International community continues making progress on tax transparency OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes issues 12 new reports. See here for background and resources on Information Exchange Bahamas claims FATCA exemption for foundations STEP "The … [Read more...]
Finance Sector
Links Apr 25
UK Prime Minister's letter to the Overseas Territories on beneficial ownership See also: Transparency call to 'tax havens' The Courier, recent TJN Blog On Britain’s new honesty box for corporate fraudsters, and Turks and Caicos Islands Considers Public Beneficial Ownership Register Tax-News … [Read more...]
Links Apr 24
India to provide info on US tax evaders Business Standard "However, US refuses to share data on foreign assets of Indian entities" … [Read more...]
On Britain’s new honesty box for corporate fraudsters.
From Prof. Prem Sikka: "Some 4,000 individuals appearing on international lists of alleged fraudsters, money launderers, terror financiers and corrupt officials were directors of UK registered companies in 2008 (the most recent data)." … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: William Browder, Russia and Ukraine
In an interview with The American Interest, looking at Ukraine and the looting of the former Soviet Union, the co-founder of Hermitage Capital speaks out - all guns blazing. There are any number of Quotes of the Day we could highlight - but we thought we'd choose this one, prompted by the … [Read more...]
Barclay promoting tax havens: protest at its AGM
Tomorrow (Thursday) Barclays Bank holds its Annual General Meeting in London. This will mark the culmination of ActionAid's ‘Clean Up Barclays’ campaign, which focuses on the bank’s promotion of the use of tax havens – notably Mauritius – for multinational companies looking to invest in Africa. … [Read more...]
Links Apr 22
G20 tax reform mired in shadowy world of lobbying The Conversation UK: The government has created a new honesty box for corporate fraudsters to disclose their crimes and I guarantee not one will Tax Research UK See also: Business Secretary Vince Cable presses ahead with public register on … [Read more...]
Links Apr 17
Comments received on discussion draft on Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy published OECD NY regulator subpoenas Credit Suisse in U.S. tax probe: source Reuters … [Read more...]
Links Apr 15
EU: Šemeta In Final EU Tax Harmonization Push Tax-News Offshore companies banned from Bulgarian agriculture land ownership farmlandgrab.org … [Read more...]
Links Apr 14
The BEPS Monitoring Group Submission to the OECD on the Digital Economy Rudolf Elmer's open letter to Mr. Martin Graf, Swiss Government Councillor See also our recent blog: Show trial of Swiss whistleblower Elmer now in 9th year, and Julius Baer to remain a boutique despite dramatic size … [Read more...]
Links Apr 11
Country-by-Country Template Won't Require Entity-by-Entity Financial Details, Andrus, Head of OECD's Transfer Pricing Unit Says Bloomberg BNA See recent TJN blog Submission to OECD on transfer pricing and developing countries … [Read more...]
Links Apr 10
Argentina tax chief Ricardo Etchegaray met with Swiss Ambassador La Nacion (In Spanish) Hat tip: Jorge Gaggero - the "tax cosmetics" continue. See also recent Guest blog: Should Argentina sign a tax treaty with Switzerland? … [Read more...]
Links Apr 9
UK demands exemption from EU trust registry plan STEP The UK government has confirmed that it will oppose clauses in the EU's Fourth Money Laundering Directive that would force all trusts to identify their beneficiaries in publicly accessible registries. … [Read more...]
Links Apr 8
Getting the rules right - Interview with John Christensen, executive director, Tax Justice Network Cayman Financial Review … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: offshore London
From Britain's Telegraph newspaper, an article entitled Cool London is dead, and the rich kids are to blame: "Tax empty houses? Why, no. We wouldn’t want to upset some ex-KGB thug who looted the Kazakh treasury in the mid 1990s. We wouldn’t want to annoy a banker who “honestly” didn’t know he … [Read more...]