Switzerland has weathered the international financial and economic crisis well compared to other developed economies, due to the Swiss Governments appropriate expansionary policies, strong public finances, and financial regulatory regimes. As part of its annual member-state review, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a report evaluating and praising the actions taken during the financial crisis by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) as appropriate, and regards the economic performance of the country as good with ... Read More

Hong Kong is heralding a new era of taxation transparency and cooperation, having signed three bilateral tax agreements and provided definite indications that it intends to amass the 12 required to be warranted a place on the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation’s (OECD) list of nations adequately implementing international tax standards. The Hong Kong Government began the week with the signing of three separate Comprehensive Agreements for the Avoidance of Double Taxation (CDTA) with the Netherlands, Brunei and Indonesia. The signings, combined ... Read More

The US, UK and the Cayman Islands have been found to be the most popular locations for private non-resident deposits, representing nearly USD 2 trillion of worldwide investments, according to a newly issued report. Seeing the lack of availability of compiled data on offshore holdings, the report quantifies offshore deposits on a country-by-country basis. In a report released on March 19th, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) revealed that worldwide private non-resident deposits held in secrecy jurisdictions has escalated to approximately USD 10 ... Read More

The international fight against cross-border tax evasion has taken a step forward with the initiation of a peer review group which aims to assess the progress made by nations in implementing internationally agreed standards of tax transparency. On March 18th the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced the initiation of the first step in the most extensive and through international tax transparency assesment process that has ever been undertaken. Eighteen nations from the 91 participating members of the Global Forum on ... Read More

The Australian Government has made alterations to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) legislation, aiming to improve compliance and lower taxpayer costs. In an effort to raise taxpayer certainty, the Government has also cut over 100 provisions within the tax laws, which had previously allowed the Commissioner of Taxation an indefinite time period within which to amend a taxpayer’s tax assessment. In a media statement released on March 17th, Nick Sherry, Assistant Treasurer of Australia and Senator for Tasmania, announced the introduction of ... Read More