Category Archives: Tax havens

Cyprus could block EU adoption of minimum corporate tax plan

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EU directive on Joe Biden’s proposal for 15% tax rate on multinationals would require unanimous support

Cyprus could veto the EU’s adoption of Joe Biden’s proposal of a global minimum corporate tax rate, the country’s finance minister has suggested.

A White House proposal of a 15% tax rate for multinationals applied to profits in all jurisdictions is expected to be endorsed in principle by finance ministers of the world’s seven largest economies, the G7, at an upcoming meeting in Cornwall.

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Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

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Microsoft Round Island One is ‘tax resident’ in Bermuda, with no employees except directors

An Irish subsidiary of Microsoft made a profit of $315bn (£222bn) last year but paid no corporation tax, as it is “resident” for tax purposes in Bermuda.

The profit generated by the company, Microsoft Round Island One, is equal to nearly three-quarters of Ireland’s entire gross domestic product (GDP) – even though it has zero employees.

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G20 takes step towards global minimum corporate tax rate

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Meetings of finance ministers follow change in US stance, with consensus growing on tackling tax avoidance

G20 finance ministers are exploring a global minimum tax on corporate profits, amid growing international consensus on tackling avoidance after the pandemic.

The virtual meetings between the group of 20 major industrial nations come after the US made the case for an international base rate this week, in a move by the Biden administration to end US resistance to international tax reforms.

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MEPs vote to add Channel and British Virgin Islands to tax haven blacklist

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UK overseas territories such as Cayman Islands also may lose protection once afforded by UK’s EU membership

The European parliament is pushing for UK overseas territories including the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey to be added to an EU tax havens blacklist after the conclusion of the Brexit deal.

Sending a signal that tougher action on tax avoidance was required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of adding more nations and territories to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.

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British Virgin Islands commits to public register of beneficial owners

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Announcement follows years of tax evasion scandals involving BVI shell companies

The government of the British Virgin Islands has finally committed to introducing public registers of beneficial ownership for companies incorporated in the tax haven.

The announcement, made in the islands parliament, comes in the wake of years of tax evasion and money laundering scandals, in which shell companies incorporated in the territory regularly played a central role.

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Sun, sea, safety: Greece woos Europe’s pensioners with 7% income tax rate

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Athens offers generous tax incentives to lure retirees – and boost its own struggling economy

Most countries want to attract the young and the willing – entrepreneurs with ideas, students looking to learn, people prepared to do the jobs locals turn down. Greece, though, has decided on a different approach, by making a play for Europe’s retirees.

“The logic is very simple: we want pensioners to relocate here,” says Athina Kalyva, head of tax policy at the Greek finance ministry, who has helped design a scheme to get people to do just that. “We have a beautiful country, a very good climate, so why not?”

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EU states ‘dragging their feet’ over financial transparency, report finds

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Global Witness says only six states including UK meet demands on measures to fight money-laundering

Most EU member states have failed to meet a legal deadline to introduce public registers of the real owners of companies, a transparency measure seen as key to fighting money laundering, according to a review by anti-corruption campaigners.

In May 2018, the European Union passed a directive obliging member states to publish the beneficial owners of firms registered in their jurisdictions by January this year.

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Trouble in paradise: Family, feuds and fraud in Jersey

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The wealthy Dick family are set for a court battle that could shine an unwelcome light on the world of offshore trusts

The recent, turbulent history of the Dick family reads like a Netflix reboot of Bleak House. For this is the tale of an unending court case involving the recent sale of a fabulous mansion in one of Britain’s better known tax havens, home to a man whose rags-to-riches life could have been penned by Charles Dickens.

John W Dick was raised in Canada as a Mennonite – a Christian sect whose members live humble, God-fearing lives.

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EU clamps down on free ports over crime and terrorism links

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Moves comes as Britain launches consultation on creation of up to 10 of the zones

Brussels is clamping down on 82 free ports or free zones after identifying that their special tariff and duty status has aided the financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crime.

A set of new rules was introduced by the European commission just weeks before the launch on Monday of a UK government consultation on the creation of up to 10 free ports in post-Brexit Britain.

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To drive out the tax avoiders, the EU must reimburse states that depend on them

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An initiative against tax havens has been voted down by states who cannot afford to lose the revenue such status brings

For the time being, the European commission has lost its battle with the EU’s tax havens for greater visibility on how much tax multinational companies pay and where they pay it.

A proposed rule would have forced multinationals to reveal the revenues and profits they make, and how little corporate tax they pay, in each of the 28 member states.

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Super-rich prepare to leave UK ‘within minutes’ if Labour wins election

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Wealthy see potential taxes imposed by Jeremy Corbyn as bigger threat than Brexit

The super-rich are preparing to immediately leave the UK if Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister, fearing they will lose billions of pounds if the Labour leader does “go after” the wealthy elite with new taxes, possible capital controls and a clampdown on private schools.

Lawyers and accountants for the UK’s richest families said they had been deluged with calls from millionaire and billionaire clients asking for help and advice on moving countries, shifting their fortunes offshore and making early gifts to their children to avoid the Labour leader’s threat to tax all inheritances above £125,000.

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Panama Papers law firm Mossack Fonseca sues Netflix over The Laundromat

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Partners Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca want US court to stop the film being released on Friday

The partners of the offshore law firm whose confidential files were exposed in the Panama Papers leak, Mossack Fonseca, have launched defamation action against Netflix over a movie about the scandal that is due to be released on Friday.

In a US lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca say The Laundromat, in which they are respectively played by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, portrays them as “ruthless uncaring lawyers who are involved in money laundering, tax evasion, bribery and/or other criminal conduct” and ask the court to stop it from being screened.

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Tax authorities mount raids on 19 German banks and homes

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Investigation is linked to Panama Papers and part of money laundering allegations

Eleven banks and eight private homes and offices across Germany have been raided by police and tax investigators as part of a wide-ranging investigation into tax evasion.

The raids, which began at dawn on Wednesday and went on into the afternoon, were part of the same investigation started last November over money laundering allegations linked to the so-called Panama Papers scandal, alleged to involve Deutsche Bank.

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Google shifted $23bn to tax haven Bermuda in 2017, filing shows

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Firm used Dutch shell company in move known as ‘double Irish, Dutch sandwich’ that cuts its foreign tax bill

Google moved €19.9bn ($22.7bn) through a Dutch shell company to Bermuda in 2017, as part of an arrangement that allows it to reduce its foreign tax bill, according to documents filed at the Dutch chamber of commerce.

The amount channelled through Google Netherlands Holdings BV was about €4bn more than in 2016, the documents, filed on 21 December, showed.

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