One small step for a few island territories could mark a giant leap forward in corporate tax accountability. For years, certain islands represented more than fun in the sun for vacationers: for companies in the know, they were synonymous with tax shelters. Now, on the wave of a global crackdown […]
Category: Offshore Accounts/International Tax Disputes
Back on June 5th, we posted an article discussing how many of the largest companies in the world were coming under scrutiny in Europe for allegedly not paying their fair share of taxes. One of those companies, Starbucks, began making payments today. The interesting thing is that it does not […]
ormer Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cannot seem to get out of the news. Part of it might have to do with the fact that he owns a controlling share in Italy’s Mediaset, the largest media company in the country. The rest might have to do with the alleged tax fraud […]
In a meeting of the eight wealthiest countries in the world, the Group Eight (G8) discussions on how to deal with international tax evasion was so successful that the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury (highly historical and fancy terms for treasurer) George Osborne stated […]
World famous designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana fame have been convicted of evading taxes on over 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in royalties. The criminal act involved selling off some of their main brands to a Luxembourg holding company allegedly to evade paying taxes. The […]
The United States Senate is investigating Apple for allegedly negotiating a “special tax deal” with the government of Ireland as part of its effort to keep its massive cash hoard (currently valued at over $145 billion) overseas. In fact, Apple has chosen to take out loans to pay for its […]
Four years ago, US tax probes into UBS found the bank aiding wealthy American clients evade paying federal taxes by placing their funds into secret Swiss bank accounts. The settlement, one of the largest in history, consisted of UBS paying over $780 million to the United States and, most controversially, […]
Let’s be honest, no one likes to pay taxes. But this aversion to giving up some of our hard earned money is usually offset by our desire to maintain a well-ordered society and infrastructure. Nevertheless, the “bad guy,” so to speak, in each country is usually the tax collector. In […]
Historically, privacy was always a basic feature of Swiss bank accounts. The premise was that no government had the right to know the contents of accounts or other information about their holders. Today, however, the privacy protections that formerly came with Swiss and other foreign accounts are changing profoundly. The […]
The U.S. Treasury Department continues to move forward on trying to get foreign governments to provide more information about Americans with foreign accounts. Treasury says it is merely implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which Congress passed in 2010. To many commentators, however, these efforts often seem like […]