News

Bulgaria has removed Panama from its tax haven blacklist in recognition of the South American country’s efforts to improve transparency and tax co-operation. Panama said the decision reflects its move to ratify the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in March.   “Panama meets the highest international standards in terms of fiscal transparency,”...

The French Finance Act for 2017 was adopted on December 29, 2016 introducing a new withholding tax system coming into force as of January 1, 2018. As a result of the new French tax law, French tax residents will be subject to a monthly withholding tax on their 2018 income beginning January 1, 2018 rather than paying the 2018 income tax when they file their 2018 tax return in 2019. The scope of...

The UK Court of Appeal has today upheld a lower court’s decision that a plumber engaged notionally as a self-employed contractor was in reality a worker. It has important implications within and beyond the skilled service sector and online economy, and especially for business advisory, medical services and IT practices. This is one of a number of recent cases to examine the status of workers...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...