Economic Survey 2015: India to grow at over 8% in FY16

NEW DELHI: The Economic Survey for the year 2014-2015 expects the Indian economy to grow at over 8 percent for the coming fiscal year. “Indian economy is looking-up with brighter prospects amongst the world’s major economies today,” the survey says. The survey taking into consideration the change of base year by the Central Statistics Office of the […]

South African Budget Hikes Personal Income Tax

On February 25, South Africa’s Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, presented a 2015 Budget that was said to be constrained by a slowing economy and lower-than-expected tax revenues. Nene indicated that the Government now has to rebalance its fiscal policy to reduce the “structural gap” that exists between spending on investment and economic development and […]

China, South Korea Initial FTA

On February 25, 2015, China and South Korea initialed the text of their free trade agreement, negotiations towards which began in May 2012 and were completed in November last year during a meeting in Beijing. A statement at that time from China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) revealed that the two countries have agreed to eliminate […]

Seychelles Signs Multilateral Tax Cooperation Treaty

On February 24, Seychelles became the 85th signatory of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The Convention is described as a comprehensive multilateral instrument to tackle tax evasion and increase transparency. In a statement, the OECD confirmed that its signing therefore represents another important […]

US, Dominican Republic Negotiate FATCA Agreement

The Dominican Republic and the United States have begun negotiations on an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) between the two countries. It is expected that the Dominican Republic will complete a Model 1A IGA to provide for the automatic exchange of tax information reciprocally between the Dominican Republic’s […]