The FINANCIAL — Transfer Pricing Rules were implemented by the Government of Georgia in 2011, based on OECD guidelines. Since the number of international companies in Georgia is increasing steadily, Transfer Pricing Rules have become a point of obvious interest. However, multinational companies operating in Georgia are not sufficiently well-informed… – Continue reading
Treasury Analysis Asserts Tax Cuts Will Pay for Themselves: Today, the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy released its analysis of the Senate’s tax reform plan. The one-page report used the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget projections of a 2.9% real growth rate over 10 years. The analysis expects the… – Continue reading
The Commission has today put forward new guidelines on withholding taxes to help Member States reduce costs and simplify procedures for cross-border investors in the EU. The new Code of Conduct offers solutions for investors who, as a result of how withholding taxes are applied, end up paying taxes twice… – Continue reading
For a nation of nearly 200 million people, not many Nigerians pay taxes. Indeed, as of May 2017, only 14 million—or one in five—of Nigeria’s estimated 70 million economically active citizens were paying taxes. As such, Nigeria’s government has typically earned much less than it could have from taxes. Back… – Continue reading
For the first time, the OECD has published a map that sets out countries’ participation and compliance with international tax initiatives, looking specifically at the exchange of information in tax matters, with the old international standard – the exchange of information on request – and the new, on the automatic… – Continue reading
The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service ( LIRS ) on Thursday shut 11 hotels, restaurants and event centres over alleged failures to remit their taxes under the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Laws of Lagos State 2009. Mr Seyi Alade, Director, Legal Services of the LIRS, said this after a… – Continue reading
The American Chamber of Commerce in the European Union has criticized the proposals put forward in the European Commission’s recent consultation on options for new tax rules or a new tax on digital firms. The aim of that consultation is to help the Commission to define an approach to the… – Continue reading
EU ministers have issued the bloc’s “list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes”. The blacklist was created following a November 2016 European Council decision–in the wake of the Panama Papers, Luxleaks and other revelations of multinational tax avoidance–to evaluate jurisdictions outside the EU. Territories were judged on “tax transparency”, “fair… – Continue reading
Blacklisted nations may face sanctions. The European Union released its first-ever “blacklist” of global tax havens this week, including 17 territories, three of which are Arab countries. Deemed to fall short of EU tax standards, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, and Bahrain joined American Samoa, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea,… – Continue reading
[Updated] The Government of Bermuda said they note that the Economic and Financial Affairs Council [ECOFIN] has “reaffirmed Bermuda’s status as a cooperative tax jurisdiction.” Premier David Burt said, “Once again the EU has recognized Bermuda’s status as a cooperative jurisdiction, despite the interest surrounding a hack on a global… – Continue reading
The International Centre for Tax and Development has released a working paper on how to best support developing countries in the area of taxation. The paper says that developing countries would particularly benefit from support in the implementation of two areas that were covered by the OECD’s base erosion and… – Continue reading
Apple, whose CEO Tim Cook likes to talk a big game about how the tech industry should be more socially responsible while overseeing an international tax-avoidance regime that puts Scrooge McDuck’s gold-filled vault/swimming pool to shame, has agreed to repay Ireland $14.6 billion (around €13 billion) in unpaid taxes, the… – Continue reading
On December 2, the OECD released the first analysis of individual countries’ progress in spontaneously exchanging information on tax rulings in accordance with Action 5 of the BEPS package of measures released in October 2015. The first annual report on the exchange of information on rulings evaluates how 44 countries,… – Continue reading
THE Deputy Prime Minister believes the Bahamas has “done everything we could possibly do” to escape the European Union (EU) ‘tax haven’ blacklist that will be issued tomorrow. K P Turnquest told Tribune Business that the Minnis administration “has no reason to think” this nation will be deemed a ‘non-cooperative… – Continue reading
South Africa, Jersey, and Belgium are among a handful of territories that have recently announced an extension to the due date for country-by-country reports under the new frameworks being introduced under Action 13 of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting Action Plan. The CbC report is one element of… – Continue reading
Coinbase, the world’s largest Bitcoin brokerage and wallet platform, has won a partial but significant victory in its fight against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as Cointelegraph previously reported. Brief history of Coinbase v. IRS On January 15, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that the IRS sent the company a… – Continue reading
The number of outstanding tax treaty related disputes in the UK increased in 2016 by almost 20% from 262 at the beginning of the year to 314 at the end of the year, according to statistics released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The statistics show the… – Continue reading
The OECD has published additional guidance on the implementation of the country-by-country (CbC) reporting requirement proposed under Action 13 of its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. The guidance, issued on November 30, addresses the following issues: how to report amounts taken from financial statements prepared using fair value… – Continue reading
Bermuda and the UK recently signed an agreement providing for the automatic exchange of country-by-country reports. Bermuda is the first UK Overseas Territory to sign a CbC Competent Authority Agreement with the UK, which enables the automatic reporting of corporate income on a country-by-country basis for UK-related transfer pricing enforcement… – Continue reading
Barbados says it expects to sign the new OECD BEPS Multilateral Instrument at the end of January 2018 to introduce changes to its tax treaty network to prevent base erosion and profit shifting. The “Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)”… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency’s recently announced “postal code project” targets Canada’s richest neighbourhoods, to identify non-compliance apparent from discrepancies between residents’ tax reporting with their apparent wealth. Even prior to the postal code project, which focuses on any potential high net worth individual, the CRA had enhanced audit activity on… – Continue reading
The OECD has said that Switzerland’s efforts to meet its international commitments to reform its corporate tax regime are welcome, but noted that there is some uncertainty around the proposed reform package. The OECD has published its latest Economic Survey of Switzerland. In its report, the OECD stated that there… – Continue reading
A FORMER financial services minister yesterday said global regulatory initiatives appear designed to force the Bahamas to adopt a corporate/personal income tax alien to its culture. Ryan Pinder, who held this position in the Christie Cabinet from 2012 to late 2014, told Tribune Business that the likes of the European… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund has said Trinidad and Tobago needs to further hike taxes. The territory has struggled due to low energy prices. Energy revenue accounted for only 27 percent of total government revenue in the 2015 fiscal year, compared to around 55 percent during the preceding decade. A new… – Continue reading
The OECD’s Global Forum recently adopted a plan of action to help developing countries participate in and benefit from the automatic exchange of financial account information for tax purposes. Under the plan, developing countries have been invited to undergo a preliminary assessment of their capacity to implement the Common Reporting… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI The Indian Income Tax Department will accept applications for Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) in transfer pricing disputes, as well as for bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), even for entities resident in countries with which India has double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAA), minus the provision to claim corresponding tax… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has extended until February 15, 2018, the deadline for “significant global entities” to file their country-by-country (CbC) reports. The extension applies to entities that are December and January balancers filing for the first time. The extension also applies to the filing of local and master… – Continue reading
On November 22, the UK Government published for stakeholders’ comments a position paper setting out its views on the challenges posed by the digital economy for the corporate tax system and its preferred solutions. The paper, which was published alongside the 2017 Autumn Budget, states that “the Government believes in… – Continue reading
Serbia has for now avoided being included in EU’s blacklist of tax havens, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The agency said last week that the November 21 draft mentioned Turkey and Serbia as some of the countries that could be added to the list. But Serbia is now seen as “compliant… – Continue reading
In this Update On June 7, 2017, Canada signed the OECD’s Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the MLI) The MLI will modify up to 75 of Canada’s bilateral tax treaties, including adding a broad anti-avoidance rule to these treaties (the… – Continue reading
On November 21, 2017, the OECD Council approved the contents of the 2017 Update to the OECD Model Tax Convention. The 2017 Update primarily comprises changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention and related commentary that were developed through the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project including changes… – Continue reading
Greece ranked first out of 35 OECD countries in tax hikes last year, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the budget for 2018 will lead to an even greater tax burden that will stifle growth, the Parliament’s Budget Office (PBO) warned on Thsurday…. – Continue reading
A major new global transparency measure aimed at curbing cross-border tax evasion by requiring countries to share information on the wealth of each other’s nationals could be undermined by the abuse of residency- and citizenship-for-sale schemes. Tax justice campaigners say that some of these schemes are already being marketed as… – Continue reading
The I-T department and SEBI are working on a two-pronged approach that involves action against tax evaders and tightening of norms for scrips prone to price manipulation Tightening the noose around companies invloved in tax evasion, the Income Tax department and market regulator SEBI have launched a crackdown on penny… – Continue reading
Europe’s fierce enforcer of competition rules is threatening tech giants with tough new rules on tax if politicians fail to come to an agreement on changes to the current system. Efforts to amend rules that would apply tax more fairly to firms which largely operate online such as Google, Amazon,… – Continue reading
Hungary’s Investment Agency says highly competitive tax rates continue to attract automotive manufacturing to the country as the centrally-located countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) jockey for access to labour. The Visegrad 4 countries; Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Poland, have been highly successful at drawing in hundreds of… – Continue reading
The Irish Revenue has announced that a new inquiry is underway to identify and pursue taxpayers engaged in offshore tax evasion and avoidance. Revenue said that the inquiry is being conducted in the context of increased and ongoing sharing of information between tax administrations, and of the changes to voluntary… – Continue reading
Switzerland has approved an automatic information exchange pact with India and a number of other countries on black money, a development that would enable authorities in India get instant access to details on Indians with Swiss accounts The Commission for Economic Affairs and Taxes of the Council of States –… – Continue reading
The Isle of Man’s critics ignore the great progress it has made in keeping its business above board. Last week the island received a ringing endorsement from the OECD. We have retained the top ’compliant’ rating by the global body reviewing tax transparency – one of only six countries worldwide…. – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has adopted a dispatch on the implementation of a new double tax agreement (DTA) with Kosovo. The agreement was signed in May. A previous DTA was in force until 2011. The DTA caps the maximum withholding tax rate for dividends being taxed at source at 15… – Continue reading
Canada and Antigua and Barbuda have signed a new tax information exchange agreement. The agreement was signed on October 31, the Canadian Government announced on November 14. Negotiations were launched in November 2010. The agreement provides for the mutual exchange of tax information that is possessed by, or is accessible… – Continue reading
114 taxpayers in Canada’s voluntary disclosure program say that the Israeli bank helped them evade taxes. As if the headache of the investigation by US authorities were not enough, Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI), managed by CEO Arik Pinto, discovered two days ago that Canada was also taking aim at it…. – Continue reading
New Zealand’s new Revenue Minister, Stuart Nash, has said that the country will reduce or eliminate the goods and services tax exemption for low-value imports. Presently goods worth no more than either NZD226 (USD155.6) or NZD400 (depending on if they are subject to duty) are not subject to goods and… – Continue reading
In the aftermath of Satoshi Nakamoto’s groundbreaking paper in 2009, money began travelling via a new financial route – virtual currencies. The first Bitcoin exchange was established on February 6, 2010 where Bitcoin traded for the first time for 0.3 cents. Last June, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) recently decided to shrink the tax burden for local microfinance institutions (MFIs) by lowering withholding tax on interest from loans acquired from abroad from 14 to 10 percent, a move that the government claims will keep the massive sector sustainable. This is the… – Continue reading
Qatar has become the 115th jurisdiction to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The Convention is touted by the OECD as “the most powerful instrument for international tax cooperation.” It provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request,… – Continue reading
THE Government has been urged to “get across the line before year-end” on global tax information exchange standards, amid hope the relevant legislation will reach Parliament tomorrow. Michael Paton, a former Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) chairman, told Tribune Business that the Bahamas needed to upgrade its existing legislation to… – Continue reading
Bulgaria has said that multinationals covered by the country’s new transfer pricing country-by-country reporting regime should submit their first report by December 31, 2017. Through Order 3LIY-1410, Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency has newly set out the rules concerning country-by-country documentation, including who the reporting obligations apply to and how to… – Continue reading
“Reportage about hacked data from global law firm Appleby has highlighted the substantial lack of media understanding of offshore investment structures and Bermuda’s long-time reputation for tax transparency and cooperation with international authorities,” the Bermuda Business Development Agency said. “Bermuda is committed to the exchange of relevant information to legitimate… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) vide notification S.O. 3512(E) dated November 2, 2017 sets out the Third Protocol to the Convention between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of New Zealand for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with… – Continue reading
