John Richardson

This is Part 2 – a continuation of the post about “tax residency under the Common Reporting Standard.”

That post ended with:

Breaking tax residency to Canada can be difficult and does NOT automatically happen if one moves from Canada. See this sobering discussion in one of my earlier posts about ceasing to be a tax resident of Canada. (In addition, breaking tax residency in Canada can result in being subjected to Canada’s departure tax. I have long maintained that paying Canada’s departure tax is clear evidence of having ceased to be a tax resident of Canada.)

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TaxConnections Member Professor William Byrnes examines whether it is prudent for taxpayers to trust the governments of the 117 countries that scored a fifty or below on Transparency International’s corruption index. The complete information system invoked by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) encourages, even prolongs, the bad behavior of black hat governments by providing fuel (financial information) to feed the fire of corruption and suppression of rivals. Professor Byrnes recommends that the United States leverage a “carrot-stick” policy tool to incentivize bad actors to adopt best tax administration practices.

Article download at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2916444

William Byrnes

Monaco today deposited its instrument of ratification for the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (“the Convention”). By doing so, Monaco underlines its commitment to fighting tax evasion and avoidance and takes another important step in implementing the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD and G20 countries as well as automatic exchange of Country-by-Country Reports under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project.

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As I hear it, if the Netherlands were to substantively amend its ‘maximum 20% bonus of salary’ regulation, then the relocation decision for many EU facing funds would be an easy choice. But because of that regulation, it has created an opportunity for other cities to pitch to the institutions for the funds and trading business relocation.

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A leak of searchable 11.5 million files, that’s 2.6 terabytes of data, from the embattled offshore services provider Mossack Fonseca. Every email, client note, asset and income statement, instruction, communication, .. since 1977!  2.6 terabytes of data, 11.5 million files, is a lot of files and scanned documents to comb through, so this leak is potentially, and probably, more significant than the 2014 ICIJ reported on leak or even the HSBC and UBS’ leaks. Read More

Cutting edge activities challenge tax rules written with different business methods and products in mind. For example, cloud computing raises issues as to how longstanding tax provisions, such as the research tax credit and Section 199 manufacturing deduction apply. This and other current tax topics relevant to high tech companies and their tax advisers are on the agenda for the 31st Annual TEI-SJSU High Tech Tax Institute, November 9 & 10, 2015 in Palo Alto. Additional topics include BEPS Relevance, M&A activities, state tax haven activities, European Union hot topics and how these topics also affect the income tax provision on financial statements.

For the complete agenda and list of speakers, as well as to register, please visit Read More

We hear a lot about the OECD’s BEPS project (base erosion and profit shifting) and its action items. What is the relevance of “country-by-country” reporting for transfer pricing documentation? Does the statement on harmful tax practices mean that the US should adopt a patent box? The 31st Annual TEI-SJSU High Tech Tax Institute, scheduled for November 9 and 10, 2015 in Palo Alto, will address these questions and more. A BEPS panel will include attorneys from China, Ireland and the U.S. to share how other countries are responding the BEPS project and what it means for your company or clients.  Another panel with practitioners from the UK and Ireland will explore hot topics in the EU. Heather Maloy, (former) Commissioner for the IRS Large Business & International Division will also be speaking, along with numerous other experts on hot tax topics for high tech Read More

Tax authorities worldwide distaste the word “treaty shopping” as such. In recent times, OECD has worked out guidelines for BEPS and most U.S. tax treaties have “Limitation of Benefit” clause that prevents abusive tax planning. However, there may still be some opportunities available to U.S. investors in India; one such avenue is investing via Mauritius Holdco structures.

A lot of foreign investors prefer to route their investment through Mauritius in India. Since the India- Mauritius double tax avoidance agreement offers exemption from capital gains tax to Mauritian residents. It has been the key incentive provided by the Indo-Mauritius tax treaty where by tax on capital gains is exempted for investors from Mauritius. As per the last finance bill almost 42% of the foreign direct investment into India is routed through Read More

In an effort to crack down on tax evasion the OECD developed what it calls a “New single global standard for the automatic exchange of information between key authorities worldwide.” The standard was approved by the OECD council on 15 July 2014 and is expected to result in an elimination of the secrecy surrounding some banking transactions as it relates to tax matters.
The new standard has been endorsed by more than 60 countries or jurisdictions including the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and Canada and other major jurisdictions already committed to implementation.

The standard requires detailed account information to be provided to governments by financial institutions. The information obtained from the financial institutions will be Read More

Attached please find a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case (September 16, 2014 in VirnetX, Inc. v. Cisco Sys., Inc.) in which a U.S. court finds again the “25 percent rule of thumb” to determine royalty rates inadmissible:

“[W]e agree with the courts that have rejected invocations of the Nash theorem without sufficiently establishing that the premises of the theorem actually apply to the facts of the case at hand. The use here was just such an inappropriate “rule of thumb.” Previously, damages experts often relied on the “25 percent rule of thumb” in determining a reasonable royalty rate in a hypothetical negotiation. That rule hypothesized that 25% of the value of the infringing product would remain with the patentee, while the remaining 75% would go to the licensee. [W]e held the “25 percent rule of thumb” to be inadmissible Read More

GATCA Declaration

47 countries and major financial centers on May 6, 2014 declared am automatic exchange of information between their jurisdictions, announced the OECD.  All 34 OECD member countries, as well as Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Africa endorsed the Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters that was released at the May 6-7, 2014 Meeting of the OECD at a Ministerial Level.

The Declaration commits countries to implement a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information (“GATCA”).  The OECD stated that it will deliver a Read More