Platform for Collaboration on Tax Releases Toolkit on Taxation of Offshore Indirect Transfers

The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) released a Toolkit on the Taxation of Offshore Indirect Transfers (OIT) providing guidance on the design and implementation issues when one country seeks to tax gains on the sale of interests in an entity owning assets located in that country by an entity which is a tax resident in another country.

This toolkit addresses a concern of particular significance to developing countries, mostly but not exclusively natural resource rich countries—primarily from the perspective of the country where the underlying assets are located. Taxation of the indirect transfer of assets such as mineral rights, and other assets generating location specific rents such as licensing rights for telecommunications, has been the subject of protracted public interest. This topic is a concern in many developing countries, magnified by the revenue challenges that governments around the world face as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis.

The significance of this issue was recognized in the development of the OECD led Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent BEPS (the “MLI”). The MLI includes a provision based upon the OECD and UN model tax conventions, for purposes of extending the reach of existing tax treaties to allocate rights to tax such indirect transfers to location countries, should treaty partners so choose.

The toolkit assesses the economic rationale for such an allocation of taxing rights on such transfers to the country where the underlying assets are located. The toolkit proposes that location countries may wish to tax offshore indirect transfers of at least those assets which are immovable—within the meaning of current UN and OECD model treaties—and perhaps additional assets that also generate location specific rents. If location countries do wish to extend taxing rights to such transfers the toolkit suggests two models for domestic legislation which such countries may adopt.

The first model seeks to tax the resident asset owner under the deemed disposal model- treating it as having realized the gain on the assets in question immediately before the transfer and reacquired the asset immediately after the transfer. The second model seeks to tax instead the non-resident seller of the asset. The toolkit also suggests a model definition of immovable property for the purposes of such domestic legislation and provides further guidance to support enforcement and collection.

The PCT is a joint initiative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank Group (WBG).

Money Laundering and Illicit Financial Flows – Following the Money and Value Trails

Outside of crimes of passion, criminals, criminal organizations, kleptocrats, and some businesses and corporations are motivated by greed. In today’s increasingly interconnected world, the criminal manifestations of unchecked avarice impact all of us – politically, socially, economically, and culturally. Transnational crime effects our individual and collective security. The magnitude of crime is measured in the multi-trillions of dollars annually. Laundering or hiding and disguising the proceeds of crime is essential for criminal organizations. Unfortunately, the last thirty years have demonstrated that our anti-money laundering (AML) countermeasures are not effective. Examining the “metrics that matter,” we are a “decimal point away from total failure.” The outlook going forward is not promising. Money Laundering and Illicit Financial Flows – Following the Money and Value Trails is the first book to take a hard look at our AML track record. Written primarily from a law enforcement perspective, the book examines old and new money laundering methodologies. It exposes threats, enablers, and facilitators. Making the case for an AML paradigm shift, the book offers alternative steps forward. Combining facts, straight-forward explanations, case studies, as well as the author’s personal experiences, views and commentary, this book is valuable to the public and private sectors, policy makers, as well as students and concerned citizens. As a former Treasury Special Agent, John Cassara has investigated and studied money laundering for over 30 years. Equally at home in back streets or government bureaucracies, he has a unique perspective and offers an insider’s knowledge. He delights in telling it as it is. The author of five books and countless articles on money laundering and threat finance, Cassara continues to surface important issues that deserve our attention.

Alpha City: How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich

How London was bought and sold by the Super-Rich, and what it means for the rest of us

Who owns London? In recent decades, it has fallen into the hands of the super-rich. It is today the essential “World City” for High-Net-Worth Individuals and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. Compared to New York or Tokyo, the two cities that bear the closest comparison, it has the largest number of wealthy people per head of population. Taken as a whole, London is the epicentre of the world’s finance markets, an elite cultural hub, and a place to hide one’s wealth.

Rowland Atkinson presents a history of the property boom economy, going back to the end of Empire. It tells the story of eager developers, sovereign wealth and grasping politicians, all paving the way for the wealthy colonisation of the cityscape. The consequences of this transformation of the capital for capital is the brutal expulsion of the urban poor, austerity, cuts, demolitions, and a catalogue of social injustices. This Faustian pact has resulted in the sale and destruction of public assets, while the rich turn a blind eye toward criminal money laundering to feather their own nests.

Alpha City moves from gated communities and the mega-houses of the super-rich to the disturbing rise of evictions and displacements from the city. It shows how the consequences of widening inequality have an impact on the urban landscape.