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Income tax planning is a year-round and continuous evaluation for your clients. Although their tax returns are not due until April 15, without extensions, it is important to make sure you assist them throughout the year. A little extra help will save you hours of work and time spent on last-minute explanations. It will alleviate your clients’ tax burden, too. There are several things you can review with your client to make sure they are making the most efficient use of their investable assets. First, look at investment accounts that can provide a tax deduction. It is easy to see...

CORPORATE & FIDUCIARY NEWS 2019

According to several offshore trust service providers, one of the important reasons that an increasing number of rich people from mainland China plan to set up offshore family trust funds is that they are afraid of the increasing investment risks brought by the drastic fluctuation of global financial market to their family wealth at present. The latest statistical data of HSBC show that in the past year, only 16 of the 450 hedge funds tracked by HSBC achieved positive profits, accounting for less than 4%. Among others, some hedge funds designed to create excess return for rich families all over...

CORPORATE & FIDUCIARY NEWS 2019

Insurance trust is drawing attention from high net-worth individuals. The so-called insurance trust means that while signing an insurance contract with an insurance company, the insured signs another trust contract with a trust institution at the same time. Therefore, when the claims conditions come into existence, the insurance company will deliver the insurance compensation to the trust institution, which will open a special trust account for the beneficiary, manage and use such trust property in accordance with the trust contract, and deliver the benefits of trust to the beneficiary upon the expiration of the trust. Such combination of “insurance +...

INSURANCE NEWS 2019

The European Union adopted a new list of 12 countries and 11 jurisdictions, including American Samoa, to reduce the scope of money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Banks and other entities covered by EU anti-money laundering rules will be required to increase their efforts in due diligence when dealing with customers and financial institutions from the listed countries and jurisdictions. American Samoa was already included in a separate EU blacklist of low tax jurisdictions. The list has been adopted by the Commission in the way of Delegated Regulation and will be submitted to The European Parliament and Council for approval within a month, with the...

CORPORATE & FIDUCIARY NEWS 2019

By Adam Skuse The new Renminbi Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (RQFLP) program is now being piloted in Shanghai, offering a channel for offshore yuan-denominated funds to be used in private equity investments on the Chinese mainland.It is an extension of the Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (QFLP) program, which was introduced in 2011 to allow offshore foreign-currency funds to make contributions to yuan-denominated funds on the mainland. It is open to all overseas investors that have significant RMB deposits, with one of its major aims being to absorb the large amount of RMB funds amounting across the globe from the rapid...

NEWS 2020

By Adam Skuse Barbados and Sweden entered into a double taxation agreement (DTA) towards the end of 2012, the Barbados Ministry of International Business and International Transport confirmed in a recent statement. The Protocol to Amend the Convention for Double Taxation Agreement between the two countries entered into force on December 12 last year, in accordance with Article III.2 of the Protocol, after being signed on November 3, 2011. The statement said the entry into force of the Protocol to the DTA represented Barbados' firm strides to expand its treaty network, and also signaled the country's willingness to foster closer...

NEWS 2020

By Anas Almasri On January 14, 2013 Hong Kong added yet another agreement to its already notable network of double taxation treaties with its trading partners, this time with Italy, taking its tally up to 27. The special administrative region Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Professor KC Chan and Italy Minister of Economy and Finance Vittorio Grilli signed the latest DTA in Hong Kong. Professor Chan highlighted the benefits such an agreement brings to both jurisdictions, stating that it sets out the allocation of taxation rights and identifies the types of passive income that now qualify for tax...

NEWS 2020

By Baron Laudermilk John Tsang, the Financial Secretary of Hong Jong, said at the RMB Cross-border Trade and Investment Forum on July 23rd 2011, that as a Special Administrative Region of China and working under the principle of ne Country, Two Systems Hong Kong will continue to be the ront and center of the RMB liberalization process. Tsang said Hong Kong role as China global financial hub requires tapping into and building relationships with other worldwide financial centers, and that Hong Kong will continue to be the world main and possibly only RMB offshore hub for the foreseeable future. "In...

NEWS 2020