The International Monetary Fund has praised Australia for its plans to implement a tax on the extraction of national mineral resources, however it has also stated that the levy needs to be broadened across the mining and resource industry. On September 30th an early draft of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on the Australian economy was made available. The publication showed that the IMF was generally pleased with the Australian Government’s current economic and fiscal direction, however it did raise some ... Read More

The amount of transactions between Denmark and tax havens over the last five years has totaled DKK 1 trillion (approx. USD 182 billion). The Tax Ministry of Denmark has released new data and launched an investigation into the vast amounts of transactions between Danish entities and tax havens. The investigation is part of the Ministry's Project Money Transfer, which began with request to national banks to provide extensive information on customers' money transfers to countries considered to be tax havens by the Tax ... Read More

The UK HM Revenue and Customs has begun a using a list of stolen Swiss bank information in their campaign against tax evasion by clients holding undeclared Swiss banks accounts. Some UK taxpayers have reportedly received letters from the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) advising them that they are suspected of holding undeclared bank accounts in the Swiss division of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) bank and that an investigation will soon begin into their tax affairs. The letters explain ... Read More

The US Internal Revenue Service has given in to corporate protest and conceded to reduce the amount of disclosure required by businesses, concerning their use of tax-saving transactions. In a media statement made prior to a meeting of the American Bar Association in Toronto last week Doug Shulman, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner, revealed that the IRS will begin an incremental phase-in process for its controversial new disclosure requirements for large companies. In April 2010 it was announced that under provision of the ... Read More

The Australian Tax Office intends to expand its anti-tax evasion operations by combing through years of extensive automobile and property purchases records to find evidence of tax evasion. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) will soon send official requests to all of the Australian state governments for extensive historical property and automobile purchase data. The ATO hopes to collect all the available information on property title transfers between July 1st 1999 and June 30th 2010. The ATO will also request data on all ... Read More