Tax Avoidance

Featured Tax Avoidance

How the Netherlands Built One of the World’s Worst Tax Havens

Dutch officials really don’t like it when someone calls their country a tax haven. In 2009, the Obama administration did just that, naming the Netherlands as one of a number of countries where scores of major American firms had established subsidiaries in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes. In a… Read More

HMRC ‘doesn’t have time’ to investigate offshore account tip-offs

The tax office has been “swamped” with 5.7 million pieces of information about overseas bank accounts held by three million British citizens under the terms of a new international treaty, according to tax experts. However, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) does not have enough staff to investigate the information, according… Read More

Cyprus, Malta lead EU ranking of $1.6 trillion assets held offshore

European Union taxpayers held assets worth at least $1.6 trillion offshore in 2016, equal to nearly 10% of the bloc’s output, the European Commission said on Friday, estimating tax revenue losses at around $50 billion a year. In a report, the Commission said taxpayers in the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus… Read More

12th September 2019

Commerzbank Frankfurt Offices Raided in Widening Tax Scandal

Commerzbank AG’s offices in Frankfurt were searched Tuesday as German authorities continued their investigations into a widening tax scandal involving multiple global lenders. The raids are tied to controversial trading practice across the industry known as Cum-Ex, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not… Read More

15th August 2019

Court Rules Leaked Documents Are Fair Game in Tax Case Against Glencore

Australia’s top court has rejected a move by one of the world’s most profitable companies to stop government officials from using leaked documents to assess its tax bill. Australia’s High Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that commodity giant Glencore could not rely on “legal privilege” to prevent the Australian Tax… Read More

7th August 2019

HSBC agrees to 300 mln euro settlement of Belgian tax fraud case: prosecutors

HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm has agreed to pay nearly 300 million euros ($336 million) to settle a tax fraud case in Belgium, Belgian prosecutors said on Tuesday, the latest blow for the Alpine state’s banking sector from the EU. The settlement comes after a French court in February ordered… Read More

30th July 2019

UBS Whistle-Blower Hunts Trillions Hidden in Treasure Isles

John Christensen called Jersey home. A native of the scenic isle off England’s southern coast, he was a government economist with a hillside villa that had views of France. “I was set,” Christensen said last month in an interview at a London cafe. “We had a pretty good lifestyle and… Read More

11th June 2019

OECD Program Uncovers €4.9 Trillion in Offshore Holdings

An intergovernmental initiative to crack down on tax cheats has uncovered €4.9 trillion (USD 5.5 trillion) held offshore for individual and corporations in approximately 47 million bank accounts. The data, published Friday by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is the result of a broader effort by the… Read More

7th June 2019

Prosecutors suspect 70 Deutsche Bank managers in dividend tax probe: paper

German prosecutors have extended an investigation into a tax-stripping scheme, with around 70 current and former executives of Deutsche Bank now being treated as suspects, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday. Among those suspected by the Cologne prosecutor’s office is Garth Ritchie, the head of Deutsche’s investment banking arm, the… Read More

29th May 2019

British overseas territories top corporate tax loophole index

Britain’s offshore territories the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bermuda and the Cayman Islands were named in a study released on Wednesday as the most significant jurisdictions used by global companies to minimise their tax bills. Governments are stepping up efforts to recoup more tax from multinationals, with the European Commission… Read More

15th March 2019

UAE on EU tax blacklist because of poor communication, UAE banker says

The European Union’s decision to include the United Arab Emirates on its blacklist of tax havens was caused by “lack of communication” between the EU and the UAE government, the head of the UAE Banks Federation said. European Union governments updated a blacklist of tax havens this week, adding the… Read More

14th March 2019

EU updates tax haven blacklist, adds UAE, Bermuda

The European Union has published its updated list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, dubbed the tax haven blacklist, adding ten jurisdictions to the existing five states. The new additions include Bermuda and the UAE. “Those jurisdictions did not implement the commitments they had made to the EU by… Read More

6th March 2019

EU to broaden tax haven blacklist, weighs UAE, Bermuda listing

European Union states have added 10 jurisdictions to a draft tax haven blacklist, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bermuda, an EU official told Reuters on Tuesday, in a move that would triple the number of listed countries. The measure comes more than one year after the bloc decided… Read More

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