Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden said attacks on Swiss cantonal taxation stemmed from a "poor knowledge of the federal system" and "jealousy". The interview followed talks between Frieden and his Swiss counterpart, Hans:Rudolf Merz, in Bern on Tuesday which centred on financial and taxation issues. "When a growing number of individuals and companies leave a country, the country itself should try and improve its own working and living environment rather than accuse others," Frieden told the Tages:Anzeiger. (Source: www.nzz.ch)


The A-shares of China Life Insurance will go public this week as the first insurance stock in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets and the stock of highest earn to profit ratio in A-shares market, in addition, it has draught much in overseas H-share’s price during its issuing of A-shares. Which is most drawing attention is that the market sentiment is most good unanimously, expecting stock price double on listing and there are quite a number of investors estimating 90-plus yuan of the stock over three years. Why do investors pay much attention to the listing of China Life’s A-shares? What is important is that its appearance arouses three suspense. (Source: China Finance Net)


In a stunning blow for foreign investors India's Authority on Advance Rulings (AAR) on income tax ruled on Monday that profits from management of portfolio investment are subject to short term capital gains tax and cannot be exempted as business income. Fidelity Group had sought advance rulings in respect of 40 of its funds after the AAR had previously ruled in its favour in a test case. Its Fidelity Advisor Series VIII fund was exempted from short term capital gains tax (10% on profits from holdings held for less than one year) in India. Share traders are exempted from long term capital gains tax because they pay the Securities Transaction Tax. (Source: tax-news.com)


A criminal case against KPMG LLP relating to alleged tax fraud has been dropped because the accounting firm complied with terms of an agreement with the government, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. "Today's dismissal of the charge reflects our commitment to full and continuing compliance with the agreement we made with the government," said KPMG Chief Executive Timothy Flynn in a statement after the ruling . "We regret the past activities that led to these charges." KPMG had agreed in August 2005 to pay $456 million, accept an outside monitor and admit to wrongdoing in resolving a federal investigation into questionable tax shelters. (Source: Reuters)


Following discussions between the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB), and the Ministry of Immigration, Labour and Training (MILT) at the recent Financial Services Retreat, the Bahamas financial services industry has developed an immigration framework designed to help the jurisdiction compete with other offshore financial centres for a finite pool of skilled workers.Two primary 'financial services industry' contacts have been appointed within the Department of Immigration, with the turnaround period for the processing of completed FSI work permit applications now pegged at 6 weeks. (Source: tax-news)


Following a previously announced decision by the European Commission that 1929 Companies contravened state aid rules, Luxembourg has terminated its 1929 holding company regime, although pre-existing publicly listed companies will continue to benefit from the regime for an additional four years. The 1929 holding regime has been abolished effective from January 1, 2007. However, under the implementing legislation, pre-existing publicly listed companies will be entitled to continue benefiting from their current tax regime until December 31, 2010, irrespective of any share transfers that may occur within that period. (Source: tax-news)


The updates currently being discussed by the finance industry working group include clarification of the position of former trustees in relation to claims made against them after retirement; a provision relating to non-charitable purpose trusts; and revision of Article 21 of the existing Trusts Law, in line with the 'prudent investor' rule followed by the United States and a number of Caribbean jurisdictions. (Source: thisisjersey.com)


ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus has appealed to the Stockholm Courts in order to challenge the Swedish Revenue regarding tax liabilities that the revenue say need to be paid. Ulvaeus set up companies in the Netherlands which were in turn a subsidiary of a company in the Netherlands Antilles. Ulvaeus' accountants deny that the purpose of this arrangement was tax avoidance. (Source: the local.se)


A new double tax avoidance agreement between Singapore and Morocco seeks to alleviate the burden of double taxation of income earned in one country by a resident of the other, clarify taxing rights and generally boost the flow of trade and investment. (Source: lawandtax-news)


Canadian governments are too reliant on personal income and business taxes and need to rebalance the tax system to make it more efficient through additional use of consumption taxes such as the GST, according to a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, the free market think tank. (Source: lawandtax-news)


The Chinese government has agreed to a further expansion of renminbi, or yuan, business in Hong Kong which will allow Chinese financial institutions, upon obtaining approval, to issue renminbi financial bonds in the territory. (Source: lawandtax-news)


According to the Sunday Times, HM Revenue & Customs has been holding secret talks with banks in an attempt to coax them to shop customers who have failed to declare tax on offshore income. If it cannot persuade the banks to do this voluntarily, it is expected to take legal action in the next few months to force them to hand over information. (Source: Sunday Times)


India's case for an amendment to its double taxation agreement (DTA) with Mauritius seems to have received a fillip with the African country amending a similar treaty with China. Indian officials, led by Central Board of Direct Taxes chairperson Indira Bhargava, are scheduled to hold discussions with their Mauritian counterparts over the next few weeks and are expected to cite the recent amendment to the Chinese tax treaty as a precedent for change to such a DTA. (Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)


Using a set of ten economic factors, Hong Kong has been ranked as the world's most free economy by the Heritage Foundation, the free market think tank, for the thirteenth consecutive year. (Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)


The European Commission announced on January 22, 2007 that it has decided to refer Belgium, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal to the European Court of Justice over national rules under which certain dividend payments to foreign companies (outbound dividends) may be taxed more heavily than dividend payments to domestic companies (Source:domestic dividends).


Twenty property enterprises in city of Shi Jiazhuang was smelled out 89.68 million yuan which should pay tax evaded and totally 130 million yuan of taxes adding the sums that the municipal tax authorities has checked out in 2003-2005. Revealed by the state tax bureau of Shi Jiazhuang, it has checked out 89.86 million yuan which should pay tax evaded by 20 property enterprises in inspection for the city, among which 43.55 million yuan had been paid by foreign-fund companies in corporate income tax and 46.31 million yuan by domestic firms, 19.45 million yuan for late fee and 6.28 million yuan for penalty. (Source: China Finance Net)


New York will lose its status as a leading financial centre within a decade to fast-growing rivals such as London, Dubai and Hong Kong unless there is a concerted effort to ease stringent regulations and reduce high litigation risks, according to a report endorsed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (pictured) and US Senator Charles E. Schumer. (Source: lawandtax-news)


Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi urged tourism sector to play a bigger role in expanding domestic consumption and promoting the efficient and fast development of national economy. In a written instruction to the national conference on tourism work, Wu said tourism should be cultivated into an important industry in Chinese economy.

Wu said Chinese tourism industry has witness sustained growth in recent years and scored major steps in the international exchanges. According to the National Tourism Administration, China is expected to become the world No.1 tourist destination country by 2017. Wu said next year China would continue to rectify the tourism market order and build up a team of high-qualified professionals in the tourism sector. (Source: Xinhua)


There are number of unruly advertisement in the hurdles of over bridges and the ground of bus station with black oil paint claiming handling long or short terms loans by calling 13034××××××. The illegally ads actually covered dope of some shortstopped illicit banks, the interest rates of these so-called short term loan are as high as 20 time of its counterparts in regular banks.（Source: China Finance Net）


The former president of Nong Kai Group Zhou Zhengyu was arrested for suspected bribes on January 21st,2007 and discharged tax for addition value by Shanghai people’s procuratorate according to law. The court found out by investigation and debates the former president and the legal representative of Neng Kai Development (Group) Ltd., Zhou Zhengyu pooled mint funds and consistently trade or trade without changed ownership the circular shares of Xuzhou Engineering Machines Technology Company by instigating other and held shares up to 95.93% at highest level which resulted in the share’s 402 percent fluctuation and made illegal profits. (Source: China Finance Net)