Mediaboss Marketing

13 February 2012 Last updated at 10:27 ET

The chief of India's federal investigation agency says Indians have illegally deposited an estimated $500bn in overseas tax havens.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director AP Singh said Indians were the largest depositors in foreign banks.

Funds were being sent to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and the British Virgin Islands among others, he said.

Analysts say this flight of capital has helped widen inequality in India.

Mr Singh was speaking at the opening on Monday of the first Interpol global programme on anti-corruption and asset recovery in the Indian capital, Delhi.

"It is estimated that around $500bn of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad. [The] largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians," The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted him as saying.

Mr Singh said getting information about such illegal transactions was a time-consuming and expensive process as each country where money had been sent had to be approached for help with investigations.

He said there was a lack of political will in the tax havens to part with any information because they were aware of the extent to which their economies had become "geared to this flow of illegal capitals from the poorer countries", PTI reported.

In a report in November 2010 the US-based group, Global Financial Integrity, said India had lost more than $460bn between 1948, a year after Independence, and 2008 because of companies and the rich illegally funnelling their wealth overseas.

India's underground economy accounted for 50% of the country's gross domestic product, it said.

The report said the illicit outflows of money had increased after economic reforms began in 1991.

In recent months, India's Congress party-led government has been on the back foot on the issue of black money and corruption.

The Supreme Court has also chided the government for not doing enough to unearth illicit money.

Originally posted here:
Tax evasion 'cost India $500bn'

One thing's for sure. Mitt Romney didn't send his money down to the Cayman Islands to work on its tan.

The former Massachusetts governor has been criticized by some for having some of his vast fortune in the Caribbean offshore banking center. Yes, it was politically clumsy. But it was not uncommon, and -- assuming he has filed all the right disclosures -- it was perfectly legal.

But if you're not running for president, and don't have to worry about public relations, what are the legitimate reasons for moving money offshore?

I spoke to Jim Duggan, a partner at Chicago law firm Duggan Bertsch, to get the skinny. He's a tax and estate planning attorney who specializes in wealth management issues for the very rich, and he's been practicing in this area for nearly 20 years.

He says a growing number of wealthy people are looking into moving some of their money offshore. "The interest in offshore planning has increased basically by a factor of five in the last ten years," he says. Clients want to talk to him about it all the time.

Why?

Contrary to popular opinion, it's not really to save on taxes.

That's because American taxpayers are taxed on their worldwide income -- so if you're making $10,000 (or $10 million) in interest on a bank account in, say, the Caymans or Switzerland, you're getting taxed by Uncle Sam as if you're making it in a bank account here.

It's easy to scoff and assume the rich are hiding their money and cheating. Doubtless some are. But enforcement is tight, and the penalties aren't so much draconian as medieval. They are far more severe than for tax evasion onshore.

And there are plenty of tax shelters available here in the U.S. anyway -- such as trusts in low tax states, buying life insurance, and variable annuities.

So what are the real reasons the rich are casing the Caymans with their cash?

There are two, says Duggan: Litigation risk, and political risk.

Yes: Political risk. Or, as he puts in a nice legal euphemism, "jurisdictional diversification."

Litigation risk is the old reason. You could get hit by a crazy lawsuit here in the U.S. The wealthy are an easy mark, and anything onshore is vulnerable. But the U.S. courts don't have jurisdiction overseas and if you plan things right you have at least some chance of protecting money held offshore, Duggan says. "It keeps you away from our court system and the caprices of our courts," he says.

The new reason, though, is political risk: "Diversification from our government, policies, and banking systems," says Duggan. The last few years have shaken faith in our system. Duggan says growing numbers of his clients are worried about the financial system, confiscation -- the whole shebang. "They're concerned about our government, and where our society is headed. There's a lot of socialistic tendencies, capital controls, the redistribution of wealth."

Once again it's easy to scoff. Financially, the very wealthy have probably never had it so good in this country. Corporate profits and financial assets are booming. Tax rates on dividends and long-term capital gains are very, very low. But Duggan says the wealthy feel under attack, and government rhetoric is making them nervous.

But there's a logical problem here. Imagine a future government did decide to confiscate assets. They'd go after the money you held in Switzerland just as much as the money you held in New York, and the penalties for tax evasion would be as medieval as they are now.

The only way to save your money would presumably be to renounce your citizenship and move into exile. Even then the IRS might come after you. Do you want to spend the rest of your life living next to Roman Polanski in France?

Once again, all this makes you see the appeal of holding some gold within a portfolio.

Personally, I don't see any reason to think this administration is going to go after the so-called one percent. Too many of its members are either members of that elite group already -- or have high hopes of joining after they retire.

More:
Why the Rich Are Really Moving Cash to the Caymans

LONDON –  The international banking community has agreed a set of guidelines to ensure efficient processing of offshore Chinese yuan transactions, financial messaging network Swift said Monday.

Facilitated by Swift, the agreement was reached in two months between 24 institutions with businesses in Hong Kong which actively settle offshore yuan payments. The new guidelines standardize financial payments messaging between counterparties, requiring them to differentiate between onshore and offshore yuan payments.

Over 80% of yuan payments are made in Hong Kong and the volume of global payments denominated in Chinese yuan has surged during the last 18 months. While Swift doesn't elaborate on volume amounts, in November alone 1085 financial institutions in 95 countries handled transactions denominated in yuan. Growth in such payments has doubled in the Middle East and increased ten-fold during that time in South Africa.

In relative terms though, the yuan remains the world's number 17 currency, representing just 0.29% of the total value of global payments.

HSBC Holdings PLC, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Standard Chartered PLC were among the global institutions involved in the new guidelines, Swift said. Trade associations, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association were also involved in the agreement.

Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones Newswires

Read the original:
Banking Industry Agrees Offshore Yuan Processing Guidelines

February 14, 2012, 12:11 AM EST

By Steven Sloan and Richard Rubin

(Updates starting with Hintzke comment in third paragraph.)

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service are trying to make it easier for overseas banks to comply with a tax withholding and information- collection requirement for some U.S. clients.

Regulations proposed today would allow overseas banks to use information they already collect to comply with due diligence requirements, the Treasury said in a press release today. The proposal would delay the implementation schedule under which foreign financial institutions must report information about their customers. The regulations also would expand the range of financial institutions that won’t be required to enter into formal agreements with the IRS.

“It’s clear that Treasury has been listening to the comments and they’re responding to them,” said Denise Hintzke, global leader for foreign account tax compliance at Deloitte Tax LLP. “These regulations are moving, I think, forward in making these provisions workable for the industry.”

The announcement is intended to address concerns of overseas financial institutions while making it clear that the U.S. plans to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. The 2010 law requires banks to withhold 30 percent from “certain U.S.-connected payments” to the accounts of U.S. clients who don’t disclose enough information to the IRS.

“When taxpayers overseas avoid paying what they owe, other Americans have to bear a disproportionate share of the tax burden,” Emily McMahon, the Treasury’s acting assistant secretary for tax policy, said in the press release. “FATCA is an important part of the U.S. government’s effort to address that issue and these regulations implement FATCA in a way that is targeted and efficient.”

Toronto-Dominion

Overseas financial institutions including Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada, Allianz SE of Germany and Aegon NV of the Netherlands have said previous versions of FATCA were too complex. In some cases, the reporting requirements under U.S. law conflicted with bank secrecy laws and other banking regulations.

U.S. citizens living outside the country have complained about the burden created by the reporting requirement, which can apply to people who have never lived in the U.S. and whose parents were U.S. citizens.

The Treasury said it wouldn’t exempt any country from FATCA’s compliance requirements. The U.S. also issued a joint statement with France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. to enforce the law.

“The United States is willing to reciprocate in collecting and exchanging on an automatic basis information on accounts held in U.S. financial institutions by residents of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom,” according to the statement. “The approach under discussion, therefore, would enhance compliance and facilitate enforcement to the benefit of all parties.”

Step Forward

Michael Mundaca, who preceded McMahon as the U.S. Treasury’s top tax policy official, said in a statement that the international cooperation marked a significant step forward.

“I imagine Treasury will now approach other governments about adopting this model, if they haven’t already done so,” said Mundaca, now co-leader of the Americas Tax Center at Ernst & Young LLP. “It will be interesting to see how other countries and especially other financial centers react.”

Several countries where U.S. citizens hold assets, including Canada and Switzerland, weren’t included in the agreement.

James Mastracchio, a tax partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP in Washington, said the U.S. is trying to respond to concerns from other governments and banks around the world about the reach of the U.S. law.

“If we do this, what’s to stop any other country from doing this?” he said in an interview.

Bigger Accounts

The changes proposed today also would require the financial institutions to do paper searches of fewer accounts for U.S. connections. The rules would limit more labor-intensive efforts to accounts with more than $1 million.

“It’s really just the bigger accounts,” Hintzke said.

Ken Bentsen, executive vice president for public policy and advocacy at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association in Washington, said his group welcomes the additional time to comply with some of the law’s requirements.

“Nevertheless,” he said in a statement, “implementation of FATCA will impose significant challenges and costs for many United States financial services firms and their customers.

Members of his group include units of Barclays Plc, UBS AG and BNP Paribas SA.

--Editors: Jodi Schneider, Bob Drummond

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Sloan in Washington at ssloan7@bloomberg.net; Richard Rubin in Washington at rrubin12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net

More here:
Treasury Proposes Easing Offshore Bank Tax Compliance Burden

MA Interactive Group, a Chicago web design firm with a strong focus in real estate marketing and website design continues its growth in the this sector with the launch of new website design for downtown Chicago luxury apartment locator service, Tricap Preferred.

Northfield, IL (PRWEB) February 13, 2012

Chicago web design firm, MA Interactive Group has launched a new website design for their fellow Chicagoland company Tricap Preferred. With loads of prior experience in real estate web design, choosing MA Interactive Group for the development of their new website design was a no-brainer for Tricap Preferred. Located in the heart of downtown Chicago, Tricap Preferred is, by design, the city’s most exclusive professional apartment locator service – exclusive in both the properties they represent and the clients they serve. That is, Tricap Preferred limits their business to luxury apartment listings in a select group of neighborhoods, and the people who wish to lease them.

Tricap Preferred’s exclusivity is not only limited to their clientele and the neighborhoods in which they operate. When it came to searching for the best digital agency in Chicago to develop their website, they would not settle for just anyone. Tricap sought the best and that is exactly what they got with MA Interactive. In comparison to any other Chicago digital agency, MA’s knowledge and understanding of the real estate market stands unrivaled. With majority of their clientele falling into this space, they know exactly what a real estate website design needs in order to excel amongst its competitors. Tricap Preferred’s new website design has been developed using a Drupal content management system. This CMS provides the developers at MA with the freedom they need to design and develop the site without certain restrictions imposed by other content management systems. It also offers the client an effortless way to actively manage certain aspects of their new website.

This is not the first time MA Interactive Group and Tricap have worked with each other, nor will it mark the end of the relationship between these two companies. Along with real estate web design, MA Interactive is also extremely well versed in the real estate marketing space and because of this, Tricap has also called upon MA to implement an Internet marketing program for the new website. “We are extremely confident in our marketing tactics for Tricap Preferred”, says Mike Templeton, principal at MA Interactive Group. “Today, new products or companies can be launched almost exclusively in the digital space”. MA will optimize all of the content on the Tricap Preferred website for optimal search visibility, they will also develop an entire SEO program, as well as create and manage social media pages for Tricap Preferred.

MA Interactive Group, is located in Northfield, IL. Its partners, Mike Templeton and Allan Yalowitz have been serving the Internet Marketing needs of Chicago and the nation since 1995. Mike Templeton as Vice-President and Area President for several Real Estate companies and Allan Yalowitz as a Director of Interactive Media and Design for several agencies and now collective as MA Interactive Group. MA provides Internet marketing services including branding and strategy, web design and development, mobile marketing, social networking, and search engine marketing.

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Mike Templeton
MA Interactive Group
847.716.2260
Email Information

The rest is here:
Chicago Digital Agency, MA Interactive Group, Launches New Website Design for Chicago Real Estate Company Tricap ...