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Monday, March 4, 2013
On February 27, Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang gave his annual Budget speech, in which he pledged to “share the city's prosperity” and provide a cushion against an uncertain economic environment. However, it can be said that behind the rhetoric was a budget of little substance, leading to fears that the Special Administrative Region of China may be losing its competitive edge.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
As if tax wasn’t complicated enough in most jurisdictions, businesses must also contend with accounting standards rules that, internationally, are in a state of flux as countries harmonize their own rules with ever-evolving international standards at different speeds. This feature attempts to make sense of the current accounting standards situation, and the transition to global standards.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Progress towards the completion of the Doha Round of world trade talks remains stalled, and the World Trade Organization has warned of a lurch towards protectionism. However, the world’s major trading powers do not appear to have given up on expanding free trade, and while Doha lays dormant, the Asia-Pacific region – widely tipped to lead the next phase of global economic growth – is playing host to an emerging trend towards the conclusion of multilateral free trade groupings.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2013
There has been no shortage of events in the area of real estate taxation across the world since our last news round-up on this subject, and, as before, two distinct trends continue: while Western governments are turning to property taxes to boost their coffers, certain Asian governments are using them to apply the brakes to surging property markets.
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Announcing the government's Budget for 2013, Finance Minister Michael Noonan declared that, just two years after the catastrophic near-collapse of the country's banking system and its subsequent bail-out, Ireland is now "well on the road to recovery" and can look to the future with "confidence." However, he gave taxpayers little to cheer about despite the government having so far met its obligations under the bail-out agreement.
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012
In the autumn of 2000 the Maltese government passed legislation enabling online betting centres to be set up in the country, and this legislation, coupled with provisions from the Income Tax Act written specifically for international companies, made Malta an attractive location for casino and sportsbook operations. Malta became the first EU member state to regulate internet gaming in May 2004 with its Remote Gaming Regulations under the Lotteries and Other Games Act 2001.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Malta, like Cyprus, has been obliged to dismantle its old 'offshore' companies regime as a trade-off for joining the European Union. EU membership has, however, brought about certain benefits for Maltese companies trading across borders, and, coupled with investment-friendly government policies and some interesting tax planning opportunities, Malta remains one of the most favourable places in the EU in which to locate an international holding company.
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Tuesday, November 6, 2012
The Cypriot shipping industry has experienced strong growth since the creation of the shipping registry in 1963 and several ingredients have combined to make Cyprus one of the most important locations for a variety of maritime-related activities, including a benign tax regime, modern financial and legal infrastructure, low operating costs and geographical location at the junction of three continents.
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Tuesday, October 23, 2012
With the European Union - less than half of it at any rate - having reached a momentous agreement to forge ahead with a tax on financial transactions, in this article we give an overview of transaction tax initiatives past, present and future.
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012
With its location in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, a centuries old maritime tradition and a respected and favourable regulatory and tax regime for shipping, it is no surprise that Malta has developed one of the world's largest ship registers in modern times, and in the face of stiff competition from other prominent maritime nations.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012
After sailing through the initial phase of the global financial meltdown and ensuing credit crunch relatively unscathed, the European debt crisis has, it seems, finally caught up with Cyprus, with its banks heavily exposed to their Greek counterparts.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
A lot has happened to Cyprus over the past 12 to 18 months as the country found itself caught up in the conflagration of the Eurozone debt and banking crisis. As a result, some taxes have been raised on both individuals and companies, but, on the whole, Cyprus remains an attractive jurisdiction for holding companies.
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Despite ongoing pressure to increase tax revenues, a lot of governments have realised that when it comes to corporate tax, the best way to boost the tax take is to encourage corporate expansion, encouraging business start-ups and investment generally by lowering rates, and this has resulted in a downtrend in global corporate tax rates over the last 10 to 15 years.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012
As governments attempt to extract the maximum amount of feathers from the goose with the minimum amount of hissing, they are increasingly turning their attention towards the wealthiest few percent of society in their search for extra revenue – and top sports professionals are a particularly juicy target. So with the London Games in mind, in this feature we take a look at how certain governments, legislatures and tax collectors are approaching this issue.
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Monday, July 30, 2012
Given that politicians, central bankers and economic commentators frequently tell us that we are in the grip of the worst economic and financial crisis since the 1930s, it is not surprising to see countries turning to protectionism in an attempt to insulate their industries from foreign competition.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
In the years preceding the onset of the financial crisis, personal income tax rates were, by and large, on the way down across the OECD member states. However, while some of these countries have managed to maintain, or in some cases modestly reduce, income tax for the low-paid, the highly-paid and the wealthy have become an easy target for governments in their search for revenue, and this has led to upwards pressure on top income tax rates. In this review, we summarise some of the most notable recent examples of this trend.
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Monday, July 2, 2012
Can a deeply divided United States Congress, in an election year, pull the iron out of the fire and agree on a key tax and spending bill that will save America from toppling over the so-called 'fiscal cliff' next year?
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012
In our previous feature on international real estate taxation, we recounted how governments in Europe in particular were becoming increasingly reliant on higher or new property taxes as part of their deficit reduction strategies, and this is a trend that has continued into 2012. However, we are also witnessing property taxes being used in Asia for quite different reasons: namely as a way to cool overheated real estate markets.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is seen by some as a necessary tool to combat unacceptable tax avoidance by US citizens placing money in foreign bank accounts at a time when more ‘patriotic’ taxpayers are paying their fair share towards reducing the federal deficit, and by others as an unlawful incursion by the US government into the legal affairs of sovereign states and another nail in the coffin of individual privacy. Like it or not, however, FATCA, as it is more popularly known, is here to stay.
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Faced with strengthening economic headwinds, plunging tax revenues and a wider-than-anticipated budget deficit, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan has just performed that manoeuvre so familiar to politicians around the world faced with adverse circumstances at budget time – the u-turn.
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Tax-News Reviews
A review and forecast of Cyprus's international business, legal and investment climate.
A review and forecast of Malta's international business, legal and investment climate.
A review and forecast of Jersey's international business, legal and investment climate.
A review of the latest budget news and government financial statements from around the world.
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