US business leaders have called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to go easier on taxpayers striving to comply with reporting requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, because of worries about financial and administrative burdens, including the duplication of information.
Business leaders believe the Australian government’s decision to reject or amend some of the tax changes announced by the previous Labor administration will reduce compliance burdens and boost certainty for taxpayers.
Michael Devereux, the director of the centre for business taxation at the University of Oxford, has described the international tax system as “a confused, complex mass of arbitrary, arcane and illogical rules”.
The US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) yesterday published draft guidance and an agreement for foreign financial institutions (FFIs) under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), as well as intended updates to the regulations under the legislation.
Seth Terkper, Ghana’s finance minister, has told a meeting in London attended by tax directors from leading multinational companies that tax evasion means that some countries cannot achieve targets for development and investment. Cooperative compliance, which seeks to identify potential problems before they arise, was highlighted as a key tool for creating trust between taxpayers and officials.
