Europe

Ireland Lobbies to Have Europe Share Banking Risk

"Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny would ideally like to use the ESM as a way of getting European taxpayers to shoulder the risks associated with all the debts of the Irish banking sector. He intends to use the six months of his European presidency to push through a banking union that would also make the bailout fund responsible for dealing with toxic assets in the European banking system left over from the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The [existing] €68 billion ($90 billion) in bailout funds are only expected to meet the country's financial needs until the end of 2013." Continue reading →

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Expats in Spain warned to declare offshore assets

"Advisers with expatriate clients who are tax-resident in Spain say they are urgently reaching out to their clients to warn them that they must begin reporting to the Spanish tax authorities about any overseas assets they hold worth more than €50,000, following a recent change in the country’s tax regime. The new rules took effect yesterday, with Spanish residents with offshore holdings being expected to provide their first accounting of their non-Spanish assets between that date and 31 March 2013." Continue reading →

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French budget minister under probe for tax fraud

"French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac is under investigation for tax fraud after a media report that he had an undeclared UBS account in Geneva which he then moved to Asia, prosecutors said Tuesday. Cahuzac, who is in charge of battling tax evasion, has denied the report by the respected Mediapart investigative website that he had an undeclared Swiss account which he then transferred to Singapore." Continue reading →

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France’s Socialists Generate A New Class Of Tax Exiles

"The message could not be clearer: The number of requests by French citizens to leave France are suddenly up by 400 to 500 percent. As far as my tax law business is concerned, we used to have three to five such cases a year, and we are already facing more than 20 this year. We are witnessing an explosive rise in tax exile since April 2012. Currently, however, we are seeing a lot of young entrepreneurs, not necessarily wealthy, but who would like to get wealthy and will not hand over their wealth to the government. The hopeful tax exiles are therefore getting younger: today they are aged between 35 and 50, and not between 55 and 70, as was seen before." Continue reading →

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France’s Financial Transaction Tax Experiment Is Turning Into The Worst Kind Of Failure

"Investors who own French shares are selling them and taking positions on them through derivatives instruments such as contracts for difference, structured products and ETFs, according to a Paris-based lawyer. 'Most structured transactions remain outside the tax,' he says. 'It is due only if you have actually purchased the shares.' In other words, instead of curbing excessive speculation, the tax is simply forcing those speculative activities into darker, less-regulated corners of the market." Continue reading →

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Barter and Alternative Currencies Growing in Greece

"The issue of tax reporting is brought into the article – and an insinuation is made that people are dodging taxes by using these systems. But so far as we can tell, such systems need central bookkeeping, which is one reason why we figure the United Nations has been a supporter of them. Gold and silver are far harder to track for personal usage than barter/currency systems that use a centralized bookkeeping system. Are Greeks turning to gold and silver as well, as those in Zimbabwe have done once the economy collapsed? We would bet gold and silver are finding their place alongside such barter/currency systems." Continue reading →

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Greek debt crisis ‘far from over’

"After five straight years of recession, the eurozone's weakest link moves into 2013 with an economy set to further contract, unemployment at a record 26%, one in three living on or below the poverty line, and the worst of austerity yet to come. In the runup to Christmas, even the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, felt fit to admit that despite being the recipient of €240bn in EU and IMF rescue funds – the biggest bailout in global history – Greece could still default on its massive pile of debt, a move that would result automatically in exit from the 17-nation bloc." Continue reading →

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Putin grants French actor Gerard Depardieu Russian citizenship

"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday granted fast-track citizenship to France’s Gerard Depardieu after the movie star complained about the French Socialist government’s proposed 75 percent tax on the rich. The decision appears to give Depardieu — a frequent guest of the Moscow celebrity circuit who nonetheless never asked for a Russian passport — the right to pay the 13 percent tax levied in Russia on everyone from billionaires to the poor." Continue reading →

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Germany ‘exporting’ elderly to foreign retirement homes

"Growing numbers of elderly and sick Germans are being sent overseas for long-term care in retirement and rehabilitation centres because of rising costs and falling standards in Germany. The move, which has seen thousands of retired Germans rehoused in homes in eastern Europe and Asia, has been severely criticised by social welfare organisations who have called it 'inhumane deportation'. But with increasing numbers of Germans unable to afford the growing costs of retirement homes, and an ageing and shrinking population, the number expected to be sent abroad in the next few years is only likely to rise. Experts describe it as a 'time bomb'." Continue reading →

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