HMRC "gleeful" ahead of KPMG raid

Lawyers for the Big Four firm's partners Eamonn Donaghy, Jon D’Arcy, Paul Hollway and Arthur O’Brien told the court in Belfast that there was no justification for taking the "nuclear option" of an intrusive operation that also involved trawling through children's school bags, according to a report from the Belfast Telegraph.

The four men, the firm’s most senior partners in Ireland, are challenging the legality of the permits gained to search their homes and business premises.

They were arrested last November in connection with suspected tax evasion. None have been charged. Their counsel has previously argued that important information, including about their cooperation with the investigation, was omitted in HMRC’s applications for the warrant.

http://economia.icaew.com/news/november-2016/hmrc-gleeful-ahead-of-kpmg-raid-belfast-high-court-suspected-tax-evasion

Dark money: London’s dirty secret

An insider at a Swiss bank warned Britain’s financial watchdogs that bankers in its UK office were offering services that could facilitate tax evasion and money laundering. Did the regulators turn a blind eye? The FT investigates the City’s role as a global hub for illicit finance
One Monday in March last year, an announcement by the US justice department caught the attention of a former employee of the Swiss bank BSI. BSI’s bosses had agreed to violate the first rule of Swiss banking. To escape prosecution for abetting tax evasion, the bank would disclose the names of its clients and reveal the tricks it had used to hide their wealth.

The former BSI employee, who asks to be referred to only as Andrea, had worked in the bank’s UK office on Cheapside in the heart of the City of London. In 2008, Andrea was among the industry insiders who were starting to worry about London’s role as a global hub for illicit finance. That September, Andrea had warned the UK’s financial watchdogs that BSI bankers were using secretive techniques that could allow clients to conceal assets, potentially facilitating tax evasion and money laundering. The regulators took no public action against the bank and, as far as Andrea knew, no private action either.

Andrea had been spurred to contact the City’s regulators by a US Senate inquiry into tax evasion. Drawing on the testimony of a whistleblower from UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, the inquiry had exposed some of the chicanery that Swiss bankers used to help their clients hide money. A criminal investigation followed and in 2009 UBS paid a $780m fine to avoid prosecution for complicity in tax evasion. From there, the prosecutors’ campaign widened dramatically. Credit Suisse, UBS’s main rival, pleaded guilty to conspiring to help Americans evade tax and paid a $2.6bn fine. The onslaught brought down Wegelin, the oldest Swiss bank, which closed its doors in 2013 after 272 years in business. Its final act was to plead guilty to US charges of tax fraud.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1d805534-1185-11e6-839f-2922947098f0.html

KPMG tax exec to testify at Commons committee about alleged offshore 'sham'

Greg Wiebe, tax partner and former global head of tax for the accounting firm, isn't named in any of the court documents filed by the CRA alleging KPMG itself earned a 15 per cent cut in an offshore tax dodge that promised multimillionaire clients they would pay "no tax" on their investment income.

KPMG has been fighting a judge's order since early 2013 to hand over the names of the wealthy clients involved in the controversial $130-million offshore scheme that launched more than 15 years ago.

Wayne Easter, Liberal chairman of the finance committee, says members passed a motion to call on KPMG officials to explain their role in what the CRA has called a "sham."

"The pressure we're getting from the public is, 'Look, KPMG is the one named," Easter said. "That's why that decision was made."

But, Easter says, it was up to the firm to decide who would testify...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kpmg-tax-offshore-committee-hearing-1.3562925

Trump and Clinton share Delaware tax 'loophole' address with 285,000 firms

There aren’t many things upon which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agree, especially as they court very different Delaware voters ahead of a primary on Tuesday. But the candidates for president share an affinity for the same nondescript two-storey office building in Wilmington. A building that has become famous for helping tens of thousands of companies avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in tax through the so-called “Delaware loophole”.

The receptionist at 1209 North Orange Street isn’t surprised that a journalist has turned up unannounced on a sunny weekday afternoon.

“You know I can’t speak to you,” she says. A yellow post-it note on her computer screen reads “MEDIA: Chuck Miller” with the phone number of the company’s director of corporate communications. Miller can’t answer many questions either, except to say that the company does not advise clients on their tax affairs.

The Guardian is not the first media organisation to turn up at the offices of Corporation Trust Centre, and it’s unlikely to be the last.

Analysis Forget Panama: it's easier to hide your money in the US than almost anywhere
The term tax haven may evoke images of exotic locales, but Panama actually ranks as the 13th most attractive spot for hiding assets, while the US lies third

This squat, yellow brick office building just north of Wilmington’s rundown downtown is the registered address of more than 285,000 companies. That’s more than any other known address in the world, and 15 times more than the 18,000 registered in Ugland House, a five-storey building in the Cayman Islands that Barack Obama called “either the biggest building in the world, or the biggest tax scam on record”...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/25/delaware-tax-loophole-1209-north-orange-trump-clinton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_Trust_Center_(CT_Corporation)

What you need to know about the Panama Papers

What is Mossack Fonseca?

It is a Panama-based law firm whose services include incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands. It administers offshore firms for a yearly fee. Other services include wealth management.

Where is it based?
The firm is Panamanian but runs a worldwide operation. Its website boasts of a global network with 600 people working in 42 countries. It has franchises around the world, where separately owned affiliates sign up new customers and have exclusive rights to use its brand. Mossack Fonseca operates in tax havensincluding Switzerland, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, and in the British crown dependencies Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.

How big is it?
Mossack Fonseca is the world’s fourth biggest provider of offshore services. It has acted for more than 300,000 companies. There is a strong UK connection. More than half of the companies are registered in British-administered tax havens, as well as in the UK itself.

How much data has been leaked?
A lot. The leak is one of the biggest ever – larger than the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013. There are 11.5m documents and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers

Critics want public hearings into Canada Revenue amnesty for KPMG offshore tax dodgers

The federal government should call public hearings into why the Canada Revenue Agency offered amnesty to the high net worth clients of KPMG who were involved in an offshore tax avoidance scheme, prominent tax groups, politicians and other legal experts said in the wake of a CBC News/Radio-Canada exposé.

In fact, Laval University tax professor Andre Lareau says the new revenue minister, Diane Lebouthillier, should undo the deal as soon as possible.

"The offer should just be withdrawn right now," Lareau said. In effect, he says, the CRA is saying to these wealthy clients "we're giving you absolution."

In question period yesterday, NDP leader Tom Mulcair called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to launch a probe into the secret offer.

"Stop protecting the rich, start protecting a tax system that's fair for all," Mulcair said. "How many other times has this happened, and is the prime minister going to call an investigation?"...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/public-hearings-cra-kpmg-offshore-tax-deal-1.3481677

Google unpaid taxes: France seeks €1.6bn from search giant

The figure is substantially more than the £130m the search engine agreed to pay in back taxes to UK authorities.

However, France's AFP news agency reported that Google might be able to negotiate and may not pay the full sum.

The company's chief executive, Sundar Pichai, is visiting Paris and was due to meet the France's economy minister Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday night.

It is not clear if they will discuss the tax issue.

Earlier this month, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin ruled out striking a deal with the US company.

Google would not comment on reports of the tax demand and French officials said the matter was confidential...

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35655743

Four senior KPMG partners arrested in HMRC tax evasion inquiry

Four senior executives from the Belfast office of accountancy firm KPMG have been arrested in Belfast on alleged tax evasion charges.

The four partners were visited by officials from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the city on Wednesday, it emerged today.

In a statement, KPMG said it is cooperating with the HMRC investigation and that the four men have been placed on “administrative leave”.

KPMG said: “Pending further information and enquiry, we can confirm that four partners in our Belfast office are on administrative leave. As the matter is ongoing, KPMG is not in a position to make any further comments at this stage.”

The men in question have been named as Jon D’Arcy, Eamonn Donaghy, Arthur O’Brien and Paul Hollway, and constitute KPMG’s most senior staff in Northern Ireland...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/26/kpmg-partners-arrested-hmrc-tax-evasion-inquiry

ICIJ OFFSHORE LEAKS DATABASE

The database contains ownership information about companies created in 10 offshore jurisdictions including the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore. It covers nearly 30 years until 2010...

http://offshoreleaks.icij.org