#De-offshorization Archives - Law firm Finance Business Service: offshore registration, tax planning, legal services

Analysis of exchange of tax information and investment in exchange for citizenship, taking into account the first results of the discussion organized by the OECD

Published: Вячеслав Иваненко | 24.05.2018 | blog

Back in the first quarter of 2018, namely on February 19, 2018, a draft of advisory document was published on the official website of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which called on all interested parties to join the discussion on the OECD strategy for combating the loopholes on using the Common Reporting Standard (CRS, Single standard of tax information exchange) in the “citizenship by the investment” (CBI - granting citizenship in exchange for investments) and “residence by the investment” (RBI - granting a residence permit in exchange for investments). To date, more than 70 jurisdictions in the world offer these schemes. On April 17, 2018, a 96-page document was published on the OECD website (PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON MISUSE OF RESIDENCE BY INVESTMENT SCHEMES TO CIRCUMVENT THE COMMON REPORTING STANDARD), which, in fact, summarized the first results of the discussion and the contents of the official letters to the organization. More than 20 structures were the speakers, including: AFME office in London (Association of Financial Markets in Europe, it brings together the largest agents in the capital markets in the region); Italian...

Offshore for Trading Activities: Is It Necessary

Published: Olena Vydysh | 16.05.2018 | blog

Until recently, offshore companies have been actively used by the Ukrainian entrepreneurs in international trade to reduce the tax burden and keep business confidentiality. We will consider in this blog whether the situation has changed in the conditions of global deoffshorization, and in particular, tightening of the Ukrainian legislation. The field of trade has always been the simplest and most popular for offshore applications. One of the main goals of using offshore schemes in export-import transactions was to regulate the customs value of the goods, and, accordingly, the company’s trading profits. Offshore companies in such schemes were used as intermediaries between the seller and the buyer for the understatement of the value of goods during the export and overstatement - upon import. However, the process of deoffshorization has reached our country. The provisions for the control of transfer pricing started working in the Ukrainian legislation. The Cabinet of Ministers has approved and periodically reviews the list of the countries with preferential taxation (it includes both classic offshores and jurisdictions, the income tax rate for the companies which have 5 or more...

How the rules for LP of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will change

Published: Olena Vydysh | 08.05.2018 | blog

Essence of the scandal On April 29, a publication on the use of thousands of SLP in criminal activities appeared in the British newspaper The Times. According to the British officials, SLP was used through shills in complex schemes for money laundering. In particular, by means of the scheme, including more than 100 Scottish Limited Partnerships, about 58 billion pounds sterling, accumulated illegally, was withdrawn from Russia. More than 20 SLP was used in a fraudulent scheme, by means of which about 742 billion pounds sterling was withdrawn from Moldova. There is also a link between SLP and organized criminal groups from Eastern Europe for the purpose of conducting weapon delivery deals. All this became a reason for the announcement of the beginning of struggle against fictitious companies by Britain. And on the next day, April 30, a consultative document was posted on the official website of the British government with a number of proposals on reforming the legislation on limited partnerships to reduce the risks of their use in criminal schemes. Importance of Limited Partnerships It is worth noting that a Limited Partnership (LP), including its Scottish form, continues to...

Сentral database of beneficial owners of companies is created on the BVI

Published: Olena Vydysh | 20.04.2018 | blog

Following the introduction of a public register of persons with significant control for the British companies and LLP (from April 2016), as well as for the Scottish partnerships (since June 2017), some British dependent territories, under pressure from the UK itself, have created similar registers / databases. However, these centralized registers will be closed, and the access to data from them will be available only to the British competent authorities and only upon request. This decision has become a compromise after many years of negotiations and frictions, since the overseas territories, although partially subject to the law of Great Britain, are still self-regulatory. On the one hand, access to these closed registers / databases will enable the UK law enforcement agencies to monitor tax evasion, as well as terrorists and criminals hiding behind the anonymous companies. On the other hand, this will put an end to the requirements for the introduction of open registers of beneficiaries in the countries partially controlled by Great Britain. Among such states are the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Bermuda, Guernsey, Jersey, and others. As the British...

How to choose a foreign bank and open an account in it in 2018: will it be easy?

Published: Вячеслав Иваненко | 17.04.2018 | blog

What is important to know when choosing a foreign bank in 2018 Recently, an increasing number of citizens, concerned about their future, the future of their family or business, face the issue whether it is possible to open an account in a foreign bank and what is required for this? Which bank to choose for this: European, offshore bank, etc.? Historically, (and sometimes it is quite justified) the trust to a foreign bank is higher than to local institutions, and obtaining, for example, a loan is possible on more favorable terms than in Ukrainian banks, moreover, many people wish to keep the confidentiality of their actual income. Regardless of whether you want to open a foreign bank account online in offshore or onshore jurisdictions, a number of aspects need to be considered and analyzed when choosing a bank. That is why the company Finance Business Service works with more than 100 banks around the world. We ask only really necessary questions in the process of selecting banks for our clients. The current situation in the banking shows that financial institutions are increasingly facing problems of unexpected loss of correspondent accounts in US dollars. In general, the US is...

Disclosure of beneficial owners as obligatory requirement becomes norm

Published: Olena Vydysh | 05.10.2017 | blog

In recent years, the world community has realized the importance of the corporate transparency. The Panama Papers, high scandals with corruption and tax evasion have caused a radical shift in the attitude towards anonymous companies. The creation of the registers of beneficial owners (hereinafter referred to as "the UBO registers") is considered as the main instrument for increasing transparency. This idea underlies the EU legislation, FATF recommendations, G20 initiatives, the OECD project to combat on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. For the EU Member States, the obligation to establish the UBO registers, stipulated by the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD IV), entered into force on June 26, 2017. However, there are still many questions about how the UBO registers will work in practice. The European states independently define in the national legislation such terms as "legal entity", "legal structure" and "UBO". The concern about data confidentiality is also increasingly growing in Europe, as the countries are discussing who should be allowed access to the registers and for what purpose. Will they provide information only to law enforcement and regulatory...

List of organizational and legal forms of non-residents is approved, with which operations will be controlled according to rules of tp

Published: Olena Vydysh | 14.09.2017 | blog

On July 27, the list of organizational and legal forms of foreign counterparties on the countries / territories was officially published (and therefore entered into force), operations with which can be recognized as controlled for the purpose of control of transfer pricing (TP). This list was approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 480 of July 4 of this year (hereinafter - the List) for the implementation of the provisions of the Tax Code of Ukraine on TP, namely the clause "d" 39.2.1.1 art.39, and it is another criterion for the recognition of the operation as controlled one. If we look more widely, this can be seen as the next step of our government within the framework of global campaign on de-offshoring, namely to fulfill the commitments to implement the BEPS plan (its minimum standard), which Ukraine assumed with the acquisition of an official BEPS membership from 1 January, 2017. The list includes more than 90 organizational and legal forms from 26 countries and territories. The absolute majority of organizational and legal forms on the list are partnerships (about 80% of total amount). There were also some forms of investment funds and...

New steps of the deoffshorization in Ukraine

Published: Sergey Panov | 25.04.2016 | news

The Verkhovna Rada registered draft law "On the tax sovereignty of Ukraine and offshore companies" № 4380 (hereinafter - the "Project number 4380") and the Draft Law "On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine in connection with the adoption law of Ukraine" About tax sovereignty of Ukraine and offshore companies "» № 4381 (hereinafter - the "project number 4381") on 12 April, 2016. According to the explanatory memorandum to the draft decision number 4380 of this law aims to determine the content of the tax sovereignty of Ukraine, as well as the content of the sovereignty of foreign states. Besides this, lawmakers plan to minimize the use of offshore companies to evade taxes in the territory of Ukraine or to deal with corruption offenses and money laundering from crime, terrorist financing or other socially dangerous criminal offenses, including those committed by politically exposed persons - Ukrainian residents. Also Project number 4380 is assumed a definition of concepts which have not yet been enshrined in the legislation of Ukraine, in particular, "the anonymous company", "anonymous account", "offshore company", "offshore zone", "offshore country" and many others. An...

Tag: #De-offshorization