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The US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) yesterday published draft guidance and an agreement for foreign financial institutions (FFIs) under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), as well as intended updates to the regulations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.
The OECD is under substantial political pressure to produce results from its project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), a panel of tax executives and practitioners told an international meeting in London last week.
