BEIJING - Throughout 2011 China saw significant growth in national tax collections, and the government’s total revenue for the year jump to above RMB 10 trillion. On January 20th the Ministry of Finance of China released a statement announcing that the government’s revenue reached RMB 10.17 trillion for the 2011 year, having grown by 24.8 percent compared to the results seen in 2010. The recorded fiscal revenues were comprised of RMB 5.13 trillion collected by the central government and an additional RMB 5.24 ... Read More

WASHINGTON D.C. - The IRS has launched its e-File programs for 2012, offering free tax preparation software to families with incomes below USD 57 000. With the US tax filing season now well under way, on January 17th the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) relaunched its e-File system, allowing taxpayers to submit their tax returns online using free tax preparation software and tools. The e-File consist of the Free File, which provides taxpayers with free tax preparation software, and Free File Fillable Forms which ... Read More

NEW DELHI - Indian taxpayers making large purchases over the next two months could be visited by tax investigators trying to determine the origin of the money used for the transaction. On January 18th the Finance Ministry of India released a new statement announcing that the Income Tax Department has received instruction from the country’s Central Board of Direct Tax to begin a new campaign against tax evasion. The new drive will see the Income Tax Department’s investigators scrutinize high value transactions ... Read More

LONDON - A new financial transaction tax in Europe could hike the cost of carrying transactions on the foreign exchange market by up to 18 times, and the monetary impact on the economy would surpass the tax revenues collected. On January 17th the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) released a new study examining and quantifying the potential impacts of a financial transaction tax on the foreign exchange market in Europe. The study found that due to the tight margins seen by traders ... Read More

LISBON - As Portugal faces austerity measures, more taxpayers are turning the underground economy and choosing to hide from their tax obligations. New research published on January 16th by the University of Porto shows that value of the underground economy of Portugal grew by 2.5 percent in 2010, reaching a total worth of approximately 24.8 percent of the national GDP that year, and the unreported activity led to lost tax revenues of approximately EUR 8 billion for the year. The new data indicates ... Read More