Tag Archive for eBay

eBay To Pay $3 Billion Tax On Foreign-Held Cash

eBay has made a huge decision to bring back as much as $9.7 Billion that had been designated as permanently invested overseas. As eBay made this decision, they had to pay tax on the difference between the United States and foreign tax rates. The tax to bring foreign held cash back to the United States: a staggering $3 billion. Moving the money back to the United States diminished eBay’s First Quarter.

At the end of 2013, eBay announced it has $12.8 billion in cash and investments with $9.7 billion held overseas. Because of this lucrative tax charge to eBay, they are reporting a $2.33 billion first-quarter loss. eBay made a major decision relocating capital to the United States in pursuit of financial growth and new acquisitions. Finance insiders predict Second Quarter revenues of $4 Billion. eBays sister company PayPal continues to draw new users which is Read More

Written by | Posted in Corporate • International • Tax Provision/Tax Reporting

Australian Tax Office Targets Online Merchants

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced that it will gather information from eBay Australia & New Zealand Pty Ltd about online sales transactions totaling $10,000 or more during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 tax years.

This data will be compared with the tax returns lodged by online traders as part of a new “online selling data matching program”. ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan says: “Our online selling data matching program helps us keep a level playing field for honest businesses. ”

Taxpayers whose returns do not reflect the income from their online trading may face penalty tax and interest charges. The harvesting of data is likely to be extended to other online auction and sales sites for 2013-2014 and later years. Read More

Written by | Posted in Audit • Australia/Oceania • Income Tax • Sales/Use Tax

Australian Tax Office Issues Cash And Hidden Economy Audit Guide

The Austrailian Tax Office (ATO) today issued a new guide for advisers and their clients regarding the way in which the ATO conducts audits in the cash and hidden economy area. The guide discusses “…risk indicators to identify businesses for review or audit” that “…include results from data matching, comparisons of business information against our small business benchmarks and reports from the community”. In this connection, the ATO has an on-line evasion reporting facility that is in the Australian vernacular, known as the “dob-in line”.

In the guide the ATO reveals that much of the data they rely upon is received from third parties such as on-line auction houses. Much of this data is likely to have been gathered by bot programs that use appropriate search terms. Accordingly, it is likely they will have data Read More

Written by | Posted in Audit • Australia/Oceania