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Apple offshore loopholes averted taxes

Apple avoided paying taxes on tens of billions of dollars in profits through a complex network of subsidiaries, many with "no declared tax jurisdiction," a US Senate panel has concluded. The Senate investigation, set to be discussed at a hearing Tuesday, stopped short of accusing the US tech giant of anything illegal but two lawmakers on the panel said the tax strategies call for new scrutiny.

Apple uses companies outside US to avoid paying billions in US taxes, Senate inquiry finds

WASHINGTON - Apple Inc. employs a group of affiliate companies located outside the United States to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes, a Senate investigation has found. The world's most valuable company is holding overseas some $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash, and an Irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes, according to the report issued Monday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Britain's Cameron makes personal plea to tax havens

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday wrote to leaders of oversees tax havens, urging them to help the country's efforts to combat tax evasion and avoidance. Cameron sent a letter to 10 British crown dependencies and overseas territories regarding the "critical" issues of tax information exchange and beneficial ownership, a practice which uses a nominal third-party resident in a low-tax state to shield income from taxation.

Singapore boosts measures against global tax cheats

Singapore said Tuesday it will implement new measures that will make it easier to share information with other countries on cross-border tax evaders trying to hide assets in the city-state. The move comes as the United States and developed countries in Europe intensify efforts to ferret out citizens who avoid paying taxes by parking their money in offshore financial centres like Singapore.

US, Britain, Australia unveil tax-haven probe

The United States, Britain and Australia announced a joint effort Friday to expose tax dodgers with an investigation of a massive cache of bank account data from tax havens that was leaked to the authorities. The three countries said they are sharing the huge trove of data on accounts in Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands, which includes names of account holders and their advisers. Britain said it had identified more than 100 people who have been hiding money in offshore tax havens in scouring the data.

Taxman may have a bead on offshore tax havens: Government says

OTTAWA - The Canadian government says it may be getting access to 2.5 million files on offshore tax havens that were leaked to the media last month. The U.S. announced Thursday it was teaming up with Australia and the U.K. in an effort to expose tax cheats from around the world. The American Internal Revenue Service says it has acquired substantial data about assets hidden in Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands.

Revenue Agency says 44 off-shore tax cheats convicted since 2006, won't say who

OTTAWA - As an international investigation of tax evaders broadens to include Canadian authorities, the federal government says it has convicted just 44 individuals of offshore tax cheating since 2006. And the total amount of fines levied — $6.8 million — is less than the $7.7 million in taxes that were evaded. Between April 2006 and March 2012, a total of 44 convicted tax evaders were collectively sentenced to 337 months in jail, an average of about seven months each.

Annan demands tighter G8 resource rules to aid Africa

The Group of Eight (G8) economic powers must adopt tough new rules for the energy and mining sectors to stem corruption and tax evasion that is bleeding wealth from Africa, according to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. In report published on Friday, Annan's 10-member Africa Progress Panel called for countries and companies be more transparent in dealings with the resource-rich continent, which is struggling to make the most of current economic growth in Asia and the Americas.

IRS, UK, Australia to share data on possible tax cheats hiding money in Singapore, Caribbean

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service says it is teaming with tax agencies in Australia and the United Kingdom to share information about potential tax cheats hiding money in tax havens around the world. The IRS said Thursday that tax agencies in the three countries have acquired "a substantial amount of data" about potential tax cheats from many countries hiding assets in Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands. The agencies are offering to share the information with other countries.

German finance minister: no chance Swiss tax deal can be renegotiated

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's finance minister sees no chance of renegotiating a failed bilateral deal with Switzerland that would have sought to sweep Swiss accounts clean of German tax dodgers, even after the country's foreign minister renewed his calls for a second try. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying on Saturday Switzerland would not be able to retroactively change laws to lift tax secrecy, one of the reasons for Germany's opposition to block the deal last year.
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