America has formally agreed to share detailed information of companies with the Australian government’s Tax Avoidance Taskforce. This means authorities get access to additional intelligence to track down US-based multinationals. This month, US authorities signed a country-by-country report exchange deal with Australia. It seeks to give authorities a broader picture… – Continue reading
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has begun accepting country-by-country (CbC) reports from multinational corporations. In June 2016 the IRS issued final regulations requiring CbC reporting by the ultimate parent entity of a multinational enterprise (MNE) group with revenue of USD850m or more in the preceding accounting year. The first… – Continue reading
The statutory federal corporate tax rate in the United States is 35%, and it has been since 1993. Any company that pays that rate should probably be looking for a new chief financial officer. When state taxes are slotted in, the average combined tax rate is 39.1%, according to a… – Continue reading
Contrary to calls from businesses from the regulation’s withdrawal, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has called on the US Treasury to fully implement and strengthen its final Section 385 anti-earnings stripping debt-equity regulations, designed to reduce the benefits of corporate tax inversions. The final regulations, released in October… – Continue reading
Israel’s $41 million tax demand from the Coca-Cola Co. on royalties from its Israeli licensee could mark the start of a wave of claims against U.S. and other multinationals with similar business operations in the country. That could lead to a conflict with U.S. and other authorities about which country… – Continue reading
HAVANA – Tax evasion and smuggling have forced the government of Cuba to stop issuing new licenses for some businesses. The government of Cuba is ceasing the issuance of business licenses until the problems associated with self-employment have been perfected. Previously, Cubans who wanted to strike out and be self-employed… – Continue reading
The current plan for US tax reform would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, the International Monetary Fund has said, recommending more support for low-income taxpayers and higher indirect taxes. On the need for tax reform, the IMF said in its Article IV consultation for the United States that “the US personal… – Continue reading
The Costa Rican government is very interested in forming part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD http://www.oecd.org/ ). The OECD is formed by 35 nations to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Last Thursday, economist Bert Brys, explained… – Continue reading
US Ambassador Allan Mustard and Turkmenistan’s Minister of Finance Gochmyrat Myradov signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) to implement the provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), said the US Embassy in Ashgabat. The agreement underscores growing international cooperation to curb offshore tax evasion and marks a step forward… – Continue reading
The change converts tax-deductible interest payments employed by the schemes into taxable stock dividends. The U.S. government on Friday gave companies an extra year to comply with an Obama-era regulation meant to crack down on corporations that try to minimize their U.S. tax bills by shifting profits abroad to countries… – Continue reading
Canada and dozens of other countries will automatically share banking information of non-residents Canadians with secret overseas bank accounts could soon find themselves at risk of being exposed by a new international agreement designed to help catch tax cheats. Under the Common Reporting Standard, dozens of countries will share information… – Continue reading
Senator Orrin Hatch (R – Utah) has said that lowering the United States’ corporate tax rate to one of the lowest in the world should be a top priority in current tax reform efforts. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance said that the US corporate rate, one of… – Continue reading
Montenegro has shown its commitment to improving compliance with international tax standards. The FATCA Agreement is yet another example of a set of steps taken towards broadening the cooperation between the US and Montenegro and following the international standards of cross-border tax assistance. The US Ambassador, Margaret Ann Uyehara and… – Continue reading
France wants Brussels to take a tougher stance on American multinationals working inside the European Union (EU) and force them to pay an appropriate amount of tax. “I can tell you that the times we live in are not for the weak,” French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire said in… – Continue reading
Obama-administration regulation drew criticism as overbroad Trump ordered review of tax rules that may pose undue burdens A federal rule aimed at limiting corporate “earnings stripping’’ for tax-avoidance purposes may pose an undue burden on taxpayers and may be changed or rescinded, according to a U.S. Internal Revenue Service notice…. – Continue reading
The European Union has published a letter to EU heads of state, laying down a direct challenge to the Trump administration, on the issues of tax avoidance ahead of the G20 summit this weekend. The joint letter, sent by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk… – Continue reading
KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday issued a list of at least 88 countries, including tax haven Switzerland to automatically swap financial information of their citizens — but does not mention United Arab Emirates and Panama, the tax avoidance hubs for wealthy Pakistanis. The country will exchange financial… – Continue reading
Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) reported on Tuesday that local financial institutions required to report under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) are now 100 per cent compliant. FATCA is United States legislation designed to target US taxpayers holding accounts and assets outside that country and are non-compliant with US… – Continue reading
A new report shows the offshore jurisdiction is home to assets of $1.5tn, double an estimate by the International Monetary Fund in 2010. Assets held offshore in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) are worth $1.5 trillion (£1.19 trillion), double the International Monetary Fund’s 2010 estimate. That’s according to a new… – Continue reading
The Senate Committee on Finance has asked for public input on US tax reform options. The Chairman of the Senate’s tax-writing committee, Orrin Hatch (R – UT), wrote an open letter asking stakeholders to provide ideas, proposals, and feedback on how to improve the US tax system. “It is essential… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has said that audits it undertook between April 2015 and March 2017 of real estate transactions resulted in more than CAD329.4m (USD249.2m) in assessed income that had not been reported. The CRA said that, during this period, it completed over 21,000 audit files related to… – Continue reading
President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress will soon confront a complex challenge for tax reform: how to limit U.S. corporate tax avoidance schemes that take advantage of low tax rates in foreign countries. Congressional and administration staff have begun to examine options to address profit-shifting schemes that include… – Continue reading
Japanese individuals and companies listed in the leaked Panama Papers owe more than ¥1 billion ($9.06 million) in taxes on undeclared income, sources close to the matter have said. This is the first calculation by Japanese tax authorities of the amount owed on the undeclared income exposed by the documents,… – Continue reading
Senior officials and ministers from 67 countries and jurisdictions have signed an agreement that is designed to make it harder for multi-national companies to avoid tax through the strategic use of cross-border shifting of profits. The US was not among either the 67 countries to have signed the so-called Multilateral… – Continue reading
The Competent Authorities Agreement is part of Panama’s continued commitment to upholding international transparency standards PANAMA CITY, June 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Panama and Mexico signed today a Competent Authorities Exchange of Tax Information Agreement, in accordance with Panama’s commitment to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) of the Organization for… – Continue reading
The Canadian Government has explained how it will incorporate into its tax agreements new provisions to counter base erosion and profit shifting, having signed the OECD’s multilateral instrument on tackling treaty abuse. The Canadian Government said that the minimum standards consist of the inclusion in existing treaties of a new… – Continue reading
The United States could boost its standard of living by 6 to 9 percent using one simple trick, a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found. OK, so it’s not really that simple, if we’re being honest: The trick is fundamentally turning around the way we tax… – Continue reading
GOVERNMENT has a bill on the Parliament agenda allowing for automatic extradition for people wanted for tax evasion in foreign jurisdictions, announced Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi. He said on the Parliament agenda there is a miscellaneous bill to deal with allowing prosecution of tax evasion matters in a reciprocal arrangement… – Continue reading
Revealing the secret identifies behind shell companies and opaque trusts is the “new frontier” in fighting tax evasion, says the OECD’s head of tax Pascal Saint-Amans. In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media, Mr Saint-Amans also spoke about the Turnbull government’s tougher domestic laws aimed at cracking down on multinational… – Continue reading
A study released May 28 by University of California Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman and two Scandinavian colleagues, “Tax Evasion and Inequality,” demonstrates that global wealth inequality is drastically underestimated in official statistics because of how successful the super-rich are at evading taxes. According to the paper, the super-rich, that is… – Continue reading
THE Philippines and Mexico have discussed new ways to further improve trade and investment cooperation, and avoid incidents of double taxation, the Department of Finance (DoF) said. A recent meeting between Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd and Mexican Ambassador to Manila Julio Camarena Villaseñor focused on Mexico’s concerns regarding a… – Continue reading
The Canadian Government has issued an update on its anti-avoidance work, and said that audits carried out in the past fiscal year are on track to capture more than CAD13bn (USD9.6bn) worth of taxes owed. The report was issued to the Standing Committee on Finance, in accordance with commitments made… – Continue reading
Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay $41 million to settle Federal Reserve allegations that its U.S. operations failed to maintain adequate protections against money laundering, the latest in a string of fines that have cost the German lender billions of dollars. The Frankfurt-based bank’s U.S. operations fell short in complying… – Continue reading
Some 9 million Americans reside abroad. More than 4 in 10 wouldn’t rule out renouncing U.S. citizenship, according to a survey. Americans abroad have just about had it with Uncle Sam’s tax filing requirements. Those were the findings from a recent survey of more than 2,100 U.S. expatriates, according to… – Continue reading
The Government yesterday moved to prevent the “devastating” consequences of a financial services ‘blacklisting’ by confirming its readiness to alter the Bahamas’ automatic tax information exchange approach. A Ministry of Finance statement, issued yesterday evening, said the Minnis administration had “formally indicated its interest” to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation… – Continue reading
Common Reporting Standard The Government of the British Virgin Islands (“BVI“) has recently announced an extension to the deadlines for the notification and reporting obligations under the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS“). Under the extended deadlines for CRS, all BVI Reporting Financial Institutions now have until 30 June 2017 to enrol… – Continue reading
On Friday, a variety of news outlets around the world published the Malta Files, a cache of 150,000 documents leaked “from a Malta-based provider of legal, financial and corporate services,” revealing, among other things, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was secretly given a $25M oil tanker (!) by Azeri… – Continue reading
The finance minister says federal government doesn’t “want to wait for the next Panama Papers.” Canada’s finance minister denounced “unfair” tax loopholes on Thursday and put Bay St. on notice that the Liberal government is committed to addressing “blind spots” and exposing shadowy corporate finances to public scrutiny. “We don’t… – Continue reading
Cyprus and the Caribbean island-state of Barbados signed a double tax avoidance and prevention of tax evasion treaty on Wednesday, the finance ministry said. “The agreed text will contribute to the development of commercial and financial ties between Cyprus and Barbados, as well as other countries,” the finance ministry said… – Continue reading
For approximately 7,000 tax-evading individuals and businesses in Detroit, it may be time to pay up. Detroit tax collectors are conducting a large scale litigation campaign against tax evading individuals and businesses operating at 33 properties within the city’s downtown and midtown areas, the Associated Press reports. The team behind… – Continue reading
The American Institute of CPAs has sent a list of six tax regulations to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that it wants the Treasury Department to review under an executive order from President Trump calling for reducing overly burdensome tax regulations. Trump signed an executive order last month on identifying such… – Continue reading
FATCA is unfair to Europe because the US government is not playing fair with tax information by failing to swap data. Members of the European Parliament are calling for the American IRS to give them information on European taxpayers with cash and investments in the US. The argument hinges on… – Continue reading
The global campaign against money laundering combined with the Panama Papers made the Caribbean islands of sun, sand and offshore banking a near no-go zone for the world’s biggest banks. So the British Virgin Islands has a solution: a bank to service offshore companies, many of them from China, locked… – Continue reading
Major U.S. multinationals are pushing the Trump administration to deepen the tax break it has already tentatively proposed on $2.6 trillion in corporate profits being held offshore, a key piece in Washington’s intricate tax reform puzzle. As President Donald Trump tries to deliver on his campaign promise to overhaul the… – Continue reading
Panama needs to require greater due diligence from financial and banking institution to tackle tax fraud in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, a United Nations official has said. “The main component of illicit cash flows at the global level is tax fraud,” UN rights expert Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky… – Continue reading
The United States continues to be a magnet for immigration, with nearly 8 million new immigrants settling here between 2008 to 2014 — and some of these new immigrants are high-net-worth individuals who are unprepared for the intricacies of the U.S. tax law, according to Seth Entin, a shareholder at… – Continue reading
Income tax has long been a progressive talking point in Seattle. Washington is one of just seven states without any income tax, and it relies heavily on sales and property taxes to fill the state coffers. As such, Washington earns the dubious honor of having the most regressive tax system… – Continue reading
Over $2.6 trillion is held as untaxed cash in offshore accounts by top US companies like Apple, Google, IBM, Pfizer, Pepsi and Coke, McDonald’s etc. according to a report by the Washington-based Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP). This is the highest-ever hoard held offshore by American companies and… – Continue reading
“The ball is in the Bahamas’ court” to meet its automatic tax information exchange commitments, a senior industry executive yesterday saying there is “no alarm” about this nation having to alter its approach. #Tanya McCartney, the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) chief executive, told Tribune Business that the private sector… – Continue reading
The total loss to EU member states from the schemes revealed in the Panama Papers could be in the region of between EUR109bn (USD119bn) to EUR237bn, according to a new study commissioned by the European Parliament’s PANA committee. The Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance, and Tax Evasion… – Continue reading
