Corporate Tax Avoidance: Last week the news that Apple is considering buying Beats Electronics, a maker of expensive headphones that was founded by record mogul Jimmy Iovine and rap artist Dr Dre, for $3.2bn, got a lot of media attention. Dr Dre must have pissed-off Apple when he bragged on… – Continue reading
Prague, April 10 (CTK) – The number of Czech companies with owners based in destinations regarded as tax havens grew to 13,168 at the end of March, up by 68 from the end of last year, according to information from consulting company Bisnode. According to Bisnode, interest in tax havens… – Continue reading
MOSCOW, April 11 (Reuters) – Polyus Gold, Russia’s biggest gold miner, is considering state proposals to encourage the rebasing of Russian firms currently owned by offshore entities and intends to explore these issues with the government, the company said on Friday. The comments of the Jersey-registered company, whose share listing is… – Continue reading
India is set to scrap the R15-crore threshold for referring every international transaction between an MNC’s arms for compulsory transfer pricing audit, and about to embrace a more focused approach to zero in on cross-border transactions with potential for tax evasion. The proposed risk-based selection of transactions between MNC arms… – Continue reading
Introduction Article 10 of the Russia-Cyprus double tax agreement grants taxing rights over dividends to the state of residence of the company paying the dividends (in addition to the state of residence of the recipient). The tax that may be imposed in the state in which the dividends originate is… – Continue reading
The standard corporate income tax rate is 16%, applicable to both Romanian companies and to foreign companies operating through a permanent establishment in Romania. Profit repatriation In case of the Romanian company being set up as a subsidiary of a foreign company profits may be repatriated solely by way of… – Continue reading
On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing to discuss making permanent several of multinationals’ favorite tax code provisions, including the Apple loophole. Thus the House, like the Senate, is in the early stages of enacting these expired provisions yet again. That’s how Congress traditionally gives multinationals their offshore tax loopholes: propose… – Continue reading
IRELAND’s effective rate of corporation tax averaged between 10.7pc and 10.9pc over the last decade, a report by the Department of Finance states. It claims that the tax paid by companies is close to the 12.5pc headline rate, amid controversy over the amount paid by multinationals here. The Department commissioned… – Continue reading
If you asked financial professionals to list the world’s biggest “tax havens,” they would quickly identify some of the most obvious international financial centers. Switzerland would be on virtually every list, as would the Cayman Islands. Other logical choices would be Jersey and Luxembourg. But would anybody, if asked to… – Continue reading
We are a tax avoidance nation. Almost everyone employs some strategies to avoid paying more taxes than they should. So it’s hardly news to anyone, except Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, that Caterpillar Inc. may have employed some strategies to reduce the amount of federal taxes it pays. Levin, chairman of… – Continue reading
Irish Economy 2014: Ibec, Ireland’s leading business lobby group, in its latest economic forecast today forecasts “continued robust growth in services exports and a recovery in goods exports.” The strong growth in services mainly reflects tax-avoidance related revenue diversions to Ireland that do not reflect local economic activity. If the… – Continue reading
Commission proposal to clamp down on companies cheating tax by opening subsidiary companies in different member states supported by vast majority of MEPs. On Wednesday Labour MEPs were part of a very small minority of 32 MEPs who voted against a resolution backing the Commission’s proposal to tighten the Parent-Subsidiary… – Continue reading
PARIS — Netflix is set to follow iTunes and Google’s footsteps: The service is expected to launch in Gaul in the fall but will be headquartered Luxembourg in order to avoid the heavy French regulations. French newspaper Les Echos reported the move will bring Netflix’s French outpost together with its other European headquarters —… – Continue reading
The much-anticipated initial public offering of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group could be a double-edged sword for the company: Investors are drooling for a piece of the action in that country’s burgeoning online payment market, but its growing use in illegal transactions could attract scrutiny from Chinese government regulators. Alibaba,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Seeking to reduce litigations and promote foreign investments, the Income Tax department has signed Advance Pricing Agreements with 5 multinational firms and plans to enter into more such pacts. “We have signed 5 APAs so far. We will be signing more in the coming days. Foreign companies are eager to… – Continue reading
The U.S. and Indian competent authorities are famously at loggerheads over the principles to be applied in transfer-pricing double-tax cases. Some of the important issues involved are: the appropriate markup on costs for services; when and how to reward location savings; and whether marketing intangibles exist. Virtually all of these… – Continue reading
THE PENSIONS INDUSTRY may have been caught on the hop with George Osborne’s unexpected upheaval of the regime, but tax advisers didn’t get away scot-free. While Budgets have been more benign under the coalition government, advisers were caught out with revisions to the taxing of properties purchased within corporate wrappers. The… – Continue reading
Apple, amazon, and other digital item retailers will have to charge 20% VAT starting in 2015 A long-standing tax loophole has been available in the UK that allowed buyers of digital download products to pay fewer taxes on their purchases of digital books, music, and apps. That loophole has now… – Continue reading
As 2008 began, the future looked brilliant for green energy giant Suntech Power and its high-flying founder, Shi Zhengrong. Suntech was one of the world’s largest makers of solar panels, the first non-state-owned Chinese company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. And Shi, born to a farm family so… – Continue reading
Argentina’s tax agency head is meeting FIFA President Sepp Blatter today to tell him how soccer teams are evading taxes in the $3.7 billion player trading market. Ricardo Echegaray has traveled to the soccer ruling bodyâs headquarters in Zurich to inform Blatter that his agency has detected techniques used by… – Continue reading
More bits of information have emerged regarding China’s secretive, young billionaire Perenna Kei. After Forbes Magazine put Kei on their list of the world’s youngest billionaires, the search for details began. Most publications could not confirm her identity, as several photos were published mistakenly labeling Kei. A new photo of… – Continue reading
Tax Avoidance/ Evasion: On Wednesday George Osborne, UK chancellor, proposed new rules in his Budget 2014 statement to reduce the opportunities for rich individuals and companies to avoid or evade personal and corporate taxes. Also this week, two prominent US senators wrote to the Justice Department to seek extradition of about 30… – Continue reading
DESPITE George Osborne’s platitudes to last month’s G20 meeting in Australia – “It is not fair if big companies avoid their taxes by shifting their profits around artificially” – the Eye has discovered that the government has signed its most significant PFI deal to date (a new £190m children’s hospital… – Continue reading
With 5 April only a few weeks away, it is time for long-term UK residents to think about whether they are coming up to their deemed domicile date for UK inheritance tax purposes. Those who arrived between 6 April 1998 and 5 April 1999 will become deemed domiciled on 6… – Continue reading
Proposals to tighten the screws on users of tax avoidance schemes in next week’s Budget have sparked protests from wealthy investors and their advisers who say the measures would be retrospective and “completely contrary to natural justice”. Thousands of financiers, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and other wealthy users of tax avoidance schemes will potentially… – Continue reading
