Calls for crackdown as investigation finds huge Indonesian corporations evading tax through network of secret shell companies in British Virgin Islands and other tax havens Giant Asian logging companies that make billions from destroying rainforests use a labyrinth of secret shell companies based in a UK overseas territory, the British Virgin… – Continue reading
There’s a little rumpus building up in my native UK over the coffee chain, Caffe Nero. The argument is that it seems to be making a nice operating profit but not actually paying any corporation tax. There’s also a bit of offshore thrown in here and therefore, undoubtedly, there’s something… – Continue reading
This is an interesting little piece of news. As Fiat Chrysler sorts itself out after the full merger of the two companies it has announced that it will be, as a company, domiciled in Britain. This would seem to be a vindication of recent changes to the UK’s corporate taxation… – Continue reading
• Partnership creates end-to-end solution for enabling and ensuring FATCA compliance, including: data consolidation, indicia identification, additional KYC data/document capture, alerts/notifications and dashboards to monitor compliance, withholding calculations and remittance, and tax reporting. Banking analytics, risk and compliance pioneer, iCreate, today announced a strategic partnership with tax information reporting leader,… – Continue reading
Large subsidiaries of multinationals, such as Apple and Google, which are based in Ireland are able to escape paying corporation tax due to an “exceptional” interpretation of tax laws by the Revenue Commissioners, a new study claims. A research paper by James Stewart, associate professor in finance at Trinity College… – Continue reading
United States Intergovernmental Agreement The British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) Government on 6 March 2014 initialled a “Model 1 intergovernmental agreement” (the “BVI-US IGA”) with the government of the United States of America with respect to the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (“FATCA”), designed to… – Continue reading
Macau is preparing to sign a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. According to the Official Gazette published yesterday, Chief Executive Fernado Chui Sai On granted authority to Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen to sign a TIEA… – Continue reading
The UK Chancellor George Osborne is tightening the screws on the tax dodging UK super-rich, as he’s proposing to increase fines for those who hide their money in offshore tax havens and send them to jail even if they didn’t intend to evade tax. “We are changing the balance of… – Continue reading
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – British Prime Minister David Cameron has written to the leaders of the UK’s overseas territories and crown dependencies to encourage them to create public registries that would reveal the true owners of companies registered in their jurisdictions. “I believe that beneficial ownership and public access… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced that the new convention for the avoidance of double taxation signed between the United Kingdom and Spain will enter into force on June 12, 2014. The agreement provides for a 10 percent rate on dividends, except where those dividends are paid out of… – Continue reading
Financial Institutions have just under three weeks left to apply for a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN), FIs have until 5 May to register with the IRS for a GIIN, a unique identifier that FIs will use to show compliance following the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act… – Continue reading
1. I am a ‘relevant person’ under the Jersey/UK MOU but am fully UK tax compliant. Do I need to take any action? No. The JDF is only relevant to persons who are not UK tax compliant and need to make a disclosure for past tax liabilities. 2. I believe… – Continue reading
HMRC ‘Must Change Approach’ To Successfully Tackle Tax Evasion April 14th, 2014 Legal Expert Reacts To Offshore Evasion Strategy Document HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) needs a change in approach rather than more powers if it is to improve its efforts to tackle tax evasion, according to a legal expert… – Continue reading
The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) is a tax disclosure facility for UK taxpayers. It is open to those with unpaid UK tax liabilities who had assets outside the UK (whether or not in Liechtenstein) as at 1 September 2009. It can be used to regularise their tax affairs on preferential… – Continue reading
An Island tax accountant says a UK clampdown on those who place their money offshore to evade tax, is unlikely to trace many culprits in the Isle of Man. Chancellor George Osborne says in future those who try to avoid tax by hiding money offshore will face tougher penalties. At… – Continue reading
Britons hiding income in tax havens overseas to be made criminal offence Tough new measure was announced by George Osbourne at U.S. meeting It could help recoup some of £15billion in tax that goes missing each year HMRC estimates that outright tax evasion costs the Exchequer £5billion Britain is… – Continue reading
A tax fraudster who hid his true wealth in the UK has been jailed for four years after police discovered he was building a £2.3 million ‘PALACE’ abroad. Mohammed Suleman Khan, 42, lived a luxury life in Birmingham despite no obvious income. But he was handling huge amounts of undeclared… – Continue reading
1. The traditional attitude to tax avoidance is encapsulated in the judgment of Lord Tomlin in the English case of IRC v Duke of Westminster (1936): “Every man is entitled if he can to arrange his affairs so that the tax attaching under the appropriate Acts is less than it… – Continue reading
The bitter marital split of aviation tycoon Clive Joy has highlighted the issue the role tax efficient offshore trusts can play in lengthy High Court divorces. Recently aviation tycoon Clive Joy hit the headlines, but not for his expertise in aerospace issues. It was because in the course of a bitter… – Continue reading
SCOTS who hide their money offshore are being targeted in a new offensive against tax evasion that costs the UK Treasury billions of pounds a year. In what are thought to be the first probes of their kind, tax officials and prosecutors have started targeting gangland bank accounts in jurisdictions… – Continue reading
The revenue the UK Government will see in its coffers as a result of the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility amnesty scheme “is likely to fall significantly short of its £3bn target”, a UK law firm has predicted. With just two years left to run, the number of new LDF registrations each… – Continue reading
The revised figure of more than £1.1bn now judged to be “at risk” by HMRC is an increase of 12% on 2012 and 65% on 2011, according to figures calculated by law firm Pinsent Masons. A crackdown on intra-group payments was announced in the chancellor’s Budget earlier this month as… – Continue reading
Adds £118m to ‘tax under consideration’ from intra-group transfers • HMRC proposes further crackdown on intra-group transfers in Budget HM Revenue & Customs has increased the amount of tax it estimates has been underpaid by the UK’s largest businesses through transfer pricing arrangements by £118 million to more than £1.1 billion, an… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance is a huge economic issue. Although it’s heavily frowned upon by governments, it’s technically a legal practice, as long as you know how to play the tax game right. The Coalition promised to crack down on tax avoidance, but it seems to have decided to focus on the… – Continue reading
Harben Barker is breathing a huge sigh of relief – along with the accountancy profession in general – after the Court of Appeal threw out a High Court finding that the firm had a duty to advise wealthy clients to avoid tax The five-director firm based in the West Midlands… – Continue reading
It would be surprising if Union finance minister P. Chidambaram’s threat to his Swiss counterpart — to declare Switzerland an uncooperative nation for not sharing information on the 562 Indians who allegedly stashed their black money in Swiss banks — is actually carried out. The threat has trade implications. These… – Continue reading
ITS SEARCH ENGINE may boast almighty powers to divine our every move, but Google has come under attack from an order of Catholic priests over its tax arrangements. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, established in France two centuries ago, has called on Google to hand more of its profits… – Continue reading
In the early hours of Thursday Morning, Australia announced a tax amnesty on any tax resident with offshore assets not declared to the Australian Taxation Office Geraint Davies, Managing Director of Montfort International sees this move as significant from many perspectives. “We have seen the breaking news of a complete… – Continue reading
A MIDLANDS ACCOUNTANCY FIRM held negligent by the High Court after it failed to advise a client domiciled outside the UK of a tax avoidance scheme has claimed victory on appeal. Iranian refugee Hossein Mehjoo – who had established a multi-million pound fashion business in Britain – successfully sued his local… – Continue reading
A former Severstal executive has been indicted for hiding as much as $7.5 million from US tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts held at UBS AG. Victor Lipukhin, a former steel trader for Russian steel maker Severstal, hid assets in two Swiss UBS bank accounts from 2002 through 2007, said… – Continue reading
A looming global crackdown on aggressive tax avoidance is set to stop internet companies slashing bills by routing profits to havens. Plans to “restore taxation” in the countries where digital companies make their sales and base their headquarters were set out on Monday in the first international response to the… – Continue reading
THE PENSIONS INDUSTRY may have been caught on the hop with George Osborne’s unexpected upheaval of the regime, but tax advisers didn’t get away scot-free. While Budgets have been more benign under the coalition government, advisers were caught out with revisions to the taxing of properties purchased within corporate wrappers. The… – Continue reading
LONDON — They are the most expensive and luxurious flats in the whole of London. Their ultramodern bay windows offer an unobstructed view onto Hyde Park. An underground corridor connects them to the Mandarin Oriental, the palace where Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal has one of his prized restaurants. In total, the… – Continue reading
Apple, amazon, and other digital item retailers will have to charge 20% VAT starting in 2015 A long-standing tax loophole has been available in the UK that allowed buyers of digital download products to pay fewer taxes on their purchases of digital books, music, and apps. That loophole has now… – Continue reading
Given all the publicity about tax avoidance by multinationals over the last year or more, the clamour for action to be taken, and the government’s commitment to do so, Mr Osborne might have been expected to make at least some reference to this subject in his Budget speech. In fact,… – Continue reading
Tax Avoidance/ Evasion: On Wednesday George Osborne, UK chancellor, proposed new rules in his Budget 2014 statement to reduce the opportunities for rich individuals and companies to avoid or evade personal and corporate taxes. Also this week, two prominent US senators wrote to the Justice Department to seek extradition of about 30… – Continue reading
The Canada-BVI Tax Information Exchange Agreement (“TIEA”) came into force on 11 March 2014. The TIEA was signed in May 2013, and the effective date provisions are set out in Article 13 of the Agreement. The BVI is now party to 25 TIEAs. What are the benefits? The BVI/Canada TIEA is significant due… – Continue reading
DESPITE George Osborne’s platitudes to last month’s G20 meeting in Australia – “It is not fair if big companies avoid their taxes by shifting their profits around artificially” – the Eye has discovered that the government has signed its most significant PFI deal to date (a new £190m children’s hospital… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. The British Virgin Islands, Liechtenstein and Jersey are among 44 countries that have set… – Continue reading
Corporate Tax Avoidance: Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara, this week announced its first fall in annual profits in five years as the world’s biggest fashion retailer invested in stores while foreign exchange rates moved against it. However, Amancio Ortega Gaona, founding chairman of Inditex, with a stake of 60%… – Continue reading
Global technology giants such as Apple, Google and Amazon could soon be charged a tax on their UK activities in an attempt to stop them sidestepping their responsibilities. Britain is working with nine other countries to draw up shared dossiers on the tax affairs of such groups, it was revealed… – Continue reading
Financial institutions in Bermuda, such as banks and trust companies, will soon be obliged to provide information to foreign tax authorities relating to the financial affairs of United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) resident clients. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act 2009 (US FATCA) is a US law designed… – Continue reading
A visit to China by twelve Isle of Man delegates could soon produce “tangible results” for the Manx economy, according to the chief minister. On Wednesday Allan Bell signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin. The agreement concretes an alliance aiming to provide “mutually… – Continue reading
Celebrities and major companies locked in legal battles over tax-avoidance schemes will be forced to pay up before their cases are resolved, under new rules to be introduced in this week’s Budget. The rules will hit 65,000 companies and individuals in dispute with the taxman over their use of complex… – Continue reading
12 March 2014: In its 2013 Annual Report, the Luxembourg Direct Tax Authorities reported that they have negotiated new tax treaties with Hungary, New Zealand, the UK and Uruguay. It is also reported that 659 exchanges of information upon request, spontaneous information exchanges and automatic exchanges of information have been… – Continue reading
THE INTRODUCTION of changes to the taxation of limited liability partnerships will go ahead on 6 April 2014 despite calls from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee and practitioners for 12 months’ delay to the measures. The lords recommended the easement to be put in place until 2015 in order… – Continue reading
France’s disgraced former budget minister Jerôme Cahuzac, who was sacked after admitting he hid funds in a Swiss account, also had a €2.5 million stashed in a secret bank account in the Isle of Man, a British tax haven, it was claimed on Thursday. Cahuzac’s estranged wife Patricia admitted the… – Continue reading
OECD tax director Pascal Saint-Amans has played down concerns that the United States might resist plans to make multinational companies such as Apple and Starbucks pay more tax, arguing that governments must move quickly to close multibillion-dollar loopholes or risk ordinary citizens losing faith in their taxation systems. Mr Saint-Amans… – Continue reading
The largest US-based companies added $206 billion to their stockpiles of offshore profits last year, parking earnings in low-tax countries until Congress gives them a reason not to. The multinational companies have accumulated $1.95 trillion outside the US, up 11.8 per cent from a year earlier, according to securities filings… – Continue reading
The young Ukrainian ex-billionaire Serhiy Kurchenko, now widely suspected of being a front man for overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych’s family, clearly liked offshore destinations. His companies registered in offshore zones are now accused of trading in oil products using a tax evasion scheme that cost Ukraine’s government an estimated $1… – Continue reading
