CORK, Ireland — As lord mayor of this quiet seaside city in southern Ireland, Chris O’Leary seems to have a situation most other local politicians can only dream about. Blue-chip international companies like Apple, Dell and IBM have all set up shop in and around this city, filling newly built… – Continue reading
Plans to change Switzerland’s banking secrecy laws have been temporarily shelved. The reforms would have made it easier for the Swiss authorities to get information from domestic banks about suspected tax evaders. The cabinet said on Wednesday that the change of heart was due to the slim chance of success… – Continue reading
Pfizer Inc.’s buyout bid for Allergan Plc has financial markets on edge over a possible new move by the U.S. Treasury Department against tax-inversion deals, but the outlook for any such steps was still unclear. For months, Treasury has offered no fresh guidance on the inversion issue, leaving tax experts… – Continue reading
The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for its members’ international economic cooperation and decision-making. Its membership comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and together they represent 85% of global Gross Domestic Product. The 2015 G20 Summit will be held in Turkey for the first time and… – Continue reading
By the very criteria set in the United States by the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC), several states in the US are “tax havens”. But, they have not been named in the legislation passed by the legislatures of Oregon, Montana and others. Among the MTC criteria for determining a tax haven… – Continue reading
US citizenship, Greencard, can no longer be a way of saving tax for some, as India has agreed to provide information for compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which became law in March 2010. Either US citizens or institutions cannot refrain from paying tax on their investments… – Continue reading
Companies such as Apple, Starbucks, and Amazon are well known for legally using international law to their advantage when it comes to tax. Now a small Welsh town is mimicking their tactics. Independent traders in Crickhowell are moving their businesses “offshore” to avoid paying tax. The local businesses – including… – Continue reading
Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 13, 2015 (SKNIS): The Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) 42 Conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) was deemed as important and should not be underestimated, especially at a time when the industry continues to be under increased scrutiny, said Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr…. – Continue reading
G20 countries spend over 15 times subsidizing the coal and oil industry than developed countries provide in adaptation finance to poor and vulnerable countries, said Oxfam today, ahead of the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey. Oxfam also urged the G20 leaders to tackle fundamental reforms to ensure the benefits of… – Continue reading
Both leaders recently discussed key bilateral issues on the new ‘hotline’ NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 12: In a major deviation from earlier times, the much-publicised bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama is unlikely to happen on the sidelines on the 10th G20 summit in Turkey…. – Continue reading
Ahead of a G20 meeting in Turkey this weekend that will tackle, among other issues, the GDP lost to global tax havens, the anti-poverty organization Oxfam is warning that it’s not just poor countries that suffer when corporations evade taxes. Julie Delahanty, Oxfam Canada’s executive director, says the only people… – Continue reading
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved, for a second time, the following income tax treaties and Protocols. 12 November 2015 Switzerland: A Protocol to amend the income tax treaty with Switzerland—the Protocol was signed in 2009. Luxembourg: A Protocol to amend the income tax treaty with Luxembourg—the Protocol was… – Continue reading
Corporate corruption is still prevalent in rich Group of 20 nations despite their pledges last year to close loopholes, according to Transparency International. It has listed Brazil, China and the US among the offenders. Transparency International on Thursday labeled this weekend’s G20 summit in Turkey as a mere “photo opportunity,”… – Continue reading
Pasadena’s East West Bank must beef up its efforts to prevent money laundering after federal regulators said its practices were not sufficient. The bank, which has operations in the United States, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, was ordered by the Federal Reserve on Thursday to correct problems with its anti-money-laundering… – Continue reading
Tax: Luxembourg among countries helping US firms cut their tax bills by more than a quarter, campaigners say. The abuse of holding company structures in the Grand Duchy, and fiscal regimes in several other countries, allows American firms to avoid paying billions of dollars in corporate profit taxes, two NGOs… – Continue reading
The US Treasury Department released proposed revisions to the US Model Income Tax Treaty (the ‘Model Treaty’); the proposed changes are intended to combat treaty abuse and deny treaty benefits in certain situations. The revisions to the Model Treaty include: (i) changes to the Limitation on Benefits provision which most… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: A US passport doesn’t look like such a priced possession anymore. Some Indians even want to surrender their hard-won green cards. India and the US are set to freely exchange financial information about their citizens, leaving no asset concealed. This could mean US tax officials imposing punitive levies on… – Continue reading
In a surprising development, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on November 10 approved without amendment eight pending US tax treaties and protocols. Proposed income tax treaties with Chile, Hungary, and Poland; proposed tax protocols with Japan, Luxembourg, Spain, and Switzerland; and a proposed protocol amending the multilateral mutual… – Continue reading
A rout in pharmaceutical and biotech stocks has altered the equation for chief executives thinking about big-ticket mergers and acquisitions. On one hand, target companies are much cheaper than they were: roughly $130 billion has been wiped off the Nasdaq biotech index since Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, pledged… – Continue reading
According to the Star Spangled Banner, the United States is the land of the free and the home of the brave. So how come the number of Americans renouncing their citizenship is hitting new heights? More than three thousand people have given up their US nationality so far this year…. – Continue reading
Some time ago we wrote an article on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (‘FATCA’) which says that although the FATCA tentacles are fairly intrusive, at the end of the day, it represents just another form for tax payers to complete. Rather to my surprise this article elicited a threat… – Continue reading
The final reports on the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project were issued on 5 October (the “Reports”) after a two-year consultation period during which 62 countries and many other stakeholders (such as the World Bank, the IMF, and many trade associations) participated. These Reports, split into 15… – Continue reading
Thanks to the FiTAX tax reporting solution, some 2,000 financial institutions successfully met the reporting requirements of tax authorities. FiTAX FATCA covers more than 45 countries. ZURICH, SWITZERLAND—(Marketwired – Nov. 12, 2015) – 2015 marks a turning point in the FATCA timeline: for the first time, Financial Foreign Institutions (FFIs)… – Continue reading
The Department of Justice announced today that Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (Suisse) SA (BIL Switzerland) and Zuger Kantonalbank (ZGKB) have reached resolutions under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. These banks will collectively pay penalties totaling more than $13 million and continue to cooperate with the department. “The agreements reached today… – Continue reading
While the United States works to get tax dollars from corporations hiding assets elsewhere, they offer the same opportunity in U.S. states to businesses from other countries. To some, “tax haven’’ is a dirty word, describing as it does a place where wealthy people and large corporations can hide assets… – Continue reading
New York, Nov 12 (Just Earth News/IBNS): Citing an enormous loss of $100 to $240 billion dollars in uncollected global corporate income tax revenues each year, Oh Joon, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Wednesday stressed the need to curb tax evasion and avoidance and… – Continue reading
Irish corporation tax returns are behaving oddly: the Department of Finance estimates that they are running €2 billion (74 percent) ahead of forecast for the year. Economist Seamus Coffey has described these figures as “very strange”. Coincidentally (or perhaps not) the global accounts of the Apple corporation revealed an increase… – Continue reading
Australian motor racing legend Alan Jones has become embroiled in the collapse of an online gambling company operated by notorious conman Peter Foster which owes $11.5 million to about 150 investors. The 69-year-old former winner of the Formula One Drivers’ Championship was named in a writ to be lodged in… – Continue reading
THE world appears to be getting much smaller. Rapid technological advances, increased people mobility, and changes in the international political climate have all helped to break down many of the traditional barriers to global and regional trade. For dynamic, fast-growing businesses, this increased globalisation represents an excellent opportunity for businesses… – Continue reading
Hyderabad: Customers of several public and private sector banks across the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are finding fault with their bankers for asking to fill up more forms under Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The new rules have come into effect from November 1,… – Continue reading
The nine-month old Team Unity administration has been pursuing quiet diplomacy to recalibrate international relationships for the benefit of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, reports SKN Vibes. So said St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris at last week’s press conference at government headquarters…. – Continue reading
The implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act is showing consistent progress with thousands of banks in over 150 countries agreeing to share financial accounts data of their US clientele with US taxation authorities. This clearly indicates the firm resolve of the US administration to make this initiative a… – Continue reading
Britain has done more to tackle secretive company ownership practices which facilitate corruption than other leading economies, while the United States and China are falling short of their promises, a leading anti-corruption group said. Britain has made good progress on making beneficial ownership information accessible, having legislated for a central… – Continue reading
In this edition we also include the leading trustees, private bankers and accountants serving the private client industry. RBC Wealth Management leads our research in trust and advisory services with an impressive 18 names recommended. Alan Binnington specialises in establishing and administering trust and fiduciary structures for high net worth… – Continue reading
The New Zealand foreign trust regime – its use in international wealth planning The New Zealand “foreign trust” regime came into being over 25 years ago. It arose from a domestic initiative to make the use of offshore trusts for tax minimisation more difficult for New Zealand residents, by imposing… – Continue reading
Luanda — A substantially Intergovernmental Agreement under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was signed Monday in Luanda between the Ministry of Finance and the government of the United States of America, represented by its ambassador to Angola. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US tax authority,… – Continue reading
United States taxpayers using foreign accounts in the United Arab Emirates may see more rigorous enforcement of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, in the UAE, as obligations for UAE financial institutions have been ramped up under a new intergovernmental FATCA Agreement between the U.S. and the UAE,… – Continue reading
Key Points: The rejection of the Commissioner’s position on the relevance of credit rating agencies and the relevance of implicit support will give rise to uncertainty going forward, as it is unclear how an arm’s length interest rate can be practically determined. The Federal Court’s recent decision in Chevron Australia… – Continue reading
A Chris Christie administration would likely make shareholders at some major U.S. companies very happy. The two-term New Jersey Governor has called for an array of pro-growth, business-friendly reforms as he bids for the Republican nomination. Christie is in favor of lowering corporate taxes so companies earn more profits, raising… – Continue reading
Headline: G20 among biggest losers in large-scale tax abuse – but poor countries relatively hardest hit G20 countries are the biggest losers when US multinationals avoid paying taxes where they do business. This is the main finding of a new report on the global tax system, ‘Still Broken,’ released by… – Continue reading
A recent CNBC report suggests that several billion dollars of estate tax due from the estates of foreign decedents on investments in U.S. stock and real estate goes uncollected by the IRS every year. The report noted a large discrepancy between the amount of foreign investment in these assets and… – Continue reading
Dorothy Coleman, the NAM’s Vice President, Tax and Domestic Policy, today joined U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and a panel of experts, including representatives from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), to discuss key international tax issues, including the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project recommendations recently… – Continue reading
U.S. companies moved $500 billion to $700 billion in profits to countries with low or no corporate tax rates in 2012 alone, according to new research published by tax reform campaigners Tuesday. Tax avoidance on such a large scale means the U.S. accounts for about 71% of profits worldwide that… – Continue reading
United States corporations avoid an estimated $US1.45 billion ($2.06b) of tax in Australia each year by shifting their profits to low or no tax countries, research shows. A joint report by advocacy and union groups Tax Justice Network, Oxfam, Global Alliance for Tax Justice and Public Services International says in… – Continue reading
More than 1,600 new financial institutions have signed up to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) List. The list now covers 177,147 institutions in 226 financial jurisdictions – up 1,604 from the last list published on October 1. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) keeps the list to… – Continue reading
At a very high level, it’s a simple concept: a multinational borrows money from a related company overseas, and then uses the interest bill and the repayment methods to reduce tax exposure in Australia. If the loans – and the interest rates – are big enough, the tax savings can… – Continue reading
Kenya’s tax authority has launched a campaign to encourage people to report evasion and to crack down on staff misconduct, it said on Tuesday, after media allegations of corruption. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said it will vet staff for misconduct and step up efforts to prevent abuses when calculating… – 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
Article by Patrick W Martin and Ashley Fife With a net worth of USD77.1 billion, Mexican telecoms businessman Carlos Slim Helú was ranked the second richest person in the world in a 2015 survey.1 At the end of 2014, 16 of Mexico’s citizens were on Forbes’ billionaires list.2 As for… – Continue reading
On a warm afternoon last month, Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens looked out over sun-drenched piles of dirt and construction equipment near Guadalajara and hailed the groundbreaking of a new currency-printing plant as a sign of a solid economy. There’s one catalyst for rising cash demand that isn’t a… – Continue reading
