Tax

China travel boom is stuck in the departure lounge

10 Dec 2021

Domestic tourism was already struggling of late. Now a surge in pandemic curbs like testing and quarantine is making regional travel difficult. Duty-free giant China Tourism’s decision to shelve its $6 bln Hong Kong listing shows the industry hunkering down for staycation pain.

Capital Calls: Fund services M&A, Mattress mystery

6 Dec 2021

Concise views on global finance: Shareholders of Amsterdam-listed Intertrust dodge a regulatory crackdown with a 1.8 bln euro sale; the western man credited with Chinese retailer DeRucci’s success finally has his identity revealed.

Foreigners will get the best buzz off German weed

24 Nov 2021

Berlin is preparing to light up its recreational cannabis market. With potential sales taxes and savings of 5 bln euros a year, the move could give the economy added puff. But German players may at first have to play second fiddle to Canadians that dominate the medicinal market.

Elon Musk can afford Biden’s EV snub

11 Nov 2021

Teslas won’t qualify for an extra $4,500 U.S. tax credit due to non-union labor. Instead, the cheaper Chevy Bolt wins in the president’s $1.8 trln spending plan. Still, Musk’s firm has surging sales in a growing Chinese market and large U.S market share. Biden is an afterthought.

China’s property tax will grow sharper teeth

27 Oct 2021

President Xi Jinping has thrown his weight behind an unpopular but economically beneficial real estate levy. Previous experiments in Shanghai and Chongqing disappointed, so the next round of trials could be harsher and riskier. It will test Xi’s power and policy creativity.

How to fill the global tax deal’s digital holes

8 Oct 2021

A landmark accord backed by 136 countries offers little scope for non-U.S. governments to raise money from giants like Facebook. One fix is to give nations with big markets a larger share of tax receipts. Sharing out levies according to where revenue is generated would be ideal.

Guest view: Biden tax crusade puts privacy at risk

29 Sep 2021

A proposal to monitor the bank balances and payments of individual citizens may not raise more tax, but it would constitute a glaring invasion of personal privacy, warn Christopher Giancarlo and Jim Harper. The coming shift to government-issued digital money raises the stakes.

Biden has lost a key battle against the super-rich

28 Sep 2021

The U.S. president’s plan to hike top tax rates has been diluted after howls from the 1%. Rates will rise, but a bid to erase the difference between earnings and investment looks doomed, and Biden may raise $1 trln less than hoped. All the more pressure to spend it effectively.

Xi and Biden share common goal: bashing the rich

27 Sep 2021

Both leaders hope to tax the wealthy to help the middle class. The first bit is easier for one-party China. But it’s the United States that has low-hanging fruit when it comes to spending on education and infrastructure. The result: Each will get only part of what they want.

Capital Calls: U.S. jobs, $7 bln tax settlement

3 Sep 2021

Concise views on global finance: Slow U.S. job growth signals caution for the Fed; meanwhile, a giant deal between hedge fund executives and the IRS gives legs to President Biden's tax plans.

Capital Calls: U.S. jobs, BBQ IPOs, Wm Morrison

6 Aug 2021

Concise views on global finance: The Delta variant puts a leisure job boom at risk; two grill makers’ floats show the IPO market isn’t frozen; Fortress strikes in the bidding war for a UK supermarket.

Review: Turning Beijing’s playbook against it

30 Jul 2021

China wants to become a global hegemon, Rush Doshi, the White House’s lead China wonk, argues in “The Long Game”. To halt its advance, he suggests copying Beijing’s strategy, and discouraging U.S. corporate engagement with China by tweaking taxes. He has few allies and less time.

Nigeria flies the flag for corporate tax self-harm

20 Jul 2021

Abuja’s revenue collectors are trying to extract $4.4 bln from South African pay TV provider MultiChoice. Growing climate change pressures require Africa’s top oil producer to wean itself off energy receipts. Ad hoc squeezing of foreign companies is the wrong way to go about it.

Yellen’s art of the tax deal has difficult sequel

9 Jul 2021

The U.S. Treasury chief was known as an economics wonk instead of a negotiator. Yet she convinced 130 countries to back a minimum corporate levy. Persuading Congress to do the same while preserving the global coalition will present her with tougher and contradictory tasks.

The Exchange: Global tax deal

7 Jul 2021

EY Vice Chair Kate Barton is helping companies figure out a minimum corporate rate agreed to by 130 countries. The historic pact will help raise $150 billion in government revenue. She talks to Gina Chon about the 15% floor, how effective it may be and where it goes from here.

Chancellor: Paying the piper for pandemic recovery

2 Jul 2021

The war on Covid-19 proved remarkably expensive. The U.S. federal deficit ran to $3.4 trillion last year. As the crisis eases, policymakers are thinking about how to foot the bill. Past wars have brought forth new taxes. Consider some fresh sources for raising government revenue.

Imperfect global tax deal is perfect springboard

1 Jul 2021

Almost all governments backed a minimum corporate rate of at least 15% and reallocation of some taxing rights. This will raise a modest sum and do little for poor nations. But such broad accord was worth the compromise as it’s the beginning, not the end, of a revamp of taxation.

Don’t cry for tax havens, Cayman Islands

11 Jun 2021

The Caribbean region has been a shelter from levies for hedge funds and other investment firms. Many of those perks may remain even with a global deal. And caveats – from the UK to Switzerland – suggest that the ambitious multinational plans will be weaker than its headline.

India is well placed to fight G7 tax deal’s flaws

10 Jun 2021

The country wants to charge big tech companies on the basis of local revenue or users, rather than profit. A rich-nation plan offers little on this front. India’s 1.3 bln population and relative openness to foreign companies give it good ground to push for fairer digital levies.

Capital Calls: Warren Buffett’s taxes

8 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: A ProPublica report unveils the true tax rate of the Sage of Omaha, Jeff Bezos and other members of the uber-rich elite.