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By Baron Laudermilk The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) is preparing legislative changes that will bring the city into compliance with Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards on the exchange of information. This could be a good development in the city that has more and more Chinese investment. The SFSA is saying that this is an urgent change in its amendment to the Regulatory Law 2004. The amendment relates to the definition of a rivileged communication and comes from the DFSA relationship with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) working group, which is run by the UAE Ministry of...

NEWS 2020

By Baron Laudermilk After a major revision in the Cayman Island budget, more expensive work permits came into effect on September 13, 2012, and the Island government has confirmed this information. The changes that were introduced as part of the islands revised budget, which contains the Immigration (Amendment No.2) Regulations, 2012. The work permit fee increases were agreed upon during talks between the local financial services industry and the government. Increasing the fees was considered a superior than a controversial tax on the remuneration of non-resident workers. Under the new changes, work permit fees for people at the executive level...

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By Tendai Musakwa Domestic investment banks are underwriting more IPOs of mainland companies that list in Hong Kong, taking over European and US banks. According to an October 22 South China Morning Post report, market leaders in the mainland's investment banking business such as China International Capital Corp. and BOC International have been underwriting more IPOs as more Western banks leave the business and mainland firms increase efforts to underwrite more IPOs. China International Capital Corp. underwrote or plans to underwrite one-third of all IPOs that are scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter of this...

NEWS 2020

By Baron Laudermilk The Offshore financial centers in the Caribbean have become economically successfully in the last thirty years. Although many larger countries have had failures and successes with the global transition towards service based economics, IFCs have had a long record in terms of economic success as a direct result of their chosen model to provide international financial services. However, the economic success of the Caribbean Offshore financial centers future isn't has clear cut as it used to be thirty years ago. There are three main challenges which have happened in the last few years that are changing their...

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By Baron Laudermilk The Barbados government is attempting to significantly improve the island business and investment environment to attract and retain foreign direct investment, said the territory Minister for International Business, George Hutson. Hutson said at the beginning of the International Business week, he Ministry is cognizant of the need to address such issues in order to attract and retain business, and therefore, will continue to intensify its efforts to engage the relevant ministries and departments of government, service providers and other relevant stakeholders with a view to implementing initiatives to facilitate business activities in Barbados throughout their life cycle....

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By Tendai Musakwa Hungary will raise its current tax on bank transactions from 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent from January 1, 2013 and will not go forward with its previously announced plan of halving the tax applied to the profits of financial institutions. The Hungarian Minister of National Economy Gyo?rgy Matolcsy announced the new taxes on October 17, saying that the taxes are intended to bring the country's budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP. Other measures that the government will introduce on January 1 next year include a tax on utility companies infrastructure, a reduction in local business...

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By Leo Zhang A tax agreement between the UK and Switzerland, which was signed on October 6 2011, is expected to come into force in January 2013. The agreement targets UK taxpayers who have accounts in Switzerland for which they have not declared income and gains to UK tax authorities. Under the deal, UK taxpayers will be allowed to clear their arrears and keep their anonymity by making a one-off payment which will be deducted by the Swiss bank from the balance in the account in 2013 and passed over to HMRC. Accounts held by UK taxpayers in Switzerland will...

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By Tendai Musakwa Hong Kong-based business people will soon no longer have to pay double taxes on their Canadian investments. The Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, K C Chan and the Canadian Minister of International Trade Edward Fast signed an agreement on November 11 that aims to avoid double taxation and tax evasion of investors conducting trade between the two countries. The treaty also aims to encourage trade and investment between Canada and Hong Kong by removing tax barriers. The earliest the treaty is likely to be ratified by the Hong Kong legislature is 2013, meaning...

NEWS 2020