The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion lets US expats exclude the first around $100,000 (the exact figure rises a little each year) of their earned income from US taxes.

It’s a great choice for many expats who earn less than this threshold, and sometimes a good option for expats who earn above the threshold too.

To claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, expats have to file form 2555 with their annual US tax return. Form 2555 requires expats to prove that they live abroad.

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More than 200 global tax and economic crime experts have identified key areas for international action following the fifth OECD Forum on Tax and Crime, in London. In a week dominated by media coverage of offshore issues, the Forum brought experts on tax, customs, anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, policing, and prosecution together to agree priorities for action.

The Forum is the latest in a series of OECD-led events and an important opportunity for the international community to strengthen collaboration in tackling these global issues.

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The Paradise Papers documents include nearly 7 million loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork over nearly 50 years from inside Appleby, a prestigious offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and beyond.

The leaked documents include files from the smaller, family-owned trust company, Asiaciti, and from company registries in 19 secrecy jurisdictions.

Political leaders, wealthy individuals, and businesses’ legal documents, emails, loan agreements, communications, financial statements, and tax strategies – are now all exposed.

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Claudia María Amelia Teresa Cooper Fort, Minister of Economy and Finance of Peru, signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in the presence of the Deputy Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Grace Perez-Navarro.

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Governments have dismantled, or are in the process of amending, nearly 100 preferential tax regimes as part of the OECD/G20 BEPS (Base Erosion & Profit Shifting) standards to improve the international tax framework, according to a progress report released this month.

The report provides details on the outcome of peer reviews undertaken of 164 preferential tax regimes identified amongst the more than 100 jurisdictions participating in the OECD Inclusive Framework on BEPS.

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William Byrnes, Tax Advisor

The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a $58 million judgment against a UK and Canadian resident charged with perpetrating a multi million-dollar, international pump-and-dump scheme involving the stock of Jammin’ Java Corp., a company that used trademarks of the late reggae artist Bob Marley to sell coffee products.

The final judgment against Wayne Weaver, entered on October 2, 2017, permanently enjoins Weaver from violating Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act and Rules 13d-1 and 13d-2 thereunder; permanently bars Weaver from participating in penny stock offerings; and orders Weaver to pay disgorgement of $26,371,585, prejudgment interest of $5,221,809, and a civil penalty of $26,371,585, for a total of $57,964,979. On September 15, 2017, Weaver filed a notice of appeal.

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Marco Rossi, Tax Advisor

With its Ruling n. 4091 of June 12, 2017, the Eighth Department of Tax Commission (District Tax Court) of Milan, Italy ruled that upon the cancellation of an inter company loan from a Dutch parent company to its Italian subsidiary, the interest accrued on the loan and deducted by the Italian subsidiary on an accrual basis, during the course of the loan, is deemed “constructively received” by the foreign parent, and is potentially subject to the Italian interest withholding tax (at the rate of 20 percent, pursuant to article 26, paragraph 5 of Presidential Decree n. 600 of 1973, recently increased to 26 percent).

However, the Tax Court also ruled that the Dutch parent company qualified as “beneficial owner” of the interest, and was eligible for the withholding tax exemption granted under article 26-quater of Presidential Decree n. 600 of 1973, which implemented the EU Directive n. 2003/49/CE (so called interest and royalties directive).

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Marco Rossi, Tax Advisor

With the Legislative Decree n. 90 of May 25, 2017, published on June 19, 2017 Italy finally adopted and transposed into its own legal system the EU Directive 2015/849, usually referred to as the “IV Anti Money Laundering Directive”.

One area that attracts particular attention concerns the new reporting rules applicable to trusts.

Article 21, paragraph 3 of Decree n. 90 provides that “trusts producing juridical effects relevant for tax purposes, in accordance with article 73 of the Presidential Decree n. 917 of January 22, 1986, shall be registered with a special section of the Register of Enterprises”.

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Marco Rossi, Italy, Tax

With Circular 17/E of May 23, 2017, Italy’s Tax Agency provided administrative guidance on the interpretation and application of the provisions on the elective preferential tax regime for Italian new-tax resident individuals.

New article 24-bis of Italy’s Unified Income Tax Code, enacted with Law n. 232 of December 2016, provides that foreign-resident individuals who establish their tax residency in Italy, after having been resident in a foreign country for at least nine of the previous ten tax years, may elect to pay a fixed-amount tax of euro 100,000 on all of their foreign source income, in lieu of the ordinary Italian personal income tax. Domestic source income would remain subject to the ordinary personal income tax, charged at graduated rates on income tax brackets. Read More

Grant Gilmour, Canada,

What are the proposed tax changes on passive investment portfolios held inside a private corporation?

The Canadian government is proposing changes on tax treatment of passive income on investment portfolios held inside a private corporation to neutralize the financial advantages of such holdings. This targets private corporations being used as investment vehicles for retirement. Read More

What is a schedule 20 as part of a T2 corporate tax return?

Schedule 20 is used to calculate an additional tax on non-resident corporations. This tax is called Part 14 or ‘branch’ tax and relates to non-resident corporations that earn income from a business carried on in Canada (see International FAQ #24) and have a permanent establishment in Canada (see FAQ #127). Read More

 

The Canadian government is proposing tax changes to prevent private corporations from converting surplus income to a lower-taxed capital gain and stripping it from the corporation. This targets larger private corporations.

The Canadian tax system is built on the concept of tax integration. Based on the view of principles of fairness and neutrality, tax integration aims to ensure that an individual is indifferent between earning income through a corporation or directly as the after tax results should be the same.

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