Think tank targets key aspects of Republic’s role in multinationals’ tax affairs Key features of Ireland’s role in the tax affairs of major technology companies such as Google and Microsoft are being targeted by the OECD’s base-erosion and profit-shifting (Beps) project, it has emerged. Ideas being worked on by the… – Continue reading
Singapore’s Ministry of Finance say both parties enjoy “excellent cooperation” regarding tax matters, and have agreed to update the existing Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement as the next step. SINGAPORE: The Republic and Indonesia will be looking to increase cooperation on the sharing of tax information in the coming days,… – Continue reading
Last March MEPs voted overwhelmingly to introduce a new transparency disclosure rule that would compel all 28 European states to make publicly accessible the real owners of companies and trusts. The decision was hailed as a major breakthrough by anti-corruption campaigners fighting financial crime and tax abuse. Lawyers working for… – Continue reading
Unlike China, Japan‘s manufacturing activities rose in December. Flash PMI from HSBC came out at 52.1, up from 52 in November. A reading over 50 signals expansion. Meanwhile, the Nikkei newspaper reported that Japan’s government is considering lowering the corporate tax rate by 2.5 percentage points starting next April. Among… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Bilateral investment treaties that the government will enter into from now on will have a provision preventing foreign investors to drag India to arbitration on any issues that have been settled by a judicial authority. Wiser from being dragged to arbitration in numerous cases, such as the Vodafone… – Continue reading
Defending the interests of the Swiss banking industry has not been the easiest challenge in recent years, particularly when it comes to tax. The role has fallen for the last five years to Patrick Odier, chairman of the Swiss Bankers’ Association (SBA), which has 317 institutional members and about 18,500… – Continue reading
On 2 December 2014 the Cyprus finance minister and the American ambassador to Cyprus formally signed the intergovernmental agreement (“IGA”) between Cyprus and the USA under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), an American tax measure enacted in 2010 with the purpose of implementing mechanisms designed to prevent and… – Continue reading
With regards to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA); the Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) has strongly urged governments in the region, who have yet to complete the process towards a signed Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the USA to do so prior to 31 December, 2014. FATCA was… – Continue reading
Is it a straw in the wind? Last week’s report on tax reform from the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance has caused a flutter in the global expat community. Page 282 contained these words: “The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that… – Continue reading
While the media has been feasting on Lux Leaks and other stories of “multinational tax dodging”, academic accountants have determined that U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) have no particular tax advantage over U.S. domestic firms. In fact, a new study finds the average effective tax rate for U.S. MNCs is slightly… – Continue reading
HONG KONG (CNNMoney) — He left America at the age of seven, has never earned a penny there, but might owe the U.S. government $6,000 in taxes. Meet Elad Shahar, who was born in 1969 to Israeli parents in New York when his father was posted there for work. Anybody… – Continue reading
On December 1, 2014, Treasury and the IRS issued Announcement 2014-38 which provides relief to those countries which have reached FATCA Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) in substance, but have not signed such agreements. Background In 2012, Treasury and the IRS released Model 1 and Model 2 IGAs to implement the Foreign… – Continue reading
Vodafone India’s tax problems have once again worsened after a tribunal arbitrating a dispute ruled last week that the tax authorities have the power to demand the operator pay tax in a transfer-pricing case. The case involves the sale of a call-centre business back in 2007, from which the country’s… – Continue reading
The European Union’s new antitrust chief said the EU is braced for a legal battle with governments embroiled in its probe of sweetheart tax deals for multinationals from Apple Inc. (AAPL:US) to Amazon.com Inc. Margrethe Vestager said the process needs to be legally watertight as officials investigate whether deals handed… – Continue reading
Proposals which would introduce automatic criminal penalties for those who fail to declare taxable offshore income may “quietly disappear” following their omission from draft clauses for the 2015 Finance Bill published for consultation, an expert has said.15 Dec 2014 Tax Disputes and Investigations Tax Corporate tax Private wealth tax UK… – Continue reading
(MENAFN – Arab News) Ernst & Young one of the world’s leading professional services organizations hosted the 12th annual tax seminar on recent updates on Saudi Arabian zakat regulations and corporate income tax Law and its bye-laws in Jeddah on Thursday. Over 100 executives bankers and accountants attended this Seminar…. – Continue reading
If tax crimes remain civil in nature, foreign governments will not cooperate,” M.B. Shah, chairman of the Special Investigation Team on black money, said. Tax evasion needs to be made a serious “criminal offence” to force foreign countries to reveal names and account details of Indians stashing illicit wealth abroad,… – Continue reading
The latest World Bank quarterly report on Indonesia’s economy estimates that 50 percent of tax potential in the country remains untapped, causing the tax ratio — tax receipts as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) — to be very low at only 12 percent, among the lowest in the… – Continue reading
The debate on the goods and services tax (GST) in India has now grown beyond the merits of the tax and forayed into the question of its proper implementation. The unanimous support for the idea of a national tax seems to be based on the benefits of a nation-wide, single… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The capital market regulator has plugged the loophole that allowed savvy mutual fund investors to lower tax by bonus stripping. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has spelt out that it’s not in favour of fund houses launching new schemes with bonus option in their arbitrage funds…. – Continue reading
Something strange happened in 2014 — Americans became very interested in corporate tax policy. It started in the spring, when U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which produces blockbuster drugs like Lipitor and Viagra, floated a possible merger with its British-based rival AstraZeneca. Normally a merger of that size would make a… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has pocketed £32 million after demanding early payments of disputed tax from investors in suspected avoidance schemes. The taxman says this equates to 99% of disputed tax from the first tax avoidance scheme users to be issued with accelerated payment notices. HMRC said that 30… – Continue reading
A new standard that would help stamp out tax evasion by forcing multinationals to give governments details about their tax affairs has been uncosted by Treasury, the latest budget update shows. Under a plan agreed to at the G20 finance ministers meeting in Cairns held earlier this year and then… – Continue reading
In prior advisories, we have discussed the new withholding tax law commonly known as “FATCA” (standing for “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”). (See “FATCA’s July 1 Effective Date Has Arrived; Last-Minute Guidance Has Been Issued” and “Last Substantial Package of FATCA Regulations Released; Deadlines Approaching”.) To help implement FATCA, the… – Continue reading
A collection of valid points of view 1.The Island Editorial says 2. Further Analysis by Nalliah Thayabharan 3 More observations by Christie 4. Some more observations by Nimal 5. A Possible Solution by NeelaMahaYoda The Island Editorial says; “Opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena claims that the government leaders’ corrupt deals… – Continue reading
Law360, New York (December 15, 2014, 5:52 PM ET) — Coming guidance from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting project on the implementation of the country-by-country reporting of financial information for transfer-pricing purposes will seek to make those reports as broadly accessible to governments… – Continue reading
The government’s plans to implement a Diverted Profits Tax (DPT) have been questioned by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the body, said nobody wants profits that should be subject to UK tax “escape the net”. As a result, he believes it is… – Continue reading
Background On 15 December, 2014, the OECD hosted a webcast to update the global tax community on progress under the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) Plan. This year, the OECD produced 10 different reports (“BEPS Reports”) covering several actions specific to transfer pricing. This latest OECD webcast summarised efforts… – Continue reading
Given the publicity surrounding the practices of multinationals in structuring their affairs to minimise their tax liabilities, it is not completely surprising that the UK Government has chosen to act by introducing a new tax, called the Diverted Profits Tax (“DPT”), which applies at the rate of 25% (rather than… – Continue reading
They never really lived in U.S., but still have to pay taxes HONG KONG (CNNMoney) —He left America at the age of seven, has never earned a penny there, but might owe the U.S. government $6,000 in taxes. Meet Elad Shahar, who was born in 1969 to Israeli parents in… – Continue reading
Some of the best tax minds in the country agree on one thing: Corporate tax reform will be a very, very heavy lift. Sure, the White House and top lawmakers who will be in charge of writing tax law next year have signaled their openness to the idea. And, yes,… – Continue reading
Rome (dpa) – The head of Italy‘s tax office, Rossella Orlandi, on Monday criticized automaker Fiat‘s decision to move its tax residence to Britain after completing a merger with US peer Chrysler. “I would … like to stress that we need some sense of national pride. In Germany tax rates… – Continue reading
With the economy slowing, how will Treasurer Joe Hockey meet his target of doubling tax revenue collected from super funds by 2018? Joe Hockey’s budget update shows that he expects to collect enough money from taxes on superannuation that it will offset the loss of revenue from other taxes. The… – Continue reading
A bill filed in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes to reform the tax code and attract new money for transportation and other infrastructure. The bill filed by U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., would create incentives for U.S. corporations to bring back profits stored in offshore accounts and invest it… – Continue reading
At its Fall Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee on December 11-12, the MTC’s Executive Committee voted to formally contact states to solidify whether there is sufficient financial commitment to fund any potential MTC transfer pricing program. The MTC also formally announced that Iowa, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island will join the MTC… – Continue reading
JAKARTA, Dec 15 — Indonesia and Singapore have agreed to step up efforts to share tax-related information to tighten loopholes on tax evasion in each other’s countries, Indonesia’s finance ministry said. The commitment came after Indonesia’ Finance Minister met his counterpart Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Singapore today, the ministry said in… – Continue reading
1. The traditional attitude to tax avoidance is encapsulated in the judgment of Lord Tomlin in the English case of IRC v Duke of Westminster (1936): “Every man is entitled if he can to arrange his affairs so that the tax attaching under the appropriate Acts is less than it… – Continue reading
Gains derived from the sale of Mexican public debt instruments listed abroad between two foreign tax residents will soon be exempt from Mexican tax. Currently, for Mexican income tax purposes, any gains derived from the transfer of publicly-traded bonds, securities and other credit instruments are treated as interest. If the… – Continue reading
The wise thing is to forget the past, bring reforms to prevent generation of black money Considering other man’s point of view is Decency — George Orwell This quality seems to be in short supply in India although it is the most needed even to understand any black money retrieval…. – Continue reading
IN TAX, the latest global buzzword is “BEPS” or base erosion and profit shifting. BEPS refers to the practice of multinational corporations (MNCs) of shifting profits from high tax jurisdictions to low tax jurisdictions as a tax mitigation strategy. In February 2013, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)… – Continue reading
Around the world, countries are desperately seeking ways to stop multinational companies from earning profits within their borders without paying taxes on them, while stashing trillions in tax havens like the Cayman Islands. The British government, after a search, says it knows how to tax the profits Google earns in… – Continue reading
After multiple revisions of a controversial law, the government is adamant that its citizenship-by-investment programme only provides Maltese nationality to people who establish a genuine link to the country. But there may be hundreds of thousands of tourists in any given year who establish stronger links to Malta than many… – Continue reading
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is suffering massive revenue loss of Rs 361 billion per annum on account of estimated tax expenditure in direct taxes, ie, equivalent to 1.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a result of exemptions and concessions to various sectors. Former Finance Minister… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: A major reshuffle has been effected in the CBDT, with the board’s Chairperson Anita Kapur deciding to assume exclusive charge of Income-Tax department investigations in order to personally spearhead ongoing probes into cases of tax evasion and blackmoney. The charge of I-T investigations, usually, is handled by a… – Continue reading
Dubai: Hong Kong and the UAE will soon start negotiations to sign an investor protection agreement on a bi-lateral basis, John C Tsang, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong told Gulf News during his visit to the UAE. “The agreement will create a lot more comfort for people who are investing… – Continue reading
Just how the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is impacting on the lives of Americans in sometimes unintended is illustrated in the tax troubles of the Mayor of London. Boris Johnson, a former British MP, has dual British and US nationality. He was born in New York but… – Continue reading
The Income Tax Department has informed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money that prosecution proceedings for non-furnishing of account details by Indians stashing black money abroad are in progress in 27 cases (under Section 276 D of the I-T Act) and has even filed a case in court… – Continue reading
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that Moscow does not intend to “physically drag money” to Russia in the framework of amnesty for capital returning to country suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin. MOSCOW, December 13 (Sputnik) — Moscow does not intend to “physically drag money” to Russia in the… – Continue reading
As multinationals are forced to reveal more about themselves, where should the limits of transparency lie? HOWARD SCHULTZ, the head of Starbucks, said last year that “the currency of leadership is transparency.” If so, bosses should be feeling ever more qualified to command their troops. Business is being forced to… – Continue reading
Fiji is looking at reviewing its existing taxation agreements with other countries in the coming months. Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority chief executive, Jitoko Tikolevu, said these reviews are long overdue. As a consequence, negotiations for the review of Fiji’s Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with Malaysia was completed this week…. – Continue reading
