The Canadian Government has explained how it will incorporate into its tax agreements new provisions to counter base erosion and profit shifting, having signed the OECD’s multilateral instrument on tackling treaty abuse. The Canadian Government said that the minimum standards consist of the inclusion in existing treaties of a new… – 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
‘Misleading media reports’ Ingenious Film has hit out at “misleading” press reports on its ongoing tax court case and criticised HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for painting its partnerships “as nothing more than tax avoidance vehicles”. The film production partnership firm has been in an ongoing court dispute with HM… – Continue reading
New Act due to come into force in September International risk and compliance firm Cordium has launched a solution to help advisory firms cope with the demands of the Criminal Finances Act, which will introduce stricter laws on tax evasion. The incoming law, which is expected to come into force… – Continue reading
The United States could boost its standard of living by 6 to 9 percent using one simple trick, a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found. OK, so it’s not really that simple, if we’re being honest: The trick is fundamentally turning around the way we tax… – Continue reading
GOVERNMENT has a bill on the Parliament agenda allowing for automatic extradition for people wanted for tax evasion in foreign jurisdictions, announced Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi. He said on the Parliament agenda there is a miscellaneous bill to deal with allowing prosecution of tax evasion matters in a reciprocal arrangement… – Continue reading
MOSCOW — Some of Russia’s super-rich have given up residency to escape a 2014 law requiring them to disclose offshore assets, wealthy businessmen told Reuters, a practice that could keep billions of dollars hidden from Moscow’s tax authorities. Interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the practice —… – 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 amount of disputed tax relating to the transfer pricing of the U.K.’s largest businesses has risen 60 percent in the past year, according to law firm Pinsent Masons. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the U.K.’s tax authority, is reviewing as much as 3.8 billion pounds ($4.9 billion) of large… – Continue reading
Dutch tax authorities will publicly disclose the type and number of rulings awarded to corporations every year, the country’s deputy finance minister pledged. Eric Wiebes said during a June 1 plenary debate in the House of Representatives that he would require the country’s tax administration to issue an annual report… – 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
Tax experts have highlighted the increasing importance of substance in the fund management sector in view of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project recommendations. The OECD’s recommendations, among other things, aim to realign taxation with economic substance and value creation, while preventing double taxation. Speaking at the… – 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
Taxpayers laundering tax-evaded money through gifts received fromparents, siblings and spouses who are out of tax net or have no known sources of income ISLAMABAD: The Anti Money Laundering Cell of the Directorate General of Intelligence & Investigation, Islamabad has started investigating cases of money laundering committed through gift back… – Continue reading
Most online transactions in Vietnam involve cash, which is difficult to track and tax. District tax departments in Ho Chi Minh City have sent out tax demands to nearly 13,500 Facebook retailers in a move to target tax avoidance by online businesses. Since February, Vietnam’s tax authorities have been looking… – Continue reading
THE Philippines and Mexico have discussed new ways to further improve trade and investment cooperation, and avoid incidents of double taxation, the Department of Finance (DoF) said. A recent meeting between Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd and Mexican Ambassador to Manila Julio Camarena Villaseñor focused on Mexico’s concerns regarding a… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has presented his plan B for a new corporate tax after the last attempt at a change to the law was thrown out by voters. The plan includes raising family allowances in a move seen as sweetening the pill for voters, who overwhelmingly rejected the previous… – Continue reading
The first set of ‘hidden’ financial data about Britons living abroad is set to be handed to the UK’s Revenue & Customs later today, as part of the global transparency drive that has been introduced via a series of information sharing agreements across the world’s financial centres. As a result,… – 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
Amendments to Cook Islands tax laws are expected to be made next month. The changes would allow government to write-off some tax debts and forgive companies or individuals any undeclared income. Describing the changes as a tax amnesty the Finance minister Mark Browne said the government had made a commitment… – Continue reading
Hon Judith Collins Minister of Revenue 1 June 2017 Automatic exchange of financial information to begin in New Zealand Revenue Minister Judith Collins has today welcomed the start of Inland Revenue’s information campaign on the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) which is part of the OECD-led effort to combat tax… – 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
A top personal tax rate of 49.5 per cent will hasten the trend for multinationals to base their operations in Asia rather than Australia, according to recruiters and tax specialists. “There is no doubt higher taxes make Australia a less attractive country for international executives who can just as easily… – 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
Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay $41 million to settle Federal Reserve allegations that its U.S. operations failed to maintain adequate protections against money laundering, the latest in a string of fines that have cost the German lender billions of dollars. The Frankfurt-based bank’s U.S. operations fell short in complying… – Continue reading
Some 9 million Americans reside abroad. More than 4 in 10 wouldn’t rule out renouncing U.S. citizenship, according to a survey. Americans abroad have just about had it with Uncle Sam’s tax filing requirements. Those were the findings from a recent survey of more than 2,100 U.S. expatriates, according to… – Continue reading
Transferring wealth to a spouse who isn’t a U.S. citizen can create complex gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax challenges. Such transfer tax issues require careful planning, as well as a clear understanding of the differences in how citizens and non-citizens are taxed. Unlike citizens and resident aliens, a non-resident… – Continue reading
May 30 Germany and France hope to agree proposals for a common corporation tax system before the French National Assembly elections in June, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said at a Berlin tax conference on Tuesday. “We’re having another go at agreeing not just common principles on corporate taxation, but… – 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
The Government yesterday moved to prevent the “devastating” consequences of a financial services ‘blacklisting’ by confirming its readiness to alter the Bahamas’ automatic tax information exchange approach. A Ministry of Finance statement, issued yesterday evening, said the Minnis administration had “formally indicated its interest” to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation… – Continue reading
The Government yesterday moved to prevent the “devastating” consequences of a financial services ‘blacklisting’ by confirming its readiness to alter the Bahamas’ automatic tax information exchange approach. #A Ministry of Finance statement, issued yesterday evening, said the Minnis administration had “formally indicated its interest” to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation… – Continue reading
Pretoria – South African financial institutions, which include banks, long-term insurers and asset managers, will have to exchange financial account information in terms of the common reporting standard for the first time this year. Financial institutions, although having to do similar exchanges in terms of the US’s Foreign Account Tax… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will travel to Paris next week to sign the OECD multilateral convention that aims to check crossborder tax evasion by multinational companies. During his three-day visit beginning June 7, Jaitley will also attend the OECD Ministerial Council meeting, in which ministers from the OECD and partner… – Continue reading
Japan and Iceland have agreed in principle to sign a convention aimed at eliminating international double taxation and preventing tax evasion, the Japanese Finance Ministry said Monday. The convention is hoping to boost mutual investment and encourage economic exchange, the ministry said. After signing, the convention is expected to come… – Continue reading
Common Reporting Standard The Government of the British Virgin Islands (“BVI“) has recently announced an extension to the deadlines for the notification and reporting obligations under the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS“). Under the extended deadlines for CRS, all BVI Reporting Financial Institutions now have until 30 June 2017 to enrol… – Continue reading
The agreed rules will stop companies from escaping tax by exploiting the mismatches between Member States’ and non-EU countries’ tax systems (“hybrid mismatches”). Today’s (29 May) agreement completes the Anti Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD) which ensures that binding and robust anti-abuse measures are applied throughout the Single Market. “Our campaign… – Continue reading
KARACHI: The rate of withholding tax for non-filers against the winning amount on prize bonds has been increased to 25 percent from the existing 20 percent. The government through the Finance Bill, 2017 has proposed stern measures for non-filers in order to broaden the tax base and generate revenue. In… – Continue reading
The WTO has published its fifth review of the trade policies and practices of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, in which it noted that the trade regimes in both countries remain generally open. Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Chairman of the WTO’s Trade Policy Review Body, commented: “On the positive side, the trade and… – Continue reading
You may be liable for capital gains tax. Here’s how. There is a common misconception that the sale of a person’s primary residence will never result in capital gains tax being payable; this is incorrect. For most taxpayers the sale of a primary residence will not result in a taxable… – Continue reading
On Friday, a variety of news outlets around the world published the Malta Files, a cache of 150,000 documents leaked “from a Malta-based provider of legal, financial and corporate services,” revealing, among other things, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was secretly given a $25M oil tanker (!) by Azeri… – Continue reading
The finance minister says federal government doesn’t “want to wait for the next Panama Papers.” Canada’s finance minister denounced “unfair” tax loopholes on Thursday and put Bay St. on notice that the Liberal government is committed to addressing “blind spots” and exposing shadowy corporate finances to public scrutiny. “We don’t… – Continue reading
Kosovo and Switzerland signed on Friday an agreement regulating taxation of income and capital, which is beneficial for both countries, the Swiss federal government said. Under the agreement on double taxation dividends will be taxed at source at a maximum rate of 15%, while qualified participations – at no more… – Continue reading
The Hungarian parliament has approved an increase to the country’s advertising tax, despite concerns that the measure breaches European Union state aid rules. The new legislation increases the advertising revenues tax from 5.3 percent to 7.5 percent beginning July 1, 2017. However, because companies do not pay the tax on… – Continue reading
