Swop of taxpayer financial data can start when Jakarta puts safeguards in place, says Indranee Singapore stands ready to have a Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) relationship with Indonesia, as soon as Indonesia is ready, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law Indranee Rajah has said. This… – Continue reading
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble defended his opposition to pending European Union legislation that would force large multinational companies to publicly disclose, on a country-by-country basis, their taxes paid and profits. Schauble, who testified before the EU Parliament’s Panama Papers investigative committee July 11, said public reporting of companies’ tax… – Continue reading
Most Asian countries are not collecting enough tax to meet their goals and they need to boost revenue by taking steps at home and by working with other countries, the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund said. In much of Asia, the tax-to-GDP ratio “consistently” falls below the… – Continue reading
New data-sharing rules aren’t without pitfalls for clients of private banks, as authorities race to shut loopholes, Bank Reyl lawyer Drazen Turujlija told finews.asia-TV. Switzerland is set to begin exchanging data with other countries from next year, a move which has fundamentally shifted the dynamic in Switzerland’s trillion-Swiss franc offshore… – 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
Slovakia is the first V4 country to sign the agreement on country-by-country reporting. Slovakia’s Financial Administration has obtained easier access to the information of US multinational companies. The representatives of Slovakia and the US signed a bilateral agreement on country-by-country (CbC) reporting on June 21, the TASR newswire reported. The… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office has tweaked its view about whether companies linked to family trusts are eligible for tax relief, but industry veterans say the situation remains “utterly confused” and “mind-boggling”. A new statement on the ATO website says companies will be eligible for the lower 27.5 per cent rate… – 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
Mauritius has signed the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI). Once ratified, the MLI will affect as many as 23 tax treaties entered into by this island nation, which has been an important jurisdiction for routing investments into India. Interestingly,… – Continue reading
Indonesia and Switzerland have signed a joint declaration on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) yesterday. The signing was held at the Directorate General of Tax in Central Jakarta. At the signing ceremony, Indonesia was represented by Director General of Tax for the Finance Ministry Ken Dwijugeasteadi and Switzerland… – Continue reading
Who is required to file, how it should be filed and what is necessary to disclose. Several South African-based multinational companies have less than six months to prepare their country-by-country reports for exchange with other tax jurisdictions. Many have realised the magnitude of the information expected and have been setting… – Continue reading
OECD lauds major progress made €85 billion in additional tax revenue has been identified thanks to progress in creating a fairer and more effective international tax system, the OECD said today. The moves include increasing efforts to close down loopholes, improve transparency and ensure that multinational enterprises pay tax where… – Continue reading
The European Parliament on Tuesday passed a directive requiring big multinationals to report tax and financial data separately in all countries where they operate, a measure aimed at tackling tax avoidance and profit shifting to countries with lower taxes. The new rules are part of a wider overhaul of tax… – Continue reading
EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has described the proposed common consolidated corporation tax base as a “decisive tool against corporate tax avoidance.” Moscovici made the comment during a speech on tax fairness. He said the CCCTB will provide companies with a single rulebook for calculating their taxable profit throughout the… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has created a new section on its IRS.gov website dedicated to information on the Country-by-Country Reporting rules of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, which aims to discourage tax avoidance by multinational companies. The new Country-by-Country Reporting web pages… – Continue reading
A number of territories that had failed to demonstrate they have complied with international tax transparency standards have had their ratings upgraded by the OECD, following “fast-track” peer reviews. It said that the territories’ frameworks were reevaluated to assess whether recent progress would result in an upgrade to their ratings… – Continue reading
The Greek parliament has adopted a new law transposing an amendment to the European Union administrative cooperation directive to provide for the exchange of advanced tax rulings between member states. The new law, passed by parliament earlier this month, adopts EU Directive 2015/2376/EU of December 8, 2015, which amends Directive… – Continue reading
The OECD’s body for assessing compliance with international tax transparency standards plans to tell an upcoming summit in Hamburg, Germany, that Trinidad and Tobago is the world’s only tax haven. Group of 20 country leaders meeting last year in China asked that body, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange… – Continue reading
The OECD has released for stakeholders’ comments two new discussion drafts as part of its base erosion and profit shifting work. The first draft builds on the OECD’s final report on BEPS Action 7 (on preventing the artificial avoidance of permanent establishment status). The final Report on Action 7 of… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office has reversed its stance on the tax treatment of trustee dividend-equivalent payments to participants in employee share schemes. The ATO’s June 8 draft guidance, Draft determination TD 2017/D2, deals with circumstances in which an employer establishes a trust to provide shares to employees under an employee… – Continue reading
The Juncker Commission has made the fight against tax avoidance, money laundering and terrorism financing one of its priorities. Today, the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive enters into force. It strengthens the existing rules and will make the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing more effective. It also improves transparency… – Continue reading
European Union-based multinational companies that exceed consolidated revenue of 750 million euros ($840 million) for two consecutive years would have to report publicly on taxes paid, profits earned, and persons employed on a country-by-country basis, under a proposal from Malta. Malta holds the EU presidency, a position it will turn… – Continue reading
A. Introduction In February 2017 Cyprus Tax Department has announced that the current practice regarding profit margins between related Company loans will be abolished by the 30th June 2017. The announcement indicates that the minimum acceptable margins will apply up to 30th June 2017, and as from 1st July 2017… – 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
SINGAPORE – Singapore has signed two international agreements which will make it easier for the country to automatically exchange tax information with other jurisdictions. The agreements are part of ongoing global efforts to combat tax evasion and money laundering as well as improve tax transparency. Called multilateral competent authority agreements… – 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
A Europe-wide crackdown on tax avoidance schemes is set to have a “chilling” effect on recruiters and intermediaries marketing such schemes. The Guardian reported this week that the European Commission will publish proposals tomorrow to force financial intermediaries to automatically disclose any new cross-border tax schemes offered to clients. According… – Continue reading
Japan should commit to new gradual increases to its consumption tax rate, beyond 10 percent, to help rein in its substantial deficit, a new report from the International Monetary Fund says. It said the Government should “place emphasis on a gradual, pre-announced schedule of consumption tax rate hikes, of 0.5… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced on Tuesday that Botswana has joined the Inclusive Framework on base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) becoming the framework’s 99th member.The Inclusive Framework on BEPS is a group of countries that have pledged to implement measures designed by OECD and G20 countries… – Continue reading
In Federal Budget 2017, the Government is clamping down on tax avoidance by foreign investors in real estate, by tightening the foreign resident capital gains tax withholding regime. The new laws apply to both Australian resident and foreign resident vendors: Australian resident vendors of real property of $750,000 or more… – Continue reading
Italy June 30 will apply OECD guidelines for “patent box” rules, a new version of the tax break for intangible property that will remove protections for brand identities originally put in place to protect iconic Italian fashion brands, observers told Bloomberg BNA. The new regime is substantially similar to the… – 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
Cairn Energy has petitioned an international arbitration tribunal against billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd withholding its dividend for last three years New Delhi: UK’s Cairn Energy plc has petitioned an international arbitration tribunal against billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd withholding its dividend for last three years despite tax authorities saying… – 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
A negative review of the tax department by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Global Forum for transparency and exchange of information, which aims to tackle tax evasion and tax avoidance, has excluded Cyprus from the convention of mutual administrative assistance in tax matters, it was reported on… – Continue reading
Effects on Cayman to be relatively benign Ministers and high-level officials from more than 60 countries and jurisdictions on Wednesday are to sign a multilateral convention to reduce the opportunity for tax avoidance by multinational enterprises. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which developed the convention, said the signing… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has updated its online registration system for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act to allow foreign financial institutions to renew their agreement with the IRS. FATCA was included as part of the HIRE Act of 2010, requiring foreign banks and other financial institutions such as hedge… – 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
The German upper house of Parliament, the Bundesrat, passed a bill June 2 to stymie tax evasion through letterbox companies as part of a wider crackdown on illegal tax practices in light of last year’s Panama Papers scandal. The bill, which will become law after being signed by the German… – 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
A federal district court has ruled in favor of tax preparers who filed a class-action lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over its right to charge fees for Preparer Tax Identification Numbers, and the IRS may need to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in fees collected each year. In… – Continue reading
Noting a substantial drop in the tax burden in Romania, the International Monetary Fund has called on lawmakers to avoid further tax cuts. The IMF said that successive tax burden-cutting measures, impacting value-added tax (VAT), fuel excises, and health contributions had resulted in a drop in revenue worth nearly 2.5… – 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
BHP has defended its Singapore marketing hub, where it is accused of routing profits, and says it is confident of its position in a $1 billion dispute with the Australian Taxation Office over the amount of taxes payable on the sale of Australian commodities to its Singapore marketing business. BHP’s… – Continue reading
The OECD has released a document that will form the basis of the peer review and monitoring process of the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) Action 6 minimum standard. The minimum standard on preventing treaty shopping was included in the October 2015 report on BEPS Action 6. It is… – Continue reading
A veteran financial services provider yesterday warned that automatic tax information exchange could breach fundamental rights protected by the Bahamian constitution, while threatening to make this nation a “European satellite”. #Anthony Howorth, president of Euro-Caribbean Management Services, questioned whether the Government and financial services industry had “really thought through” the… – Continue reading
The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) says tax avoidance schemes such as transfer pricing, base erosion and profit shifting appear to be on the rise in the country. Transfer pricing is regarded as a tax avoidance scheme in which multinational corporations shift profits to low tax jurisdictions and avoid taxes… – Continue reading
Jean-Claude Juncker tells MEPs legislation will try to solve ‘real problem’ of experts helping clients exploit tax laws Brussels is preparing to crack down on accountants and lawyers running tax-avoidance schemes in response to the Panama Papers scandal that showed how the rich and powerful hide their money. Jean-Claude Juncker,… – Continue reading
Russia will sign the OECD’s Multilateral Convention to implement tax treaty-related measures to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), the Government announced on May 20. The Convention, developed by the OECD under Action 15 of the BEPS project, will transpose BEPS recommendations into over 2,000 tax treaties worldwide. According… – Continue reading
