Tax

The issue of tax in Europe does not seem to be a happy one when it comes to tech giants like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. According to France’s new Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, France and Germany can harmonize their corporate tax rates by 2018, paving the way for full harmonization across the eurozone.

Le Maire made the comments during a television interview with Bloomberg. When asked if he wishes to lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent across all states in the eurozone, Le Maire replied that the Macron Government has decided first to reduce the level of taxation in France. He argued that the tax burden is "too high and too unstable."

France is Airbnb’s second largest market and yet in 2016, the internet giant paid the country just €92,944 in taxes – equivalent to the amount paid by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
With 350,000 listings, France is Airbnb’s second-largest market after the United States, and Paris, the most visited city in the world, is its biggest single market, with 65,000 homes.

On Monday, representatives for Switzerland and Singapore signed a bilateral deal to exchange data from 2019, pending approval from Swiss parliament for the deal. The two offshore centers, which have maintained extremely close ties in recent years, also signed a pact to cooperate even more closely on financial services.

Under the agreement, Switzerland will automatically exchange with the Singapore financial account information of accounts in Switzerland held by Singapore tax residents while Singapore will automatically exchange with Switzerland financial account information of accounts in Singapore held by Swiss tax residents. The agreement would apply from January 1, 2018, with the first exchange of data in 2019.

Switzerland and France have smoothed over concerns which had blocked the exchange of tax data between the two countries, a boost to French efforts to pursue cash hidden from the taxman.

The way in which data sent over by Switzerland was used in a French legal case involving UBS, Switzer­land’s biggest bank, had raised concerns for the Swiss that the two countries had different understandings of their double taxation agreement (DTA).

DTAs are in place to try to prevent double taxation and also set the ground rules for administrative assistance in tax matters.

Google emerged on Wednesday as the victor in its latest legal battle in Europe, after a French court said the technology behemoth did not have to pay $1.3 billion in back taxes.

At issue was whether Google had avoided taxes in France by routing sales in the country through an Irish-based subsidiary over a five-year period ending in 2010.

In a bold experiment in voluntary taxation, the Norwegian government launched an initiative in June that allowed those who thought their taxes to be too low to make contributions to the state.

“The tax scheme was set up to allow those who want to pay more taxes to do so in a simple and straightforward way,” Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a comment emailed to Bloomberg reporters. “If anyone thinks the tax level is too low, they now have the chance to pay more.”

The partial revision of Switzerland’s Value Added Tax Act will come into force on 1 January 2018, the Federal Council determined 2 June.

Under the new regime, to become VAT liable, global turnover should be taken into account instead of just Swiss turnover. Therefore, companies whose global turnover is at least 100,000 CHF will be liable to VAT from the first franc of turnover in Switzerland.

"Offshore", "tax haven" and more recently "Panama in the EU" are labels that Malta has done its best to shake off.

The Institute of Financial Services Practitioners (IFSP) said on Thursday that the a series of “sensationalist” media reports in parts of the international tabloid press, referred to as the “Malta Files” contain several inaccuracies and false statements.

“Maltese financial services practitioners operate within a legal and regulatory framework of the highest standards. Malta is a full member of the European Union and all its laws, including anti-money laundering rules, are fully aligned with European rules and best practice.