Mossack Fonseca & Co.: Practical wisdom and trusted advice

Corporate Governance

The Mossack Fonseca Group applied corporate governance in their firm to provide confidence and security to their clients regarding protecting their assets through the years. The firms don’t stop in improving their processes and utilizing the best technological tools in the market to have a better service for their clients. It has adopted a Business Management System that assures that the firm will continue to follow all ethical standards and the best legal practices.

The firm is eager to ensure the long-term success of its clients as a global corporation with a well-organized corporate government. The corporate governance structure helps to reduce costs, avoid risks and identify problems and strategic opportunities.

Attorneys

The Mossack Fonseca Group is proud to have highly dedicated lawyers. Each of them graduated with honors from different universities in Panama and abroad and has a master's and doctoral degree as well as vast experience in various legal issues.

Exceptional Features

The top feature of Mossack Fonseca Group is its decades of experience in business. In particular, it has 39 years of extensive experience and will continue to deliver excellent service to their clients. The firm's Panama Head Office has 24-hour service; and you can find their office in every continent, which proves their powerful international network. Its staff a member is consists of more than 500 experts around the world and all of them were service and research-oriented professionals. It's also the first ISO 9001 certified law firm in Panama and continues to follow strict due diligence requirements. It acquires "VeriSign" encryption and Central Bank standards for a secure technology platform. They're also motivated specialists seeking solutions for changing business environments. Their client considers their exclusive client portal as a beneficial treat.

Data Security

You can have a peace of mind with the Mossack Fonseca & Co.'s client portal because it is 100% safe. They hold all their servers in-house to provide the most secure and latest protection available to their clients. The firm joined numerous companies and banks who depend on Verisign to keep their clients' information protected because it is considered the strongest encryption available with the most rigorous authentication standards in the world.

Along with those discussed above, the Mossack Fonseca Group will continue to provide top-notching services. You can visit their official website to have a better understanding of their firm.

Mossack Fonseca on Powerful US Congressman Proposes Massive Tax Overhaul

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R – Texas) has disclosed that, under his leadership, the Committee will immediately draft US international tax reform legislation, while laying the framework for more comprehensive tax reform in 2017.

On February 12, 2016, Mr. Brady delivered the keynote address at the Tax Council Policy Institute's 17th Annual Tax Policy & Practice Symposium, and confirmed that, "in the months ahead and beyond, the Ways and Means Committee will be the center of the tax reform discussion and debate. … The code we have is too costly, complex and unfair. It is abundantly clear that now is the time to overhaul our tax system from top to bottom".

Chairman Brady’s proposed changes include:

• Making the tax code simpler, fairer, and flatter
• Replacing the current world-wide tax system with a permanent, modern territorial-type system
• Closing loopholes, eliminating special rules and limiting deductions, exclusions and credits
• Providing businesses both large and small with a competitive tax system, including a fair and competitive tax rate
• Encouraging businesses to locate their operations in the United States rather than incentivizing (effectively) the shift of jobs overseas

Mr. Brady confirmed that the Committee will move forward immediately to draft international tax reform legislation – "as we plan for that finish line in 2017, developments in the global environment demand our immediate attention."

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Mossack Fonseca on Singapore Joins OECD Multilateral Tax Convention

On January 20, 2016, Singapore deposited with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) its instrument of ratification for the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, reports Lowtax.net.

With this development, Singapore became the 93rd jurisdiction to join the pact, touted by the OECD as the world's leading instrument for boosting transparency and combating offshore tax evasion.

The Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations, and assistance in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of taxpayers' rights.

Ratifying the Convention will expand Singapore's network of partners for the exchange of information on request by 34 jurisdictions. This is part of a series of changes that Singapore has made in recent years to combat cross-border tax evasion, following Singapore's adoption of the internationally agreed standard for exchange of information on request in 2009, Singapore's Ministry of Finance said.

Minister for Finance, Heng Swee Keat, said: "Ratifying the Convention reflects Singapore's commitment to effective exchange of information based on international standards, but the standards can only work if all financial centres, such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Hong Kong, move together. We will continue to work with our international partners to achieve this and prevent regulatory arbitrage."

The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988. It was amended in 2010 to respond to a call by the Group of Twenty (G-20) nations that it be aligned to the new international standard on the automatic exchange of information and that it be opened up to all countries.

The Convention is now seen as the instrument for swift implementation of the new Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD. It will also be critical for the automatic exchange of country-by-country reports, proposed in the OECD's base erosion and profit shifting project.

Mossack Fonseca, Switzerland: Double Tax Agreement with Argentina

On October 29, 2015, the Swiss State Secretariat for International Financial Matters announced that the double taxation agreement (DTA) with respect to taxes on income and capital between Switzerland and Argentina will enter into force on November 27, 2015. It replaces the agreement of 1997 and is in line with the current international standard on the exchange of information.

The purpose of the new agreement is the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and on capital, particularly those on dividends, interest and royalty payments. It adopts the majority of the provisions of the former agreement and complies with the current international standard on the exchange of information upon request. The new agreement will be applicable from January 1, 2016, with the exception of taxes withheld at source, for which relief will already be applied in 2015 according to the agreement.

The new agreement sets the maximum withholding tax rate for dividends at 15 percent, and provides for a ten percent rate where the beneficial owner is a company that holds directly at least 25 percent of the capital of the company paying the dividends. The withholding tax rate for interest payments is capped at 12 percent. The maximum withholding tax rate for royalties is 15 percent, with reduced rates of ten, five, and three percent applicable in certain circumstances.

Who is Mossack Fonseca?

Meir Ezra Genius Tour - Instant Happiness

You can feel happier in just one minute by first understanding a few important facts.

"Happiness could be defined as the emotion of progress toward desirable goals. There is an instant of contemplation* of the last goal in which one is content. But contentment becomes boredom immediately that new goals do not come to view. There is no more unhappy thing than a man who has accomplished all his ends in life." -- L. Ron Hubbard(*contemplation = thoughtful observation; meditation)

Let's examine three parts of this definition.

1. "There is an instant of contemplation of the last goal in which one is content."

What was the last goal you reached? Do you remember that feeling of contentment?

For example, how did you feel right after your wedding? When you got your first job? When you graduated from school?

2. "But contentment becomes boredom immediately that new goals do not come to view."

For example, planning a vacation is exciting. But toward the end of a vacation many people are bored as they no longer have a goal.

Arguments during honeymoons are common, if the newlyweds do not set goals for their marriage.

Planning your retirement and the first day of retirement is a thrill. But the joy of freedom quickly turns to boredom and early death if you do not work on new goals.

3. "Happiness could be defined as the emotion of progress toward desirable goals."

Making yourself happy is easy! Simply chose desirable goals and make progress toward them.

Three Steps to Feeling Happier, Right Now

1. Select a desirable goal. If you don't have a desirable goal, make one up. What do you want?

2. Write down ONE SINGLE THING you can do right now toward this goal. It has to be an action step. Not thinking about it or talking about it. Actual physical motion.

3. Do it! Take that one step right now. Make some small, but real progress. You might be surprised at how easy it is.

As soon as you take this one step, you'll feel instant happiness.

Try it!