Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (C) addresses the
audience during a meeting of the annual Mercosur trade bloc presidential
summit in Mendoza June 29, 2012. (Credit: Reuters/Enrique Marcarian)

Chinese leader woos Latin America with deals

Chinese leader woos Latin America with deals
Chinese President Xi Jinping (4-L, first row) poses with leaders of the CELAC group of Latin American and Caribbean states, in Brasilia, on July 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)



Map of Latin America showing countries where major protests have occurred in recent months (AFP Photo)
.
A student holds a sign reading "Don't shoot, listen!!!" during a protest
on June 17, 2013 in Brasilia (AFP, Evaristo)

Paraguay police search S. American football HQ

Paraguay police search S. American football HQ
The Conmebol headquarters in Luque, Paraguay, is seen on January 7, 2016, during a raid within the framework of the FIFA corruption scandal (AFP Photo/Norberto Duarte)

'Panama Papers' law firm under the media's lenses

'Panama Papers' law firm under the media's lenses
The Panama Papers: key facts on the huge journalists' investigation into tax evasion (AFP Photo/Thomas Saint-Cricq, Philippe Mouche)

Mossack Fonseca

Mossack Fonseca

.

.
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Quarter of FTSE 100 subsidiaries located in tax havens

Campaigners seize on database showing extent to which top firms' business is conducted in tax-friendly jurisdictions


guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 October 2011

The 100 largest groups registered on the London Stock Exchange have more
than 34,000 subsidiaries and joint ventures between them.
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The extent to which FTSE 100 companies use tax havens for their operations is revealed in a database of their subsidiaries compiled for the first time by the development charity ActionAid.

The 100 largest groups registered on the London Stock Exchange have more than 34,000 subsidiaries and joint ventures between them. A quarter of these, over 8,000, are located in jurisdictions that offer low tax rates or require limited disclosure to other tax authorities.

UK companies are required by law to report a list of their subsidiary companies together with their country of registration to Companies House. However, many of the FTSE 100 have failed to do so in the past. Disclosure of the full list by all 100 groups is the result of a formal complaint made by ActionAid to Companies House and a subsequent investigation by the business secretary, Vince Cable.

It is the first time a comprehensive list of subsidiaries has been collected. There are several legitimate reasons for multinational companies to have subsidiaries in countries around the world, but the extent to which the largest UK-listed companies' business is conducted offshore in jurisdictions classed as tax havens has been seized upon by campaigners calling for a clampdown on corporate tax avoidance.

ActionAid has analysed the list according to the definition of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions compiled by the government accountability office of the US Congress, including in addition the US state of Delaware and the Netherlands, which are not on the GAO list but are acknowledged to offer tax and minimal disclosure advantages to foreign companies. By this measure, it emerges that 98 of the FTSE 100 companies use tax havens, with only Fresnillo, a Mexican-based mining company, and Hargreaves Lansdown, a Bristol-based financial services group, declaring no offshore subsidiaries.

Martin Hearson, a tax policy expert at ActionAid, said: "When companies use tax havens to dodge taxes, ordinary people in developing countries and the UK lose out. Our research today lays bare the extent to which the use of tax havens is rife among Britain's biggest multinationals, who have serious questions to answer."

The banking sector has the largest number of tax haven companies, with the big four UK banks – HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds – having a total of 1,649 offshore subsidiaries. They have the largest number of companies registered in the Cayman Islands, with Barclays alone registering 174 subsidiaries and ventures there. HSBC has 156 subsidiaries in Delaware, which has limited reporting requirements, compared to 97 in the rest of the USA. Lloyds Group has 97 companies in the Channel Islands.

The advertising and communications group WPP, which moved its tax domicile to the low-tax regime of Ireland, has 611 subsidiary companies based in tax havens.

The banks point out that they are global businesses with local operations in dozens of countries including jurisdictions that happen to be on the list of tax havens, and that that in itself is not evidence of tax avoidance. A spokesman for HSBC said the bank did not use artificial tax planning structures or transactions to avoid tax, and was a top-five UK taxpayer paying £6bn in UK taxes in last six years.

Barclays attributed its large number of Caymans companies to the legacy of its acquisition of Walbrook and said it was working to reduce the number. It too pointed out that there were many reasons other than tax planning for companies to have subsidiaries offshore, such as the ease of incorporation or speed with which capital could be moved.

A Barclays spokesman said: "All foreign subsidiaries are included in returns to HMRC either because they are UK tax resident and file UK tax returns or because they are listed on returns giving information on income earned that may be subject to UK tax under what is referred to as the controlled foreign company legislation."

Lloyds Banking declined to comment. A Guardian investigation revealed that RBS operated complex international tax avoidance schemes during its boom years, but it said it would put an end to these when it accepted a government bailout. Many of its tax haven subsidiaries appear to relate to these previous transactions running their contractual course. An RBS spokesman said of the company today: "We are a signatory to the UK tax code of practice and adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of the law."

Tax justice campaigners accused the banking sector of bypassing regulation through offshore subsidiaries. "Banks use tax havens extensively not just to avoid tax and to help their private banking clients, but also to avoid regulation by mainstream financial centres, which is the attraction of creating shadow banks in offshore centres like Cayman, Jersey and Luxembourg," said John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network.

The former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Matthew Oakeshott called on non-executive directors, shareholders and employees to put pressure on their companies to reveal subsidiaries that have no commercial rationale other than secrecy or tax dodging. "The Treasury must insist on full disclosure on RBS and Lloyds' use of tax havens to ensure they are not cheating their owners, British taxpayers," he said.

WPP moved its tax residence from the UK to Ireland in 2008, saying it would help to reduce its overall tax rate. It has indicated that it is ready to return to the UK for tax purposes in 2013 if proposals in George Osborne's budget this year to relax the rules on taxing foreign subsidiaries are enacted. The Treasury acknowledges the reform could see UK tax receipts fall but argues that it will keep the UK competitive as a home for global corporations.


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