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Yearly Archives: 2013

IRS Launches New FATCA Web Page

July 19, 2013

 

The IRS has redesigned and updated its FATCA web pages to include:

  1. A new landing page for US financial institutions  that  addresses  their FATCA responsibilities.  
  2. Another new page provides information for governments interested in Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs).   
  3. A link for the FATCA registration website will be added  in August, when the registration system opens.
Need FATCA Help?

Contact the Tax Lawyers

of Marini & Associates, P.A.
 
for a FREE Tax Consultation
at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms
or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).  
 
 
 
 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

OECD launches Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting

July 19, 2013

National tax laws have not kept pace with the globalization of corporations
and the digital economy, leaving gaps that can be exploited by multi-national corporations to artificially reduce their taxes.

OECD’s Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) offers a global roadmap that will allow governments to collect the tax revenue they need to serve their citizens. It also gives businesses the certainty they need to invest and grow.

Produced at the request of the G20 and introduced at the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Moscow, the Action Plan identifies 15 specific actions that will give governments the domestic and international instruments to prevent corporations from paying little or no taxes. 

  • Establishing international coherence of corporate income taxation
  • Restoring the full effects and benefits of international standards
  • Ensuring transparency while promoting increased certainty and predictability and
  • From agreed policies to tax rules: the need for a swift implementation of the measures

 
Domestic and international tax rules should relate to both income and the economic activity that generates it. Existing tax treaty and transfer pricing rules can, in some cases, facilitate the separation of taxable profits from the value-creating activities that generate them.
 
The Action Plan will restore the intended effects of these standards by aligning tax with substance – ensuring that taxable profits cannot be artificially shifted, through the transfer of intangibles (eg patents or copyrights), risks or capital, away from countries where the value is created.
 
Greater transparency and improved data are needed to evaluate, and stop, the growing disconnect between the location where financial assets are created and investments take place and where MNEs report profits for tax purposes.
 
Requiring taxpayers to report their aggressive tax planning arrangements and rules about transfer pricing documentation, breaking-down the information on a country-by-country basis, will help governments identify risk areas and focus their audit strategies.
 
And making dispute resolution mechanisms more effective will provide businesses with greater certainty and predictability.

 
 Want To Know How To Prepare For These New OECD Tax Rules?
 
Contact the Tax Lawyers

at Marini & Associates, P.A.
 
for a FREE Tax Consultation
at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms
or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).  
 

Source:

Businesslife.co

Read more at: Tax Times blog

IRS Seeks Comments on Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program!

July 18, 2013


The Internal Revenue Service is asking for public comment on information collection tools relating to the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, according to a notice in the July 18 Federal Register

Notice Proposed Collection; Comment Request on Information Collection Tools Relating to the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP)

Action

Notice And Request For Comments.

Summary

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). 

DATES:

Written comments should be received on or before September 16, 2013 to be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES:

Direct all written comments to Yvette Lawrence, Internal Revenue Service, Room 6129, 1111 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20224. Please send separate comments for each specific information collection listed below. You must reference the information collection's title, form number, reporting or record-keeping requirement number, and OMB number (if any) in your comment.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or copies of the collection tools should be directed to LaNita Van Dyke, Internal Revenue Service, Room 6511, 1111 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20224, or at (202)622-3215, or through the internet at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Currently, the IRS is seeking comments concerning the following information collection tools, reporting, and record-keeping requirements:
 
Title: Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP).
OMB Number: 1545-2241.
Form Number(s): 14029, 14438, 14452, 14453, 14454, 14457, and 14467.
Abstract: The IRS is offering people with undisclosed income from offshore accounts an opportunity to get current with their tax returns. Taxpayers with undisclosed foreign accounts or entities should make a voluntary disclosure because it enables them to become compliant, avoid substantial civil penalties and generally eliminate the risk of criminal prosecution. The objective is to bring taxpayers that have used undisclosed foreign accounts and undisclosed foreign entities to avoid or evade tax into compliance with United States tax laws.
Current Actions: There are no changes to the burden estimates previously approved by OMB.
Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Estimated Number of Responses: 456,000.
Estimated Time per Respondent: 1 hour 35 mins.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 726,500.
 
The following paragraph applies to all of the collections of information covered by this notice:
An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection of information displays a valid OMB control number. Books or records relating to a collection of information must be retained as long as their contents may become material in the administration of any internal revenue law. Generally, tax returns and tax return information are confidential, as required by 26 U.S.C. 6103.
 
Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collectionof information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information.
 

Approved: July 10, 2013.
Allan Hopkins,
IRS Reports Clearance Officer.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

BVI LAW – Register for Private Company's Beneficial Owners

July 18, 2013

The BVI government has published proposals for a Central Registry of Company Beneficial Ownership.

Individuals with more than 25 per cent of a company's equity or who otherwise have control of the company will have to be identified on the register at Companies House.

The proposals also include abolition of bearer shares and yet another review of the law on pre-pack administrations.

This is in part following the measures to help improve corporate transparency and strengthen director disqualification laws; which have been outlined in the publication of a discussion paper by the Business Secretary Vince Cable. The main elements of the ‘transparency’ section of the paper include:

  1. options for the implementation of a central registry information on of companies’ beneficial ownership maintained by Companies House, following on from the Prime Minister’s G8 commitment. The registry would hold information on individuals with more than 25 per cent of shares or voting rights in a company, or who otherwise control the way a company is run. Key questions include whether information in the registry should be made public, what information is to be provided and how it is to be updated.
  2. the abolition of bearer shares given the potential for misuse – these allow the true owner of these to remain hidden as their name is not disclosed on a company’s register of members
  3. whether nominee directors should be required to disclose their status to Companies House and who they are acting for and whether directors should be banned from signing away their responsibilities as directors. While nominees can be used in legitimate commercial scenarios, it can also mean the true owners of a company are hidden
  4. the abolition of corporate directors – a situation where a company is director. Although rarely used, these can result in complex corporate ownership structures which hide the beneficial owner’s true identity

Using a BVI Company to Avoid US Taxes?

 

Contact the Tax Lawyers

at Marini & Associates, P.A.
 
for a FREE Tax Consultation
at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms
or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243). 
 

Source:

Read more at: Tax Times blog

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