
Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project
A new multilateral instrument (MLI) will change the way we address many of the international tax aspects. “The new instrument will transpose results from the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project into more than 2000 tax treaties worldwide.”. As a measure to prevent multinational corporations tax avoidance through structured use of double tax treaties, hybrid mismatch and general...

New bill makes the Danish expat regime more flexible
A change to a bill (L82) has resulted in a beneficial change for the Danish expat regime, which provide some flexibility for the individuals comprised by the special rules. Individuals transferring into Denmark can, provided that certain criteria are met, be taxed under the special inbound expat regime (“Forskerskatteordningen”), which ultimately means that salary and certain benefits (company...

Demonetization of existing notes of Rs. 500 and Rs.1000
In an unexpected prime time address on Tuesday 8th of November, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that in a few hours, millions of high-denomination currency notes would no longer be legal tender. It was the only way, he insisted, to deal with “the disease” of unaccounted-for income — or “black money,” as it’s called in India. “Your money will remain yours,” he assured a...

Signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance
Panama has signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, making it the 105th jurisdiction to join the world’s leading instrument for boosting transparency and combating cross-border tax evasion. The signing shows that Panama is now implementing its commitment to fully cooperate with the international community on transparency in tax matters....

Most competitive tax system
Estonia has the most competitive tax system in the world due largely to its 20 percent corporate tax and “well-structured” personal income tax system, according to Washington-based fiscal think tank the Tax Foundation. The Tax Foundation’s third annual International Tax Competitiveness Index measures how well a country’s tax system promotes sustainable economic growth...

Updated guidance on tax avoidance disclosure
HM Revenue and Customs has updated its guidance on the tests to be applied to determine whether a tax avoidance scheme disclosure is required from someone who promotes or uses an arrangement designed to give a tax or national insurance advantage.
Under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) regime, promoters and users of schemes that contain defined hallmarks of avoidance are...

HMRC urged on tax credit check shortcomings
The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) has called on the UK tax authority to no longer suspend tax credit payments until Concentrix, the company that checks the validity of claims, has improved engagement with taxpayers.
LITRG, which provides support to low-income taxpayers, says it has experienced a significant spike in contact from tax credit claimants about being unable to contact...

IRS alerts taxpayers on fake tax bills email
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued an alert to US taxpayers and tax professionals to be on guard against fake emails purporting to contain a tax bill from the agency related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The IRS has received numerous reports around the country of scammers sending a fraudulent version of CP2000 notices for the 2015 tax year. Generally, the scam involves an email...

Further tax reductions next year
On August 18, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said his Government will continue to make further tax reductions next year. He promised that he will continue to “work to reduce taxes.” He cited, for example, the introduction in 2014 of the Euro 80 (USD 90) -per-month bonus tax deduction, the inclusion of labor costs in the calculation of the regional tax on production in 2015, and the...

Bank account data shared by Germany
The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has sent to foreign tax authorities information on more than 100,000 bank account holders suspected of attempting to evade tax in 19 countries, the state’s finance ministry has announced. The state Government revealed on August 5 that the trove of information is contained in three separate caches, the first and largest of which includes details...