Last week, the TexPIRG Education Fund and the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice released a new report examining in detail how Fortune 500 companies in the United States are using offshore havens to avoid paying the taxes they owe the federal government. According to the report, an astounding 72% of American Fortune… – Continue reading
Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Maile Carnegie has urged governments across the world to address the inconsistencies of the global tax system rather than shaming individual companies for their profit-shifting activities, The Australian Financial Review reports. “I am actually incredibly empathetic to why people want to talk about this. I… – Continue reading
A temporary tax holiday for US companies to repatriate offshore profits would cost the government $95.8 billion in revenue over a decade, said the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper. Lawmakers occasionally talk about a repatriation tax break as a way to pay for spending such as replenishing the… – Continue reading
Apple Operations International, the principal Irish holding company for foreign subsidiaries, was not always stateless for tax purposes based on the last filed accounts in Ireland. It stopped paying tax in Ireland from 2006, based on US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations evidence. The most explosive revelation in the May… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cracking down on corporate tax avoidance sounds like a winner, and officials are working on it, but the practical challenges are formidable and they dominated discussion at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development conference on Tuesday. The OECD, a Paris-based club of large economies, has an… – Continue reading
Despite international efforts to clamp down on offshore tax havens, small offshore havens for tax dodging and money laundering are becoming even busier. As the international community focuses on well-known havens like Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands, small remote outposts have become more popular, according to the International Consortium of Investigative… – Continue reading
Tax deals involving Apple, Starbucks and are facing an EU probe over allegations they amounted to state aid worth billions of pounds. The development follows a move by the EU’s competition authorities last year to gather information on corporate tax arrangements from several member states. The European Commission said it… – Continue reading
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has given the US notice that he is serious about leading global efforts through the Group of 20 to stop tax evasion through profit shifting by multinationals, which would include some of America’s biggest companies. Mr Abbott said international tax rules should be structured to capture… – Continue reading
South Korea’s largest business conglomerates have been setting up more paper companies in tax havens around the world, a report by a local corporate research firm showed Monday. With the exception of holding companies for shipping lines, the number of South Korean companies located in the top 10 offshore tax… – Continue reading
While Perrigo Co. plc has already cut its tax burden by moving offshore in the $8.6 billion blockbuster deal with Irish pharmaceutical maker Elan Corp. that it says will allow it to expand globally, other U.S. corporations could have a hard time pulling off similar deals. New federal legislation aims to change… – Continue reading
US firms are using the UK as a haven in which they can symbolically shift their companies to benefit from the country’s relatively low corporation tax regime. Several American companies have already sailed parts across the Atlantic and set up in the UK by moving a handful of executives over… – Continue reading
Nothing about the narrow cream-colored lobby at 160 Aldersgate Street in the City of London financial district gives a hint of its role at the center of the offshore oil industry. That’s because the building is occupied by a law firm. Yet, on paper at least, it is also home to… – Continue reading
Malta is the only member state stopping a tax loophole costing billions of euros being closed, after Sweden dropped its opposition to a EU finance ministers’ agreement to stop multinational companies exploiting hybrid loan arrangements to pay little or no tax. The European Commission reassured Swedish diplomats last week that… – Continue reading
Thousands of investors worldwide are finding out that controversial new US tax avoidance laws have a much wider reach than just American taxpayers with offshore accounts. This is because an unforeseen consequence of the new Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is international customers of US financial institutions must reveal… – Continue reading
All financial institutions in the UAE must comply with the agreement signed with the US Financial institutions in the UAE will start sharing extensive data of account holders with a US nationality from July 1st with the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), or the American tax collecting authority. On May 23rd… – Continue reading
As they pile up in cash accounts, undistributed foreign profits are inflating U.S. multinationals’ valuations and making companies appear less leveraged. Undistributed foreign earnings (UFE) — foreign profits earned by overseas subsidiaries that have not, at least not yet, been remitted back to the U.S. parent — are a good… – Continue reading
In the latest attempt elevating the long-standing issue, a United Nations report has called for a fight against cross-border tax evasion — as in the kind of “smart” accounting that has let high-profile multinationals such as Apple, Google and Starbucks save billions in taxes for years. A US Senate… – Continue reading
Madison, June 5 – Tax loopholes encouraged more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies – includingJohnson Controls, Rockwell Automation and Manpower here in Wisconsin – to maintain subsidiaries in offshore tax havens as of 2013, according to “Offshore Shell Games,” released today by WISPIRG Foundation and Citizens for Tax Justice. Collectively, the companies reported booking… – Continue reading
Most Fortune 500 corporations have units in offshore tax havens that they use to avoid paying U.S. taxes through “accounting tricks,” two left-leaning tax activist groups said on Thursday. In a report that comes amid increased attention to corporate tax avoidance worldwide, the groups said U.S. multinationals each year avoid… – Continue reading
With all the U.S. corporate cash piling up on tiny Caribbean islands, it’s a wonder the beaches can still accommodate sunbathers. Apple, Nike, Citigroup and a few hundred other Fortune 500 companies have created a whopping 7,827 offshore shell companies to stash nearly $2 trillion in places like Bermuda and… – Continue reading
The European Union may open a formal probe as soon as next week into tax breaks that Ireland and the Netherlands use to attract international companies, according to people familiar with the case. The European Commission is scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting June 11, said two people,… – Continue reading
Seventy two percent of Fortune 500 companies avoid approximately $90 billion in taxes by booking profits to subsidiaries registered in offshore tax havens, according to a report from the ConnPIRG Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice. Each year, offshore tax loopholes used by U.S. multinational corporations cost Connecticut $600 million in… – Continue reading
What is transfer pricing? Transfer pricing refers to the terms and conditions surrounding transactions taking place within a multi-national company. It concerns the prices charged between associated enterprises established in different countries for their inter-company transactions, i.e. transfer of goods and services. Since the prices are set by associates within… – Continue reading
The world is close to the point where hiding money offshore is foolhardy, no matter how little or large the amount is. As the loopholes continue to close, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced a voluntarily scheme for people to declare unreported foreign income and assets. The ATO wants taxpayers with… – Continue reading
At present, it is unclear how the rules surrounding Private Residence relief (PPR) will exempt individuals from these new CGT rules. In his 2013 Autumn Statement, Chancellor George Osborne announced an important change to the UK tax system – namely, the extension of capital gains tax (CGT) to non-residents selling their… – Continue reading
We are living in the golden age of global tax reform. At no point in history have there been so many initiatives coordinated by such a dizzying array of tax authorities, all focused on one thing: replenishing municipal budgets that have been depleted over the last five years of global… – Continue reading
U.S. corporations have reported to the Internal Revenue Service that 54 percent of their offshore profits are earned in 12 tax haven countries that, combined, only account for 4 percent of economic output among all countries where U.S. corporations do business. A new report by the advocacy group, Citizens for… – Continue reading
Hardcore tax avoiders are facing their last stand as one of the last tax safe havens sends HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) a list of countries where they have stashed their secret cash. Swiss banks must supply the list by May 31 under a tax agreement between Britain and the… – Continue reading
It is a figure which Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), the US group which authored the report, says highlights Ireland’s popular use as a tax haven among US companies. Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Policy in Washington DC, tells IBTimes UK: “It’s a clear indicator… – Continue reading
A Cyprus court has frozen the assets of three offshore entities through which Mechel’s main shareholder and chairman Igor Zyuzin owns a 67.4 percent stake in the indebted steelmaker and coalminer, Interfax news agency reported Monday. Zyuzin is a controlling shareholder in Mechel, which has been hit by weak prices for its products, forcing it to sell loss-making assets and to negotiate delayed… – Continue reading
NEW YORK – According to a report from Bloomberg, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is keeping an ever growing share of its cash reserves outside of the U.S. to use for acquisitions. In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Google revealed that it currently has more than $ 30 billion… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON: It will soon get a lot harder to use overseas accounts to hide income and assets from the US tax collectors. More than 77,000 foreign banks, investment funds and other financial institutions have agreed to share information about US account holders with the Internal Revenue Service as part of… – Continue reading
Prosecutors investigating a list of 2,602 Greeks with 1.5 billion euros ($1.95 billion) in secret Swiss bank accounts have reportedly found that 90 percent of them are tax cheats. – See more at: The ongoing probe by financial prosecutors, Panagiotis Athanasiou and Galinos Mpris in cooperation with the Deputy Prosecutor… – Continue reading
AsiaOne Business News released an article on the expectation of Singapore to dislodge Switzerland as the world’s wealth management capital (Business AsiaOne, 5/12/14) last week. AsiaBiz Services, Singapore’s leading company formation consultancy, affirmed that the main reasons for the country’s acquisition of its enormous share of global offshore wealth are attributed to… – Continue reading
In recent years, the US Congress and the US Department of Treasury have come to believe that many US taxpayers (including US citizens and green card holders in India) have not been complying with the tax law that requires reporting of worldwide income, including income held in non-US financial institutions…. – Continue reading
About two dozen U.S. companies ranging from Liberty Media to Sara Lee have quietly moved their headquarters out of the United States to places like Ireland and Canada and England since 2008 in search of lower corporate income taxes. Few people other than tax techies noticed. But now, thanks to… – Continue reading
Bank of America tops the list of Charlotte-based companies avoiding big tax bills by keeping profits offshore, according to a new report by a nonprofit tax research and advocacy group. Citizens for Tax Justice found that 301 U.S. Fortune 500 companies disclosed holding nearly $2 trillion in profits offshore. By… – Continue reading
Activists outside the offices of Chevron in Houston, Texas called for oil companies to accept strong rules to implement the transparency provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Bill in 2012. Oxfam members portrayed oil companies as monkeys in the “see no evil, speak no evil” proverb. Photo: Scott Dalton… – Continue reading
A new report from the advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice finds that 301 Fortune 500 companies hold a combined $2 trillion offshore, collectively avoiding $550 billion in U.S. corporate income taxes, while a contrasting report from the Tax Foundation found that U.S. multinational corporations reported paying more than $128… – Continue reading
Chancellor says “we will continue to pursue offshore tax evaders”. The government is set to consult on plans to make it a “strict liability criminal offence” for individuals to hide their money offshore, meaning it will make a much easier for HM Revenue & Customs to prosecute offshore tax evaders…. – Continue reading
A criminal case has been opened in Portugal against Brazil’s football coach Luiz Felipe Scolari weeks before Brazil hosts the World Cup. He has been named as a formal suspect in a tax fraud investigation but he has not been arrested or charged. Mr Scolari, 65, was Portugal’s head coach… – Continue reading
Corporate Tax Avoidance: Last week the news that Apple is considering buying Beats Electronics, a maker of expensive headphones that was founded by record mogul Jimmy Iovine and rap artist Dr Dre, for $3.2bn, got a lot of media attention. Dr Dre must have pissed-off Apple when he bragged on… – Continue reading
A decision to drop tax and money laundering charges against three high-profile Sydney businessmen is ”another humiliating defeat for the Project Wickenby Keystone Cops”, according to a lawyer close to the trio. Charges attracting jail of up to 25 years, laid against former CVC Limited chairman Vanda Gould, former Sunland… – Continue reading
The UK’s 100 largest public companies have nearly 30,000 subsidiaries, according to new research by Christian Aid Christian Aid has accused many of the largest companies that claim to be driving corporate responsibility of operating behind a veil of secrecy by creating thousands of subsidiaries in tax havens. The UK’s… – Continue reading
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
Beanie Baby creator Ty Warner might be headed to prison after all. The billionaire was originally sentenced to probation after hiding $25 million in Swiss banksto avoid US taxes, but federal prosecutors are now asking for re-sentencing. Their appeal argued that Warner appears to be getting a different standard of justice than the… – Continue reading
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS reaching this publication states that a businessman from Wyoming, United States of America was on Wednesday (May 7) sentenced to serve 36 months in jail for tax evasion. According to a US Department of Justice press release, the businessman, Robert C. Sathre, appeared before US District… – Continue reading
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — (SBWIRE) — 05/08/2014 — ICO Services, the international company specialized in the formation of offshore companies and offshore banking, has recently expanded their services to the American business world by launching their service of setting up a company in Belize, the only fiscal paradise in Central… – Continue reading
Money Week editor-in-chief Merryn Somerset Webb has sparked a new debate on the question of whether the Isle of Man is a tax haven or not. Last week Business News reported how the FT columnist believes the island is a tax haven even though it was pointed out to… – 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
