Connect to share and comment

Ireland rejects blame for Apple's low tax rate

May 21, 2013 09:00
By Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin CORK/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.

Senate panel peels back Apple's offshore taxes

May 21, 2013 08:01
By Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc's chief executive officer defended the company's tax record at a Tuesday Senate hearing where lawmakers said the maker of iPads, iPods and Mac computers kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries to avoid U.S. taxes. The hearing marked another foray by the Senate's most powerful investigative committee into corporate offshore tax avoidance, which is increasingly a target of many governments from the United States to Western Europe.

Falling US deficit renews austerity or growth debate

Agence France-PresseMay 18, 2013 11:30
Austerity or growth? Europe's struggling economies have faced the question without fully answering it in recent years, but the United States is on track to do both. Projections unveiled this week by the Congressional Budget Office indicate the US deficit will shrink more than 40 percent during fiscal 2013, returning to its lowest level in five years.

Budget watchdog says AECL to cost taxpayers additional $236 million this year

The Canadian PressMay 17, 2013 12:00
OTTAWA - Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is continuing to be a money pit for taxpayers. The parliamentary budget officer's latest analysis of the government's spending estimates shows the Crown corporation will cost the public purse an additional $236 million this year, bringing the total to $362 million for 2013-14. The additional money is for AECL's research and development program.

Portugal bailout review completed: government

May 14, 2013 19:16
LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's government said on Sunday its EU and IMF lenders had concluded work on the latest bailout review, indicating there were no outstanding obstacles for Lisbon to receive the next 2 billion euro tranche of the rescue package. The review, which had been practically sealed in March, hit a snag early last month when the constitutional court threw out some of this year's austerity measures. But the government presented a plan to compensate for those, along with wider deficit reduction steps until 2015 worth 4.8 billion euros.

Sharply lower 2013 deficit estimate could put damper on further deficit-cutting this year

The Canadian PressMay 14, 2013 15:26
WASHINGTON - The budget deficit for the current year is projected to come in well below what was estimated just a few months ago, a development that could further curb the already slowing momentum for a budget pact this year.

Greek budget on track to meet fiscal targets

May 12, 2013 09:45
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece stayed on track to meet its fiscal targets in the first four months of the year, helped by cuts in public spending and investment, the finance ministry said on Friday. The primary central government deficit, which excludes local authorities, social security organizations and interest payments, narrowed to 330 million euros ($430 million) from 1.7 billion in the same period last year. That compares with an interim target for a deficit of 3.6 billion euros, it said.

US Treasury reports $113B surplus in April, biggest in 5 years; helps lower US deficit

The Canadian PressMay 10, 2013 17:01
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury said Friday that it took in a rare surplus of $113 billion in April, the largest in five years. Steady economic growth and higher tax rates have boosted the government's tax revenue, keeping this year's annual budget deficit on pace to be the smallest since 2008. A smaller deficit is also likely to give negotiators more time to work out a deal on raising the nation's borrowing limit. Through the first seven months of the budget year, the deficit was $488 billion. That's lower than last year's deficit of $720 billion over the same period.

Column: The lessons of Reinhart-Rogoff

May 7, 2013 14:00
By Lawrence Summers (Reuters) - The economics commentariat and no small part of the political debate in recent weeks has been consumed with the controversy surrounding the work of my Harvard colleagues (and friends) Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff (RR). Their work had been widely interpreted as establishing that economic growth was likely to stagnate in a country once its government debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 90 percent.

French finance chief hails Europe's decision to slow down pace of debt reduction

The Canadian PressMay 7, 2013 13:45
BERLIN - France's finance minister says the European Union's decision to grant his country more time to tackle its deficit marks a turning point in the region's approach to austerity, which is choking off growth. Pierre Moscovici said Tuesday that cutting budget deficits remains important but the 27-nation bloc must now move toward a more growth-friendly "doctrine of positive deficit reduction."
Syndicate content