The government of Thailand is taking rapid action to amend its anti-money laundering legislations, and hopes to enact stricter laws against such illicit activities before the end of the year. On May 17th the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand Kittiratt Na-Ranong revealed that urgent action has been initiated to strengthen the country's legislations against money laundering in order to ensure that Thailand is not demoted to the "blacklist" of nations by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). According to Kittiratt Na-Ranong, two new ... Read More

WASHINGTON D.C. - Businesses and civil groups across the USA are pushing for the government to instate new laws requiring all companies to disclose reveal their owners before they can be incorporated. On May 16th every member of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate received a letter signed by 41 American businesses and non-government organizations, urging the politicians to co-sponsor or support the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act. If passed into law, the new act would require all ... Read More

MANILA - Despite the fact that the Philippines has significantly increased the level of taxes collected in the country this year, the tax authorities still have not managed to meet their own revenue goals. In a statement issued on May 15th the Philippines' Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) confirmed that tax collections in the country only reached PHP 345.4 billion during the first quarter of the current year, with only PHP 116.2 billion collected during April. Tax collections in the Philippines over April were ... Read More

ISLAMABAD - Tax authorities in Pakistan will initiate a new projects to raise tax collections, and are aiming to identify shortcomings in the tax system and to improve tax compliance in the country. On May 15th the Ministry of Finance of Pakistan and National Finance Commission (NFC) held a joint working meeting in Islamabad, in which they discussed potential changes and improvements to Pakistan's tax system. As an outcome of the meeting, it was agreed that the NFC, the Ministry of Finance, and ... Read More

LONDON - The HM Revenue and Customs, with the cooperation of other law enforcement agencies, is initiating a greater number of tax cases against criminal organization , and has recovered millions of pounds of assets and cash arisen from criminal activities. Over the weekend the Civil Recovery Unit (CRU) released its annual report, detailing their efforts to recover properties and funds obtained through criminal and illicit activities in Scotland over the 2011 fiscal year. According to the report, over 2011 and 2012, the ... Read More

BERLIN - Germany is looking at decreasing taxes and slashing the national budget deficit, after forecasts for tax collections in the near future were raised. On May 10th the Finance Ministry of Germany Wolfgang Schaeuble announced that the forecast for taxes to be collected over the next five years has been revised upwards by an estimated EUR 29.4 billion. In the year 2012 the government of Germany now expects to collect EUR 596.5 billion, which is approximately EUR 4.6 billion higher than previously ... Read More

CANBERRA - Almost AUD 100 from the tax payments made every week by an average Australian will now go directly to funding national welfare programs to subsidies low income families. On May 10th the Tax Institute of Australia released a new report, which details the government's use of taxpayer money. The analysis comes only a day after the government of Australia released the national budget plan, which has already been labelled by the opposition parties as a "handout budget", as, according to ... Read More