Monday, December 13, 2010

Links - December 13, 2010

LINKS

‘People to stop paying power bills if tax evasion continues’ - The News.
Pakistan's answer to UKUncut? Imran Khan on Sunday hinted at giving a call to the public to stop paying electricity bills if the ruling elite and the friendly opposition persisted with tax evasion and imposition of the proposed Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST.) Tax justice is spreading. Hat tip: Offshore Watch.

Foreign firms to be caught in Jersey tax net -
Jersey Evening Post. Under Jersey’s current zero-ten tax regime, Jersey companies pay tax, but foreign non-finance firms pay nothing on what they earn in the Island. But following a debate during day four of the Budget yesterday, States Members agreed that foreign non-finance firms should be forced to contribute to the States’ coffers by January 2012. TJN's Senior Adviser Richard Murphy has been leading the debate on this - and been widely scoffed at for saying so. He has now, it seems, been proved right. With more detail here.

EU flexes its muscles against tax fraudsters - Swissinfo

Tax protest turns Vodafone's smile upside down - Guardian. Nice.

Lobbying for Tax Benefits Yields 22,000% Return on Investment - via TaxProf. An empirical analysis by Raquel Meyer Alexander and Stephen W. Mazza & Susan Scholz (University of Kansas.)

India Investigating Illicit Use of Offshore Companies - Taxation Information. Though one should bear this in mind.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Eric said...

Re India, looks like the tax evaders are just moving all their money to Dubai. India can play hardball on tax against little Caribbean islands who have nothing else to offer. But the Gulf states have the means to hit back: cut back on guest worker visas for Indians, and give them out to other Asian countries instead.

This kind of pressure shows up clearly in DTA rates, for example; UAE banks suffer just 5% withholding on interest payments from Indian companies. Other banks get 10-15% withheld. Somehow I doubt India's going to be able to get the UAE to sign a TIEA which has any teeth whatsoever ...

And if you're not a one-billion person country, you suffer even worse during tax treaty negotiations. Look at the UAE-Indonesia DTA ... 5% withholding on interest and royalties, the former matched only by the rate granted to Kuwait, the latter entirely unique to the UAE.

7:16 pm  

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