It is important that the Brisbane G20 Summit on Nov. 15–16 is a success. In an increasingly integrated global economy, effective forums for economic cooperation are needed. The 2008 global financial crisis was the catalyst for the G20 becoming a leaders’-level forum. The Washington, London, and Pittsburgh summits helped save… – Continue reading
Given a choice of priority, should Indian authorities be chasing black money in circulation within the country or the illicit billions held in foreign banks? It is a nobrainer. Money whisked away abroad is tiny compared with the unaccounted money within India. Yet, the political system has long been barking… – Continue reading
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times New Delhi, October 29, 2014 First Published: 09:16 IST(29/10/2014) | Last Updated: 10:26 IST(30/10/2014) The government on Wednesday submitted a list of 627 Indians holding accounts in HSBC Bank, Geneva, to the Supreme Court, which directed its special investigating team (SIT) to examine them and take… – Continue reading
On Monday when the Centre revealed the names of Indians with bank accounts in Switzerland, a customary call to a chartered accountant made sense. Straight up, the question was how to make sure that a person be financially healthy and disciplined, without having back-of-the-mind worries of the tax man knocking… – Continue reading
23/10/14 – After a comprehensive review in October 2012, the OECD Working Group on Bribery asked France, through a series of concrete recommendations, to intensify its actions to fight the bribery of foreign public officials and undertake important reforms. In October 2014, the Working Group welcomed several significant reforms, including:… – Continue reading
Bombay High Court holds that shares issued at a premium by a resident entity to a non-resident entity is a capital account transaction and does not give rise to any income; Income arising from an International Transaction between AEs must satisfy the test of ‘income; as provided under the ITA… – Continue reading
The revenue implications for South Africa of ‘base erosion and profit shifting’ by corporate taxpayers are firmly in the crosshairs of the Davis Tax Committee (DTC) and Judge Dennis Davis hinted on Monday that recommendations were being considered to “detect and deter” tax-avoiding financial flows. Speaking at a G20 study… – Continue reading
These crimes hinder the development of societies, prevent strengthening the legitimacy of democracy SANTIAGO — Corruption and tax evasion are flagrant violations of human rights in Latin America, where they contribute to inequality and injustice in the countries of the region, according to studies and experts consulted by IPS. “Tax… – Continue reading
Some 19 British firms are at the center of an investigation into in a mammoth global money-laundering operation. The scheme was allegedly contrived to make $20bn (£12.5bn) worth of ill-gotten gains appear legitimate. The illicit funds are thought to have originated from criminal gangs and corrupt officials across the globe,… – Continue reading
Compliance is China’s latest Hot Topic. Until recently, many Western managers accepted that some flexibility on legal issues was needed to thrive in the complex Chinese legal environment. Practices to strengthen relationships such as luxurious dinners and karaoke evenings, sponsored travel, red-pocket money and the like, have often been regarded… – Continue reading
Finance Minister Boris Lalovac has expressed his satisfaction with the numerous meetings he held during his visit to the United States where he attended the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Fund earlier this week. During their visit to Washington, representatives of the Finance Ministry and the… – Continue reading
Yahoo! just made about $9 billion in cash from Alibaba Group’s initial public offering, and investors are licking their lips at the thought of how Marissa Mayer might spend it. Snapchat? AOL? Well, here’s one area you shouldn’t expect her to invest in: offshoring more jobs to India. The company… – Continue reading
Indonesia’s tax chief is pushing for access to personal bank accounts and wants to track car and home purchases in his fight to catch evaders and boost revenue. The department is asking parliament to amend the banking law to give it the right to get lenders to reveal customer account… – Continue reading
The World Bank analysed the world’s biggest corruption scandals over that past two decades. Seventy per cent involved anonymous shell companies Take a guess at how much is lost to developing countries each year through international corruption? $1 billion, maybe $10? Even more? The shocking truth is that $1trn a… – Continue reading
A member of FIFA’s financial watchdog panel has been temporarily suspended while implicated in the Cayman Islands corruption investigation. Canover Watson was questioned last month by police anti-corruption and financial crime units in his native Cayman Islands on suspicion of corruption and money-laundering. He denies wrongdoing. FIFA said audit committee chairman… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3fbed922-3d51-11e4-871d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3Eo63WbfR The British Virgin Islands has long attracted Chinese companies looking to… – Continue reading
ALTHOUGH Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa’s 2014 Fiscal Policy Review statement announced last week seeks to widen government’s revenue inflows, analysts contend that there is need to seriously curb illicit financial flows (IFFs) from Zimbabwe if the economy is to experience the anticipated growth. Illicit financial flows through tax evasion, bribery,… – Continue reading
A contingent of so-called “corrupt clients” from Canada have been caught in the net of a massive fraud investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney, a source close to the investigation told CBC. CBC News reported Wednesday that two Canadians, along with four others, were indicted in the U.S…. – Continue reading
FIFA’s financial monitoring panel has asked one of its members to explain his arrest in a corruption case. Canover Watson was detained in his native Cayman Islands on Aug. 28 by police anti-corruption and financial crime units. Local media reported that Watson was quizzed about alleged money laundering and abuse… – Continue reading
(Seychelles News Agency) – The Seychelles has become an early adopter of an agreement launched by the G5 group of countries – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – to automatically disclose details of individuals who have taxable income kept in offshore accounts. According to a press statement by Her Majesty’s… – Continue reading
Mention financial secrecy at the dinner table ten years ago and you would most likely have been greeted with a blank stare. Tax evasion in particular was a subject matter deemed largely the preserve of accountants and frustrated FBI men seeking circuitous ways to prosecute mobsters. These days, though, the… – Continue reading
Last year, $20 trillion disappeared into secret off-shore tax havens across the world — an amount that can save 3.6 million lives annually. A study conducted by the UK-based NGO, ONE, has found that corruption, tax evasion and corporate malpractices is leading to monetary losses of the scale that could… – Continue reading
Anonymous shell companies and shady natural resources deals targeted in report that calls on G20 to drive for transparency G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Moscow, July 2013. ONE is calling on the group to stop the corruption that is costing the developing world billions. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty… – Continue reading
In Beezadhur v The Independent Commission against Corruption and anor [2014] UKPC 27, the Privy Council dismissed an appeal by a retired nurse who was charged with and found guilty by the Intermediate Court of Mauritius of five offences under sections 5(1) and 8 of the Financial and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2002… – Continue reading
With new laws in place, recovery from Swiss banks can be little easier provided the government shows sincerity in taking action against tax dodgers Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in recent days has expressed the government’s firm conviction to bring back untaxed money of “US$ 200 billion” stashed in… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The world’s richest nations must toughen their laws against money laundering, tax havens and tax evasion if a global drive against corruption and illicit finance is to deliver results, senior African diplomats said on Thursday. “There are two sides to this coin. If there were… – Continue reading
A new Spanish game for mobile phones and tablets is giving Spaniards the chance to poke fun at a formerly revered Catalan politician who has had a rapid fall from grace. Just days after the former president of Spain’s Catalonia region Jordi Pujol shocked Spain with news that he and… – Continue reading
Ex-Catalan premier Jordi Pujol is to be stripped of his honorary privileges after admitting to 34-years’ worth of tax evasion. He ruled the region for 23 years and as such earns an annual pension of over 86,000 euro; has an official car; and is honorary president of the CDC pro-independence… – Continue reading
Poor countries are losing almost $1 trillion a year to illicit financial flows like tax evasion, money laundering and bribery, which would be enough to put an end to all preventable child deaths by the end of next decade, a new report says. If the money from those illicit flows was invested… – Continue reading
A rights group is suing Nigeria’s president and attorney general for dropping corruption charges against the son of the former military dictator accused of helping to launder millions in stolen funds. The government last month withdrew charges against Mohammad Abacha in a deal that saw $227 million looted by Gen…. – Continue reading
The 2010 Foreign account tax compliance act represents a significant initiative by the United States to tackle offshore tax evasion. But it has not been popular with Chinese authorities, especially the banking sector, in part because it was considered an extra burden. Why should it obligate itself to do such… – Continue reading
Christian leaders representing over 1 billion people from 170 nations have sent an Open Letter to heads of the G20, calling for urgent action on corruption and tax evasion. This historic anti-corruption initiative by the global Church comes at a decisive political moment as finance ministers meet in Australia ahead… – Continue reading
A Moscow City Hall official confronted with allegations of illegal business activity has sued his accuser, whistle-blowing blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny. Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov, who oversees transportation in Moscow, announced via Facebook on Thursday that he had sued Navalny for an unspecified sum. Data made publicly available… – Continue reading
GENEVA, June 4 (Reuters) – Switzerland is working hard to prevent ill-gotten assets of corrupt leaders from reaching Swiss bank coffers and an international clampdown on tax evasion could help the campaign, a senior Swiss foreign ministry official said on Wednesday. Swiss authorities are already working closely with Egyptian counterparts… – Continue reading
Kiev, Ukraine: On paper, the Ukrainian trading firm known as Mistral dealt in management consulting and research, doing millions of dollars’ worth of deals before going bust after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was chased out of office earlier this year.But when police recently tried to visit Mistral’s Kiev office at No…. – Continue reading
Impala Platinum Holdings Limited has rejected claims that the platinum mining companies have been involved in tax evasion activities. Implats refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms and views the inflammatory and unsubstantiated allegation of criminal behaviour in a very serious light,” spokesman Johan Theron said on Thursday. “We… – Continue reading
African countries are losing up to 12.7% of their national GDP due to shady practices in international trade. Global Financial Integrity, a Washington DC-based think-tank, reports that $542bn (£321bn) worth of capital was lost from Africa in illicit capital flows and estimates that almost 80% of this coming through “trade… – Continue reading
Calls for crackdown as investigation finds huge Indonesian corporations evading tax through network of secret shell companies in British Virgin Islands and other tax havens Giant Asian logging companies that make billions from destroying rainforests use a labyrinth of secret shell companies based in a UK overseas territory, the British Virgin… – Continue reading
People who used to know young billionaire-in-exile Serhiy Kurchenko say that if he ever started drawing his financial “chain” on a piece of paper, it would finish up on the ceiling. Kurchenko’s chain is made up of hundreds of fake Ukrainian companies, dozens of offshore firmsand more than 600 people who… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS: While the origin of illicit financial flows ranges from government embezzlement to human trafficking, and from corporate tax evasion to grand corruption, the destination seems less ambiguous. A $35 million mansion in California, artwork totalling 18 million, and a $38 million dollar private jet. These sound like items purchased… – Continue reading
STUDIES show multinationals shift profits of $365bn a year from developing to developed countries through transfer pricing mechanisms, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) said on Tuesday. Over three years South Africa has seen “hundreds of billions of rand” leaving in royalties, management and service fees and intellectual property payments,… – Continue reading
The young Ukrainian ex-billionaire Serhiy Kurchenko, now widely suspected of being a front man for overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych’s family, clearly liked offshore destinations. His companies registered in offshore zones are now accused of trading in oil products using a tax evasion scheme that cost Ukraine’s government an estimated $1… – Continue reading
The European Union says it is freezing the financial assets in Europe of 18 Ukrainians it says misused the Kyiv government’s state funds. The EU’s foreign ministers approved the list Wednesday but withheld the names for a day before their official publication in the EU’s legal journal, so the Ukrainians… – Continue reading
Much brouhaha has been created by the recent reports about the Vodafone Tax case with respect to whether or not a capital gains tax is due from them on the purchase of assets in India. New lexicon has been created for the uninitiated – “tax avoidance” versus “tax evasion”; “look… – Continue reading
Fugitive mainland Chinese tycoon Zeng Wei, who is facing extradition to Hong Kong from the United States, is tied to at least five offshore companies, including one that was involved in a multimillion-dollar bribes-for-loans racket investigated by the ICAC, leaked company documents show. The property developer, hotel and golf course… – Continue reading
Swiss bank UBS is at the centre of embarrassing revelations that it helped to set up a secretive offshore firm for the wife and daughter of a former senior Chinese official who has since been convicted of corruption. Zhang Shuguang, a former deputy chief engineer of the disbanded railways ministry,… – Continue reading
