, where taxes… – Continue reading
Claiming that a lot of information on illicit funds is lying unused by the Indian authorities, HSBC whistleblower Herve Falciani said on Tuesday that he is willing to cooperate with the investigative agencies in their black money probe but would need protection in return. He also claimed that millions of… – Continue reading
In a report leased by the international group Financial Secrecy, the group that carries out analysis of how far the legal systems of countries facilitate financial secrecy, Liberia is ranked amongst the top 30 countries in the world that deals in secrecy. While the Government of Liberia continues to boast… – Continue reading
