News

The OECD's new economic survey of the UK suggests that the nation needs to reform corporation tax and to develop new fiscal policy, noting in particular that rules giving preferential treatment to small firms may block the growth of businesses.

The US Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued an order authorizing the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to forward a “John Doe” summons on UBS AG for the purpose of obtaining information on US taxpayers who may hold accounts at Wegelin & Co and other Swiss banks to evade US taxes.

The Swiss Federal Council intends to draw up plan for a new value-added tax (VAT) model comprising of just two tax rates instead of current three rates.

In response to questioning by members of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, UK Tax Heads from the "Big Four" firms denied that they help companies to avoid paying fair tax and rejected the suggestion to forbid them receiving contracts in the public sector.

Recently the Swiss Federal Tax Administration has transferred CHF 500 mln (USD 549 mln) to the United Kingdom as an upfront payment, as provided for in the bilateral withholding tax agreement between two countries.

Tax authorities in the Swiss canton of Zurich have negotiated with Google, demanding that the company pay more in tax, following the UK parliament’s example.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has attacked UK government plans to introduce a new General Anti-Abuse Rule against tax avoidance, stating that it is unnecessary and will cause uncertainty while failing to prevent tax legislation abuse.

The Hungarian government has announced of plans to get comprehensive information about undeclared offshore accounts of Hungarian taxpayers in order to levy a retroactive 35% tax on the assets kept in foreign banks.

According to the Jersey government, last week new comprehensive double tax agreements were signed by Jersey with the Isle of Man and Guernsey.

Recently Liechtenstein and Austria have concluded negotiations on a bilateral withholding tax agreement and on a revision of the existing double taxation agreement between two countries.