No focus on stock markets and other money-laundering machines After all the noisy assertions, only Rs4,147 crore of unaccounted wealth was declared during the special 90-day compliance window of the The Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Act, 2015 (Black Money Bill). Of this, just Rs2,488 crore will… – Continue reading
In 2014, seven major tech groups in Spain Declared collective profits of € 48.2 million, on Which They paid € 18.3 million in taxes. These online giants Real Their reduced corporate profits-through complex legal structures and accounting techniques That allowed them to shift part of the profits from Spain to… – Continue reading
Companies around the world are scrambling to overhaul how they communicate with the public when it comes to how much tax they pay, according to professional services firm KPMG. While the Senate is currently investigating multinational firms such as Apple and Google over potential tax avoidance, other countries are also… – Continue reading
Ireland, whose corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent is already one of the lowest in the developed world, said it would cut that rate in half for a new tax category — one covering revenue pegged to companies’ patents and other intellectual property. The Irish government, long criticized by other… – Continue reading
The OECD has finally released its long-expected set of reports regarding its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. Reducing the number of action points from 15 to 13, the OECD presented recommendations and common responses to align international tax rules and tackle base erosion and profit shifting. All recommendations… – Continue reading
Israeli importers and exporters, hi-tech and trading groups will all be in the base erosion and profit shifting firing line. On October 5 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published a final comprehensive package of measures aimed at multinational corporations, large and small, that engage in BEPS – base… – Continue reading
With the adoption of the BEPS package, OECD and G20 countries, as well as all developing countries that have participated in its development, will lay the foundations of a modern international tax framework under which profits are taxed where economic activity and value creation occurs. Focus will now shift to… – Continue reading
The European Commission has compiled an updated list of third countries that feature on the tax blacklists of European Union member states. The new list reflects changes in member states’ assessments of third countries’ standards, corrections to national lists, and Estonia’s decision to withdraw all countries from its blacklist. The… – Continue reading
Banking jobs in Geneva slipped to the lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis amid regulatory pressures, tax scrutiny and consolidation in the Swiss finance industry, according to lobby group Geneva Financial Center. Employees at banks in the city fell 3 percent to 18,855 in the 12 months through August,… – Continue reading
The Minister for Finance has announced that the Knowledge Development Box will be provided for in the Finance Bill. The measure was first signaled in Budget 2015. He said qualifying income would be subject to a reduced rate of corporation tax of 6.25%, half the regular corporate tax rate of… – Continue reading
The tax world followed with great interest today´s launch of the final package of BEPS. Having the BEPS report finalized is indeed a great achievement and, as pointed out by Mr. Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary General, in his Twitter, “Agreement of #BEPS package is a historic day in our effort… – Continue reading
THE Government will introduce a new lower corporation tax rate in today’s budget in a bid to increase R&D investment and innovation. It is understood the new lower rate will only apply if a company agrees to a certain level of investment in research and development as part of the… – Continue reading
PwC welcomes this effort to update international tax system and boost transparency. The tax landscape has been transformed by the globalisation of business and the advent of the digital age. We believe the existing international tax rules need to be modernised to reflect how business is done today, and it… – Continue reading
Swiss fund manager will use new Irish Icav structure to move product from the Caribbean domicile UBS has shifted a fund of hedge funds onshore to Ireland from the Cayman Islands, delivering another blow to the reputation of the Caribbean tax haven as the domicile of choice for international hedge… – Continue reading
What has happened? On 5 October 2015, the OECD issued its final report on BEPS Action 4 – Limiting Base Erosion Involving Interest Deductions and Other Financial Payments (Paper). In this Alert we consider the main issues, recommendations and options for taxation reform raised in the Paper and consider the… – Continue reading
China has pledged to promote a plan to stop multinational companies from avoiding taxes by shifting profits to destinations with lower corporate tax requirements. The plan was endorsed by G20 finance ministers Friday during the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Lima, Peru, reports… – Continue reading
Developing countries must continue raising more in domestic taxes while taking advantage of wider efforts to combat tax evasion by multinationals, the IMF/World Bank annual meetings were told. Liz Ditchburn, director of policy at the UK’s Department for International Development, said initiatives such as BEPS (base erosion and profit shifting),… – Continue reading
The Norwegian conservative government on 7 October 2015 published both the proposed state budget for 2016 and a “white paper” containing proposals for tax reform. The proposed tax reform in the white paper is a follow-up action from a report on tax reform, presented by the Tax Commission in late… – Continue reading
Group of Twenty (G-20) finance ministers have endorsed the final package of measures proposed by the OECD as part of its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. At a meeting on October 8, 2015, in Lima, Peru, the G-20 Finance Ministers said they remain commited to the rapid, widespread,… – Continue reading
Financial think tank and lobby group the New City Initiative has warned that regulation is destroying competition within the asset management industry. With several major regulatory changes due to be implemented in the next few years, the think tank has analysed the impact of the new rules on boutique asset… – Continue reading
Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Government will, in the light of stakeholders’ views collected during consultation, refine the legislative proposals for implementing in Hong Kong the new international standard on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (AEOI), a government spokesman said today (October 12). Hong Kong pledged… – Continue reading
Over 20 multinationals in Mexico should be paying tax, says Finance Secretary It has been dubbed “double non-taxation” and it’s an international practice that was the focus of discussion last week in Lima, Peru. It is also something that Mexico’s finance authorities want to see addressed. It was during a… – Continue reading
Both internal and external factors threaten politics, economics Hong Kong’s run of good luck is running out. One obvious sign is the increasing interference of Beijing in its domestic affairs, most recently using tame Chief Executive C.Y. Leung and a clique of yes-men to interfere in a senior academic appointment… – Continue reading
A blistering attack on major countries who brand offshore financial centres as tax havens has been launched by Bob Richards. The Minister of Finance warned that pressure on the offshore sector from abroad will continue into the foreseeable future. Mr Richards, speaking at the launch of a British Virgin Islands… – Continue reading
At the beginning of the week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—an international organization founded to advise industrial nations on economic policy—proposed a plan to address what has become an important international issue: tax avoidance. The OECD, in response to a request to look at the tax rules international… – Continue reading
A former head of Australia’s anti-money-laundering agency wants tough rules introduced to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for foreign corrupt funds. Despite credible warnings that large volumes of illicit money leaving China are being laundered in Australia, an investigation by ABC programme Four Corners has found no… – Continue reading
G20 finance ministers have endorsed a package of measures to tackle corporate tax avoidance, but questions remain about whether certain countries will follow through on the plans or leave loopholes multinationals can exploit. The ministers agreed to back proposals drawn up by the OECD, which aim to shake up rules… – Continue reading
KARACHI / ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday constituted an oversight committee to implement tax reforms, particularly proposed by the Tax Reforms Commission (TRC), which have so far been blocked by well-entrenched forces in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Finance Minister Ishaq Dar constituted the seven-member committee to be headed… – Continue reading
Staff at Facebook’s UK arm took home an average of more than £210,000 last year in pay and bonuses, while their employer paid just £4,327 in corporation tax. Facebook made an accounting loss of £28.5m in Britain in 2014, after paying out more than £35m to its 362 staff in… – Continue reading
NAIROBI: The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) deserves a special commendation for daring to aim high by targeting to raise Sh5.3 trillion in the next three years. The tax body aims to do this, not by raising taxes—as some would advise it to—but by bringing into the tax bracket 4.4 million… – Continue reading
The OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) final reports that focus on transfer pricing are comprised of a number of updates to different parts of existing OECD transfer pricing guidance. In particular, BEPS Actions 8-10 are designed to provide that transfer pricing outcomes are aligned with value creation, and… – Continue reading
The UK government released draft regulations for country-by-country (CbC) reporting, to implement Action 13 of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. The draft UK regulations broadly reflect the OECD reports, released 5 October 2015, and specifically make reference to the model legislation. Key points of the CbC… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority is moving forward with its plans for implementing the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The Cayman Islands was a signatory to CRS when released in October 2014. he Cayman Islands tax authority in September 2015 released a draft version of regulations—Tax Information Authority (International… – Continue reading
The CBDT has clarified that MAT provisions will not be applicable to those FIIs /FPIs which do not have a permanent establishment in India, for the period prior to 1 April 2015. An amendment to the IT Act will be made in the winter session of Parliament and directions have… – Continue reading
The hedge fund trade to gain exposure and then encourage a U.S. corporation to enter into an acquisition transaction with a foreign corporation where it incorporates internationally to lower its tax burden, known as a corporate inversion, might have slowed of late, but the issue is now being addressed at… – Continue reading
Keen to put in place a system to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the Commonwealth finance ministers’ meeting has reiterated the need for global implementation on a fully reciprocal automatic exchange of tax Information under Common Reporting Standards. Jaitley welcoming the final guidelines on… – Continue reading
As a newly-elected Australian lawmaker a decade ago, Malcolm Turnbull wrote an unsolicited 52-page proposal to reform the tax system. The report and its 281 recommendations were dismissed by the government and his costings called into question. Now, a month after replacing Tony Abbott as leader of the world’s 12th-largest… – Continue reading
NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — KPMG’s Tax Governance Institute (TGI) will examine the final recommendations from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) and discuss what they could mean for U.S. multinationals during a live video webcast on Tuesday, Oct…. – Continue reading
BARBADOS continues to be plagued by unjustified attacks from powerful nations, Prime Minister Freundel said yesterday as he confirmed two countries had moved to take Barbados off their tax haven blacklist. The Prime Minister told a two-day conference at the Hilton Barbados Resort, which forms part of International Business Week… – Continue reading
On October 5, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) unveiled the consensus plan reached by the Group of 20 and more than 40 other countries regarding its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. BEPS refers to tax-dodging tactics by multinationals that erode a home country’s tax base… – Continue reading
As a business leader, EY is proud to announce a seminar from its series of regulatory updates, aimed to keep stakeholders abreast of current changes in legislation. The FATCA and OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) seminar will be held on October 20, 2015 at the Hilton, St Julian’s between 08:30… – Continue reading
Emmanuel Mayah, Jeff Mbanga, Francis Kokutse and Nick Mathiason contributed to this joint investigation by the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) and Finance Uncovered, a global reporting project involving journalists in 54 countries. Shortly after Cyril Ramaphosa left MTN to become South Africa’s deputy president last year, he lashed… – Continue reading
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne suggested he’ll announce measures next month to enshrine in U.K. law an international plan to crack down on tax dodging. Osborne said Friday the so-called base-erosion and profit-shifting plan will be implemented by Britain at the “next fiscal event,” indicating it will form part… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The chief of India’s apex direct taxes body has said the era of tax avoidance will end with the implementation of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) regime, and that the tax department will have to gear up to take action against those attempting to avoid tax. “The… – Continue reading
The Swiss Government has tasked the Finance Ministry with responding to the OECD’s recommendations on base erosion and profit shifting. Welcoming the OECD’s proposals, the Council said: “In general, the project outcomes will allow for [the] better coordination of international tax law rules and make it possible to close the… – Continue reading
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Friday that the Obama administration would implement new rules that would lead to sharing business’s information with foreign governments. Lew praised the final recommendations from an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development project meant to battle offshore tax avoidance, saying there was a “critical need… – Continue reading
The fallout for Australian firms from the BEPS project “won’t be radical in Australia, as we have already moved pre-emptively to strengthen our laws,” Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer has said. Commenting on the release of the OECD’s final BEPS reports, O’Dwyer said: “The Coalition Government’s measures line up with the… – Continue reading
This French Tax Update will focus on (i) the main provisions of the draft Finance Bill for 2016 (Projet de loi de finance pour 2016) issued by the French Government on September 30, 2015 and to be discussed before the French Parliament between October and December (“Draft Finance Bill for… – Continue reading
EVENT OVERVIEW Globally, countries are campaigning for watertight tax regimes and gradually but definitely towards commercially driven business practices, and BEPS seems to be the way to it. Around 44 countries, including India, have come together to create a code to enable looking at transactions with a borderless lens for… – Continue reading
Corporate income tax Italian corporate income tax (imposta sul reddito delle società, or IRES) is due by resident companies on their worldwide income. A company is deemed to be resident within the Italian territory when it has any of the following elements located in Italy for the major part of… – Continue reading
