FACEBOOK IS SET TO PAY MILLIONS OF POUNDS MORE IN TAX UK STRUCTURE.

After heavy criticism that it was avoiding tax, the BBC can reveal that profits from the majority of Facebook's advertising revenue initiated in Britain will now be taxed in the UK.

 

It will no longer route sales through Ireland for its largest advertisers.

That includes major businesses such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, consumer goods firm Unilever and advertising giant WPP.

Smaller business sales where advertising is booked online - with little or no Facebook staff intervention - will still be routed through Ireland, which will remain the company's international headquarters.

I am told the change will mean that Facebook will account for substantially more revenue in the UK and will therefore pay a higher level of corporation tax on the profits it makes here.

Corporation tax is levied at 20% on the profits a business makes.

President Obama to propose a new levy on oil firms

US oil firms would have to pay a fee of $10 (£6.85) on every barrel of oil they produce, under a White House budget proposal to be announced next week.

The funds raised would be spent on green transportation projects.

FIRS sets N4.9tn Revenue Target to Fund Budget

 

The Federal Inland Revenue Service on Tuesday projected a revenue target of N4.95tn for the 2016 fiscal period to fund the Federal Government’s budget.

The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, gave the figure in Abuja at the opening session of the organisation’s 2016 corporate strategy retreat.

The retreat with theme: ‘Optimising non-oil tax revenue collection through compliance and enforcement’, was attended by FIRS directors and other top government officials.

ActionAid, ENI, Shell, others Bicker over $3.9bn Tax Evasion

International  Advocacy group, ActionAid, has accused multinational oil companies of fleecing Nigeria of $3.3 billion in tax breaks over the last 10 years through their joint investments in liquefied natural gas project.  

Nigeria has a joint venture with Shell, Total and Eni to operate the liquefied natural gas project through Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).  The joint venture of the four shareholders leaves the Federal Government represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with 49 per cent stake while Shell, Total and Eni have 25.6 per cent, 15 per cent and 10.4 per cent respectively in the project.   

BT unveils new structure and 24% jump in pre-tax profits

BT Announced a "Standout Quarter" in the three months to the end of December and a restructuring of its business following its recent acquisition of EE.

 

It saw a 24% rise in pre-tax profits to £862m.

Revenue rose 3% to £4.59bn, up 4.7%, which it said was its best result for more than seven years.

The results and restructuring come three days after BT acquired EE.

European Commission has stepped up efforts to tackle tax avoidance.

It has published measures to "hamper aggressive tax planning". 

One proposal is for tax authorities to share information on multinationals among themselves, as agreed in the OECD deal signed by 31 nations on Wednesday.

However, the UK Chancellor George Osborne said he wanted to "see that information made public," in line with the Conservative Party's manifesto.

The Commission said it was currently looking at the issue of public country-by-country reporting and will publish its findings the spring.

Saudi Arabia stocks fall sharply on Tax Rises

The country's main stock index fell 3% in the opening 15 minutes of trade with petrochemical firms worst hit.

Saudi Basic Industries, the biggest petrochemical producer, tumbled 8.3% while Saudi Kayan lost 4.8%. 

 

Saudi Arabia's budget deficit soared to $98bn (£65.7bn) this year on the back of falling crude prices.

In the first budget under King Salman, the kingdom said revenues reached 608bn riyals (£108.7bn; $162bn), down 15% on official expectations.

TAX: JP Morgan, and Four other banks 'paid no UK Corporation tax' in 2014

JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Nomura Holdings and Morgan Stanley paid no corporation tax at all, the news agency said.

 

The banks offset past losses against their taxable income for 2013-14.

The banks have so far declined to comment, but their tax returns say they complied with UK tax rules.

The research into the financial reports found that seven banks, which also included Goldman Sachs and UBS, used tax benefits as well as losses generated during the banking crisis to reduce their corporation tax bills.

Delayed VAT refunds ‘causing cash flow woes for small business’

DELAYED refunds on Value-Added Tax (VAT) have increased significantly, causing cash flow problems for especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
This is according to tax practitioners interviewed this week, who said it was also increasing the cost of doing business as businesses need to pay professionals to get back what had been rightfully theirs in the first place.
Victor Terblanche, chairman of the South African Institute of Tax Professionals’ (SAIT’s) VAT committee, said the VAT Act did not provide for a timeframe for the payment of VAT refunds, or a timeframe for the finalisation of audits.

SINGLE FILE: People queue in Polokwane to file their income tax returns by the deadline.

"The act does provide for the payment of interest if the refund is not paid within 21 days following the submission of the VAT return," said Mr Terblanche.
"The act is quite clear. It does not say that SARS has a discretion to pay interest. The act says interest shall be paid at the prescribed rate."

Water companies benefits £410m from tax - NAO

The National Audit Office (NAO) said water companies in England and Wales had benefited from tax cuts and cheaper finance costs over the past five years.

However, customers' bills had not fallen because Ofwat had not properly "balanced the risks" between water companies and consumers, the NAO said.

water company

Ofwat rejected criticism of its price control regime.

The NAO estimated that between 2010 and 2015, water companies gained £410m from lower corporation tax rates and a further £840m from lower than expected interest payments.

Over the same period the companies absorbed costs and provided water bill discounts worth up to £435m, leaving them with a net gain of £800m.

'Certainty'

Michael Noonan expected to announce cuts in personal taxation

The country exited its international bailout programme in 2013 and is now Europe's fastest growing economy.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan is expected to announce a cut in personal taxation.

However, some analysts have warned that Mr Noonan should do more to tackle high levels of government debt.

LIRS seales 10 Firms over N45.52m Tax Fraud

The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) says it sealed 10 companies in August for failure to remit N45.52 million Personal Income Tax of staff to the state government.

Mrs Ajibike Oshodi-Sholola, the Head, Training Unit of LIRS, made this known on Thursday, saying that the companies were sealed in August during a state-wide tax law enforcement exercise.

 

She said that the affected companies’ tax liabilities were for the period between 12 months and six years.

According to her, six companies were sealed on Aug. 4 for tax evasion amounted to N6.197 million, while four companies were sealed on Aug. 11 for a total of N39. 327 million tax evasion.

Stakeholders Propose Strategies to Rev up Tax Revenue- At BusinessDay forum

At a forum organised yesterday by BusinessDay in partnership with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), stakeholders suggested strategies that could help government rev up income through taxes, especially in the face of the present lean oil revenue.

Samuel Ogungbesan, immediate past acting FIRS chairman, suggested that the first step would be to populate a central tax database that would provide adequate information on those eligible to pay taxes, as obtainable in France with over 32 million tax payers and South Africa.

He said there was need to further push for an efficient tax revenue collection process, but that this would only happen if the entire tax system was computerised in order to check the present trend of running after taxpayers.

 

There is also the need for other stakeholders to challenge the tax system, he said, as he bemoaned the discord between policy makers and regulators, and kicked against the resolution of the National Assembly on the enactment of the FCT Board of Internal Revenue despite informed counsel by the office of the erstwhile minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Tax Changes will lead to Nationwide Budget lending of £6.8bn.

It said changes to banking taxes announced in July's Budget would cost the equivalent of the capital needed to support £10bn of lending.

The building society added that in the three months to 30 June, profits rose to £379m from £253m a year earlier.

 

Chief executive Graham Beale said the financial year had "started strongly".

International Montary Fund to help Improve Tax System in Developing Countries

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said they would establish an initiative to help developing countries strengthen their tax systems ahead of the Financing for Development conference scheduled in Ethiopia.

 

According to a recent joint statement carried by their official websites, the two bodies vowed to deepen the dialogue with developing countries on international tax issues with an aim to help increase their weight.

Battle between APC, PDP over $5.5bn NLNG Dividend

ABUJA—THE All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, asked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to account for $5.5 billion realised from Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) since 2004.

 

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also called on the Federal Government to urgently unravel what happened to the past Company Income Tax/Education tax as well as dividends paid to the Nigerian government by the NLNG, against the background of published reports that the funds were never paid into the Federation Account as they should have been.

Nigeria loses N2trn to tax evasion, cyber crime

Aloysius Etok, Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Matters, has revealed that Nigeria has lost over N2 trillion due to tax evasion and cyber crimes perpetrated by some Nigerians.

This comes as he tasked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to use their powers to strip corrupt officials proceeds of their dealings.

Sterling Bank’s Q1 profit rises by 25% to N3.9bn

Sterling Bank plc has recorded a 25 percent increase in its profit after tax for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2015, demonstrating the lender’s ability to sustain its growth in spite of industry headwinds. According to key extracts of the results released today at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which showed appreciable growth in all key performance indices, the Bank’s profit after tax leapt from N3.1bn to N3.9bn year-on-year.

BREAKING NEWS:- Legislators wants to impose seat Belt Law for Taxi riders under Vision Zero plan

Buckle up in that taxi — or get slapped with a ticket.

 

Front-seat passengers in cabs and livery cars would be required to wear seat belts under a Vision Zero proposal being drafted by the de Blasio administration, officials said. So would children under 16, regardless of where they are sitting in the hired vehicle, officials said.

State law exempts passengers in the front seat, and children younger than 16, from mandatory seat belt use when traveling in a taxi, livery car or other for-hire vehicle. The new legislation would close that little-known loophole, officials said.

Individual Ship owners move against NIWA over double Taxation

THE Nigerian Indigenous Ship owners Association of Nigeria, NISA, has concluded plans to move against the proposed re-registration of vessels by the management of the National Inland Waterways, NIWA , a development they say will lead to double taxation.

Speaking at the end of its quarterly meeting, President of NISA, Captain Niyi Labinjo said that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, is the only agency empowered by law to register vessels in Nigeria.