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By Martin Banks   Tax dodging costing EU Member States €1trillion a year in lost revenue, say MEPs.   The European Parliament now has a “proper body to tackle Europe’s massive tax avoidance and evasion”.   That was the message from Greens/EFA group MEP Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, who also told this site that “The creation of the new tax subcommittee is a long-standing demand from the Greens/EFA group, and I would like to thank everyone who has pushed for it. I am both thrilled and honored to be appointed as vice-chair of the subcommittee."   She added that the subcommittee’s creation...

FUNDS & FUNDS SERVICES NEWS 2020

By Reuters Staff   BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers added Anguilla and Barbados to the EU’s blacklist of tax havens on Tuesday and removed the Cayman Islands and Oman after they passed the necessary reforms.   The EU list, set up in 2017 after revelations of widespread tax evasion and avoidance schemes, now includes 12 jurisdictions: American Samoa, Anguilla, Barbados, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.     Those on the blacklist face reputational damages, higher scrutiny in their financial transactions, and risk losing EU funds.   Source: Reuters

FUNDS & FUNDS SERVICES NEWS 2020

By Christopher Copper-Ind   The British Virgin Islands (BVI) has formally announced plans to create a publicly accessible register of company ownership by 2023 in an effort to clamp down on corruption. The long-awaited announcement follows years of scandals relating to money-laundering and tax evasion involving BVI-based shell companies, most recently the FinCen Files.   As reported by International Investment last month, the BVI premier announced its commitment to the implementation of public registers of beneficial ownership in the territory, albeit with "reservations".   This [is a] positive step towards greater transparency and clarity of corporate structures, which should help stem the flow...

CORPORATE & FIDUCIARY NEWS 2020

By Thomson Reuters   SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, launched a wealth management venture in Shanghai on Wednesday and plans to set up an outbound investment business in Beijing as China opens its doors wider to global asset managers.   The French company, which already owns a mutual fund venture in China, is capitalizing on a new round of financial opening by Beijing that also galvanized other global asset managers such as BlackRock.   "You don't have a single market in the world where you see global asset managers are positioning themselves so proactively, and so resourcefully," said...

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT OUTBOUND INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS 2020

By Special Correspondent   ST GEORGE’S, Grenada — The government of Grenada has announced a 25 percent increase in successful citizenship applications in the first half of this year, with more than 500 granted between January to June. The statement attributed the increase largely to the popularity of Range Developments’ Six Senses La Sagesse project.   Experts say that Grenada’s success validates its strategy of maintaining its pricing in the face of drastic reductions from its competitors. It can afford to do this because it is the only country offering visa-free travel to China and the opportunity of living in...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT NEWS 2020

The Private Funds Law, 2020 (the "Law") came into force on 7th February 2020 and introduced a requirement for the registration of closed-ended funds (typically, investment funds which do not grant investors with a right or entitlement to withdraw or redeem their shares or interests from the fund upon notice) with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority ("CIMA"). The Law refers to these closed-ended funds as “Private Funds”. Mutual funds (e.g. open-ended hedge funds) are not caught by the Law and continue to be regulated by the Mutual Funds Law (2020 Revision) as amended. Accordingly, there is now a regulatory regime...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT SPONSORED CONTENT 2020

The number of British entrepreneurs looking to “buy” citizenship from countries offering visa-free access to the European Union has risen sharply, investment migration firms say, as prospects of a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the bloc darken.   Investment immigration firm Astons said it had seen a 50% and 30% year-on-year increase in interest from clients seeking Cypriot or Greek citizenship respectively this quarter, less than four months before UK passport-holders are likely to lose their rights to freedom of movement across the EU.   Henley & Partners also reported a rise in requests for advice on investment migration applications to Malta,...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT NEWS 2020

As the global investment migration heavyweight, China accounts for some two-thirds of applicants globally. In the last decade alone, more than 57,000 Chinese together spent at least US$44 billion on residence by investment programs. But only a tiny proportion of those actually moved to their new country of residence/citizenship. Each year, hundreds (if not thousands) of Chinese investor migrants see their permanent residence permits canceled over their failure to meet physical presence requirements, typically in places like Australia and Canada. In this article, we’ll try to dissect the reasons why Chinese investors are so often migrants on paper only.   #1 –...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT NEWS 2020