Practice News Archives - Page 3 of 13 - Devine Accountants

European governments have agreed to cap the fees retailers pay to process debit and credit card transactions in a move the EU parliament said should bring down costs for customers.

Negotiators agreed late last night to cap charges across the 28 countries in the union following a long battle over charges with payments groups, including Visa and MasterCard.

The cap would apply to both cross-border and domestic card-based payments which cost businesses across the EU around €10bn a year. The fees are opaque and differ from country to country.

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Ireland’s corporate tax regime is expected to face fresh scrutiny today at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, as Taoiseach Enda Kenny meets EU leaders for the first time since the Luxembourg Leaks scandal broke last month.

While the EU’s investment plan and the situation in Ukraine had been expected to dominate the summit – the first under new European Council president Donald Tusk – a number of member states, including France and Spain, have successfully led a last-minute push to put aggressive corporate tax planning on to the agenda.

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THE economy grew by 3.5pc between July and September compared to the same time last year, signalling the pace of growth may be easing, official data shows.

And compared to the second quarter, the economy virtually stagnated, with gross domestic product (GDP) rising by just 0.1pc, according to the Central Statistics Office.

But analysts described the figures as impressive and expressed no concern over the slow quarter-on-quarter data.

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A US group, which is lobbying against efforts by the European Union to harmonise taxes on company profits, is hosting a seminar in Dublin today.

The organisation called Americans for Tax Reform argues that the ability of countries such as Ireland to maintain low levels of corporation tax encourages innovation.

The group is part of a broad coalition of organisations in Canada, Spain, France, Australia and Japan which lobby for countries to maintain autonomy in relation to taxes.

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The Economic and Social Research Institute has said the top 10% of income earners gained the most from Budget 2015, while the biggest losers were the poorest 10%.

However, when the effects of all the Budgets since 2008 are put together, it is the top 10% of earners who have seen the biggest fall in their incomes.

The ESRI said the effect of Budget 2015 and the revised water charges scheme is close to neutral, increasing average incomes by less than 0.1%.

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Ireland’s Internet economy is predicted to grow in value to E20bn by 2020 but Irish firms risk being left behind and becoming globally irrelevant unless they innovate now.

That’s according to global technology consultancy, BearingPoint, who said that Irish people are estimated to have spent E6 billion online in 2014, according to a recent study.

In 2013, the Government estimated that Irish online shoppers spent only E1.1 billion on Irish goods and services. Publishing its digital strategy report, “Leap into the connected digital economy”, BearingPoint said Irish businesses need to integrate digital thinking into their business model if they are to retain and grow their markets.

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Banks are not expected to take up all the long-term European Central Bank loans offered on Thursday, increasing pressure on the ECB to begin buying sovereign bonds to hit a self-imposed stimulus target.

The ECB is offering banks the cheap, four-year loans as part of a package of measures to add around 1 trillion euros to its balance sheet – a goal it has set with a view to pumping money into the economy to save it from deflation.

At 0.3 percent, inflation is far below the ECB’s target of just under 2 percent. Furthermore, a downgrade of Italy’s sovereign debt rating last week and market jitters about Greece highlight the risk of the euro zone crisis flaring up again.

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Close to €50 billion has been raised on European equity markets this year, easily surpassing the combined total secured in the whole of 2012 and 2013, according to figures compiled by PwC.

In October and November, 55 companies raised €8.5 billion on markets, as against €6.6 billion for the third quarter.

For the year to date, a total of €48.8 billion has been raised, compared to €37.8 billion for combined 2012 and 2013, PwC’s IPO Watch analysis shows.

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New research from economists based in the Central Bank shows that first-time buyers have lower default rates than other participants in the housing market.

The research appears to bolster the case for the Central Bank easing off on plans to impose strict lending restrictions on first-time buyers.

The findings from the new economic paper were issued two days after the deadline for submissions on the proposed strict new lending restrictions was closed by the Central Bank

However, the Central Bank denied that the research was held back, and stressed the findings in the research paper were the personal views of the authors and not the official views of the Central Bank.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

A new British tax on companies that shift profits out of the country and into tax havens will target inter-company fees for services like use of intellectual property, according to a Treasury document seen by Reuters.

Companies will also be required to report their potential liability to the new tax, which the note said will sit outside the existing corporate tax system. That is intended to avoid legal challenges under existing tax treaties with countries like Ireland, a major conduit for shifted profits.

The Treasury document said that the 25 percent tax would be effective April 1, 2015, and would target conduit-type structures, such as the “double-Irish” used by Google.

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