...companies (MNCs) you are subjected to a tax. Certain offshore jurisdiction around the globe offers lower tax rates and other tax features. It is designed to attract domestic and foreign investors seeking an opportunity to game the tax code and maximize profits. The Canada Revenue Agency has defined Tax Havens as jurisdictions with no tax, or very low rates of taxation; strict bank secrecy provisions; a lack of transparency in the operation of its tax system, and a lack of effective exchange of information with other countries. As shown in (Desai, Foley, and Hines Jr 2004), examples of such Tax Havens include Ireland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and various Caribbean island nations in America. According to Tax Justice Networks 2012 report, approximately USD $21 trillion to $32 trillion is sheltered from taxes in unreported Tax Havens worldwide. Canada has suffered tax revenue loss of $7.8 Billion annually as a result of Tax Havens (Canadians for Tax Fairness [CTF], 2013). In 2007, US president Barack Obama and his Senators C.Laevin and N.Coleman noted “Offshore Tax Havens have declared economic war on honest U.S. taxpayers”. Apple is among 82 of the top 100 publicly traded U.S. companies that operate subsidiaries in Tax Haven jurisdiction as of 2012 (U.S.PIRG, 2012). Every dollar in taxes that MNCs and top tier wealthy individuals avoid by using Tax Havens must be balanced by those honest taxpayers paying higher taxes. Every contribution in tax is reflected in our infrastructure...
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...Indian Black Money Abroad In Secret Banks and Tax Havens Second Report Of The Task Force on the steps to be taken by India Members Shri Gurumurthy, Chartered Accountant, Chennai Shri Ajit Doval, former Director Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Prof R.Vaidyanathan, Professor of Finance Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore Shri Mahesh Jethmalani, Senior Advocate, Mumbai Submitted to BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY 1 I. The First Interim Report The first Interim Report of the Task Force appointed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was released to the public on 17-04-2009. Afterward different world governments, particularly those in the West, have increasingly begun targeting tax havens and intensely began pursuing black money. The US, and France particularly began a huge campaign against the evil of black money. The estimates black money lodged in tax havens by global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund reached as high as $18 trillion. The instability in the global financial order itself was traced to the evil money. So the issue has now acquired a totally different dimension. In the first Interim Report, the Task Force had suggested broad national and global strategy for dealing with the menace of black money out of the country. The substance of the recommendations of the Task Force in the First Interim Report is summarized here: Global Strategy: • Creating a powerful public opinion and broad national consensus on the issue. Those who do not...
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...OFF SHORE FINANCIAL CENTRES Commercial Law Irene González Campos ZAGREB SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT Content DEFINITION 3 HISTORY 3 CHARACTERISTICS 4 REGULATION 5 CONCLUSION 6 References 7 DEFINITION First of all, it needed to be said that a financial centre is defined as a city or district that has a heavy concentration of financial institutions, that offers a highly developed commercial and communications infrastructure, and where a great number of domestic and international trading transactions are conducted (Business Dictionary, n.d.). London, New York, and Tokyo are the world's premier financial centres. It may be distinguish two types of financial centres: those such as London or New York, which are ‘international financial centres’ and which are excluded from the definition of extraterritorial centres. These latest are called ‘Offshore financial centres’, where the activity takes place outside the residence of the natural person. Despite its name, the off-shore centres are not necessary islands, although several insular jurisdictions have been established as such. First of all, an off-shore centre is a small, law-taxes jurisdiction specializing in providing corporate and commercial services to non-resident offshore companies, by offering: i) Liberal legislation regarding financial transaction ii) Very low taxes rates Therefore, off shore companies are those legal entities incorporated and registered in an offshore financial centre...
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...Well your multinational companies do what we call treaty shopping to find out what taxes each country has that will affect the bottom line of the company. In this paper it will define international taxation, define treaty shopping, and define tax haven and what factors that a multinational company looks at that effect the placement of the company’s headquarters. In today’s society more and more corporations want to go international or become a multinational corporation, at the same time there is a growing concern on different tax laws of the different countries. To have a complete understanding of multinational taxation we must first define what international taxation. According to Wikipedia “International taxation is the study or determination of tax on a person or business subject to the tax laws of different countries or the international aspects of an individual country's tax laws. (Unknown, 2012)” The governments of the different countries make up the different tax laws base on if it is residential or commercial income. Some countries have a taxation system in place while other does not. The biggest is to know where to look for those taxations. In order for corporations that want to go international they must secondly do some research on the different countries taxes. In order to figure out the different taxes the corporations that are going multinational they must first look into the treaties of the county. This is where most or all the different rules of the different...
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...paper seeks to glean an understanding of corporate tax shelters, in respect to legal and ethical considerations. Tax shelters are often viewed with negative connotations, yet the general public holds different perceptions of the various classifications of tax shelters, tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight (Kirchler, Maciejovsky, & Schneider, 2003). While this suggests a tolerance based on legal concerns, there exists a growing accountability for corporate social responsibility, “whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities, and others stakeholders, as well as their environment” (Guliani, 2014, p. 1117). Part of this includes, “companies paying their due taxes and obeying the law” (Guliani, 2014, p. 1120). In order to analyze the ethicality of tax shelters, this paper will introduce a variety of corporate tax shelters, discuss corporate tax shelters in relation to tax avoidance and tax evasion, explore the impact of corporate tax shelters on stakeholders, and examine the affect corporate social responsibility has on tax liability. A Legal and Ethical Examination of Corporate Tax Shelters As each business embarks on a pursuit for profit, companies often find opportunities to reduce tax liabilities in the form of corporate tax shelters. Corporations should be aware that when reducing tax liability, they must consider the legality and the...
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... Role in International Tax Policy A Research and Policy Brief for the Use of the NGO Committee on Financing for Development Hamrawit Abebe, Ryan Dugan, Michael McShane, Julie Mellin, Tara Patel, and Linda Patentas Graduate Program in International Affairs, Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, The New School March 7, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BACKGROUND AND PERSPECTIVES BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS THE OECD, G77, G20, AND EU ON UPGRADING THE UN TAX COMMITTEE KEY INSTITUTIONAL PLAYERS ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST A UN TAX BODY 3 4 8 12 17 REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OECD AND UN TAX COMMITTEE GLOBAL TAX POLICIES POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 20 28 38 APPENDIX GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS REFERENCES 44 48 52 2 Executive Summary The report provides an analytical view on the role of the United Nations in tax policy, highlighting the interventions made by and challenges to key players in attempts to streamline global tax cooperation. The first section of the paper provides a background on the importance of tax related issues, emphasizing its importance within the Monterrey Consensus. Debates are introduced between two key institutional players regarding global tax cooperation, the OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs and the UN Tax Committee. Views from key players the OECD, Group of 77, Group of 20, and European Union are addressed in the areas of international tax cooperation, the inclusion...
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...increase in cross border transactions in the era of globalised world there has been increase in the number of cases tax evasion & avoidance. The problem of tax evasion in developing countries is therefore exacerbated, where evasion even by a wealthy few can have a comparatively large impact. The revenue needs of developing countries, in combination with the severity of corruption, tax evasion and fraud in many developing countries, highlight the importance of increasing global transparency concerning the location of untaxed wealth. Globalization and the liberalization of economic activity, resulting in the exponential increase in cross border commercial and financial transactions, has in effect converted the private sector into a world without borders. This has created a major problem for national tax authorities because globalization in the private sector has not been accompanied by similar changes in the reach and enforcement powers of national tax authorities. 1.2 In confronting the impact of globalization and liberalization of economies, national tax authorities face several problems. Some of them are illustrated below: 1. National tax authorities has administration of one national government. 2. There is no concept of International tax administration yet. 3. There is a traditional legal rule that one government does not enforce the tax laws of other governments. 4. Bank secrecy and other confidentiality laws (“de jure bank secrecy”) in many jurisdictions...
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...This is so shocking.. ..If black money deposits was an Olympics event.. India would have won a gold medal hands down. The second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. U.S. is not even there in the counting in top five! India has more money in Swiss banks than all the other countries combined! Recently, due to international pressure, the Swiss government agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective governments formally asked for it.. Indian government is not asking for the details... ..no marks for guessing why? We need to start a movement to pressurize the government to do so! This is perhaps the only way, and a golden opportunity, to expose the high and mighty and weed out corruption! . Please read on..and forward to all the honest Indians to.. like somebody is forwarding to you... and build a ground-swell of support!for action ! . Is India poor, who says? Ask the Swiss banks. With personal account deposit bank of $1,500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country? DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt. With this amount...
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...Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary The issue before the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary 2014 is: Increasing and coordinating efforts to fight international tax evasion. The World Bank is fully committed to the fight against international tax evasion as the profit made from either corporate or income tax can be used to support the affected countries in various ways, such as improved commitment to the UN or the World Bank committee. The WB is deeply concerned about tax evasion and its consequences concerning the world and its economy. By making use of non-standard tax havens or offshore banking accounts, companies and individuals exploit their country and therefore damage the country’s liability and economy. As that unjust advantage deceives the affected country, it is a major threat not only to that, but also to the world’s economy. The World is of the mind that, even if only a minority, not paying your tax imposes an unfair burden on the honest majority and prevents money from reaching the crucial public services that need it. One must stop people cheating the tax system and collect more of what is owed. The British tax gap in the 2010 to 2011 financial year was estimated to be £9 billion formed of tax evasion and avoidance. Losses caused by corruption and tax evasion are powerful examples of how criminal activities can potentially have tremendous negative effects on economic development. Also, ill-gotten money is not spent on productive investments...
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...The world is a constant changing place, changes occur all the time; some expectedly and others unexpectedly, some of the changes have had a huge impact on the way that man lives life. One of the changes in the world that has a strong bearing on man’s life is globalisation, it helped change the way man consumer’s products and interacts with his surroundings. Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture (Al-Rodhan, 2006). Advances in transportation, such as the steam locomotive, steamship, jet engine, and container ship, and in telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the telegraph and its modern offspring, the Internet, and mobile phones, have been major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities (Albrow,1990). The concept of globalization 'emerged from the intersection of four interrelated sets of "communities of practice": academics, journalists, publishers/editors, and librarians (Paul,2014). In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge(IMF,2000). Further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization (Bridges,2002). Globalizing...
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...A Tale of Two Londons Who really lives at One Hyde Park, called the world’s most expensive residential building? Its mostly absentee owners, hiding behind offshore corporations based in tax havens, provide a portrait of the new global super-wealthy. BY NICHOLAS SHAXSON Up until the 18th century, Knightsbridge, which borders genteel Kensington, was a lawless zone roamed by predatory monks and assorted cutthroats. It didn’t come of age until the Victorian building boom, which left a charming legacy of mostly large and beautiful Victorian houses, with their trademark white or cream paint, black iron railings, high ceilings, and short, elegant stone steps up to the front door. This will not be the impression a visitor now gets as he emerges from the Knightsbridge subway station’s south exit. He will be met by four hulking joined-up towers of glass, metal, and concrete, sandwiched between the Victorian splendors of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, to the east, and a pretty five-story residential block, to the west. This is One Hyde Park, which its developers insist is the world’s most exclusive address and the most expensive residential development ever built anywhere on earth. With apartments selling for up to $214 million, the building began to smash world per-square-foot price records when sales opened, in 2007. After quickly shrugging off the global financial crisis the complex has come to embody the central-London real-estate market, where, as high-end property consultant...
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...BUSA 3000 The Turks and Caico Islands: More Than a Getaway Offshoring can be defined as the practice of moving employees or certain business activities to foreign countries as a way to lower costs and avoid taxes. In most recent years, offshoring has become extremely popular worldwide. Arguably one of the most dominate places for offshoring, Turks and Caicos has made offshoring one of its key sources of income. Turks and Caicos is not only one of the most beneficial places for businesses to offshore, but is also a leading contender in offshoring when compared to prominent countries. The Turks and Caicos Islands offer far more than sunshine, an easygoing lifestyle, and friendly residents. In recent years, these Caribbean islands have definitely established a reputation in the world for offshoring. For some time now, I have heard how magnificent this island was, but never had thought to look more in detail about it. As a British Overseas Territory, the Turks and Caicos Islands comprise an archipelago of eight main islands in two groups. Turks is to the east, Caicos is to the west, and has number of smaller cays as its surrounding neighbors (International Business). The foundation of Turks and Caicos’ economy are tourism, the offshore industry and the fishing industry (International Business). The Government encourages tourism because it pulls in more than 1,000,000 visitors a year. One can only imagine the amount of revenue gained from tourist alone. If tourists contribute...
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...Tax Havens pull up socks in ‘transparency’ era The great ‘subprime’ crisis has had its share of fallouts over past 24 months; yet there is a silver lining emerging from under the dark clouds which has the world order gearing up for a brand new era of financial discipline and enhanced regulation. Ironically, one of the positives borne out of the recent economic upheaval has been staggering focus on ensuring robust transparency standards in tax matters. Before delving further into how tax transparency and information exchange are critical for sorting financial disorder across economies, let me try and explain the concept of ‘money laundering’ and how the absence of strict standards in tax discipline have abated this menace. This also helps putting in perspective the role that the international tax policy, in tandem with other non-tax measures, plays in combating tax evasion, whether with or without aid of money laundering. What’s the color of money!! Money laundering is loosely used to describe ‘washing’ of unaccounted or illicitly sourced money through a cobweb of complex financial transactions, usually involving more than one jurisdiction. The objective of the process deployed to ‘clean’ the money is to hide either the ownership or the destination of such funds. A typical ‘laundering’ scheme could see three stages: a) Placement stage – at this stage, the objective of stakeholders is to move the illicit funds away from source location; sources of such funds can be...
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...Services Tax (GST) Royal Malaysian Customs Department (2013) state that the government does implement the GST is because the existing consumption sales tax is unsatisfactory. There are also a reduction in the rate other taxes is sought. The existing tax system has not kept pace with the development of the economy. This is because they want to avoid tax cascading, multiple taxation and transfer pricing bias (Ministry of Finance Malaysia, 2014). Next, when they want to enhance tax compliance as well as to reduce tax avoidance and tax evasion, they have to avoid the issue of transfer pricing and value shifting. Then, they want to implement self-policing, lessen the bureaucratic red tape(Ministry of Finance Malaysia, 2014). Moreover, they want to lower the administrative cost and to enhance Malaysia’s competitiveness and to improve efficiency, Prices of Malaysian exports will become more competitive on the global stage as no GST is imposed on exported goods and services, while GST incurred on inputs can be recovered along the supplies chain. This will strengthen our export industry, helping the country progress even further (Ministry of Finance Malaysia, 2014). Thus, the GST will enhance the capability, effectiveness and transparency of tax administration and management. In addition, it will help the government find new sources of revenue. Malaysia Goods and Services Tax (GST) Royal Malaysian Customs Department 2013, Why GST?, Malaysia Goods and Services Tax (GST) Royal...
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...Ernst & Young EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ernst & Young commonly referred as EY, is one of the Big Four professional services firms along with Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG Ernst & Young is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and was the third largest professional services firm in the world by aggregated revenue in 2012. The firm has employed 167,000 people and has more than 700 offices across more than 140 countries, providing assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services. In FY 2012, EY earned a record of $24.4 billion USD in revenue, ranking the third among the Big Four, after PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, ahead of KPMG. Ernst & Young offers its services to companies in a vast range of industries, including asset management, life sciences, mining, media and entertainment, retail, technology, and hotel and leisure. The company's financial reporting segment offers an IFRS/GAAP comparison so companies can compare and contrast the international and US accounting standards. The group's members firms are organized in four geographic areas: Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa; the Americas (including Ernst & Young LLP); Japan; and the Asia/Pacific region. Ernst & Young is increasingly focused on the emerging markets, which have seen more rapid economic recovery than the developed nations. The company sees the trend of growth in the emerging markets as one that...
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