After the release of Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus’ discussion draft outlining his proposals for US corporate tax reform, Jim Ditkoff, senior vice president – finance and tax – at science and technology company Danaher Corporation, analyses the proposals and explains why companies like Apple and Google may regret some of their lobbying efforts.
Companies that pay taxes in Central Asia and Eastern Europe will be pleased to find out their compliance burden has come down the most in the nine-year history of the Paying Taxes survey, according to this year’s version of the research, which was compiled once again by PwC, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Apple’s tax affairs have once again attracted the attention of tax authorities, this time in Italy where an investigation has been launched into an alleged €1 billion ($1.3 billion) fraud by the consumer electronics company.
ActionAid has slammed Barclays, the UK bank, for promoting the use of tax havens in Africa, accusing the bank of hypocrisy and a failure to deliver on public promises that it wants to become a “force for good”. Deloitte has also incurred the wrath of the tax justice group.
The tourism industry in the UK believes a VAT reduction would be revenue neutral and generate £4 billion ($6.4 billion) each year for the economy. It is pressing George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, for a sector-specific rate cut before he unveils his Autumn Statement on tax and spending on December 5.
