Mediaboss Marketing

SINGAPORE: Four expatriates working in Singapore claimed they were assaulted by bodyguards of a royal family in Rawa island off Johor on Friday.

The four men were on holiday for the weekend at Alang's Rawa resort. The attack left one of the them, a German, critically injured and warded at a hospital in Singapore.

According to the Straits Times of Singapore, one of them, a Briton, 28, said the assailants had grabbed his arm and started kicking him.

The man said the royal entourage came in a large group with many security personnel.

Two of them were invited for drinks with a member of the entourage but things took a turn midway through their conversation.

Straits Times quoted the Briton as saying that he saw the German being slapped and assaulted by a group of men from the entourage.

At about 10am on Saturday morning, the group were asked to leave the island. A boat was arranged for them to leave.

Back in Singapore, the German man was placed in intensive care due to bleeding in his brain. He was moved to a normal ward on Tuesday.

The Straits Times said the British High Commission and German embassy were following up on the matter.

Go here to read the rest:
12. Expats claim assault by bodyguards of royalty off Johor island

British expats wrongly charged inheritance tax on their Spanish properties are gearing up for a legal battle to reclaim the charges.

It is estimated that around 60,000 British families have been hit with Inheritance tax (IHT) bills for properties or assets they inherited in Spain. Charges are believed to be in the region of 400 million (490 million).

The Spanish government levied IHT of up to 35 per cent on non-residents, while Spanish residents paid close to zero per cent IHT.

The European Commission believes this is an unfair tax treatment with regard to EU citizens. It brought a legal case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in March arguing that Spain was infringing EU treaty freedoms. A verdict is expected from the ECJ which could open the floodgate to thousands of Brits reclaiming their tax, and force Spain to amend its IHT tax laws.

While 60,000 Brits are believed to have wrongly paid IHT, only 40,000 are still able to make a claim due to the Spanish legal time limits, which stop claimants attempting to make a claim after four years from the tax payment date.

An action group, Spanish Legal Reclaims , has been set up to represent those caught out by the policy. It is led by the same lawyer who won a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reclaim against the Spanish government. More than 280 million was returned to 90,000 British families after the European court case.

Luis Cuervo, CEO at Spanish Legal Reclaims, said: They may have believed they were fortunate to inherit a property in Spain, but in the process they have been scammed out of a lot of money.

The group is confident the verdict will go their way, given that the EU doesnt bring cases to the ECJ unless it believes they are legally sound.

British expat Peter Jackson, 62, inherited a Spanish property from his mother and paid more than 10,000 (8,000) in IHT.

He said: When we inherited the property in Moraira and paid the inheritance tax we knew no different, and so simply just paid it as we were told to. When we found that we had probably been overcharged by quite a large amount, we thought we had nothing to lose by trying to reclaim it.

Read the rest here:
Expats in Spain 'owed £400 million in overpaid inheritance tax'

A story highlighting Apple's use of tax havens and loopholes has apparently left the company's reputation unscathed according to a new study.

Apple's use of various tax loopholes to save money, as chronicled in a recent New York Times story, has not damaged the company's reputation, according to a new study.

Polling firm YouGov -- which we've previously mentioned in relation to one of Facebook's early privacy flaps -- says perceptions of Apple are back to where they were before the publication of the Times story, which focused on the company's tactics to save money by setting up businesses in tax-friendly locations.

The firm says Apple's reputation is "virtually Teflon," when compared to the tax story the NYT did on General Electric the month prior, which noted that the conglomerate brought in profits of $14.2 billion in 2010 but paid nothing in taxes, while claiming a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

"The reaction [to the story about GE] was more pronounced and longer: the company's reputation took a steep drop and two months to recover to precrisis levels," YouGov said in a post on its company blog. By comparison, YouGov says Apple's reputation score went up from 52 to 58 (on a scale of -100 to 100) after the story published, and it now sits at 51.

The methodology behind the numbers asks people whether they would be "proud or embarrassed to work for this brand," then turns that score into a number between 100 to -100 (-100 is completely negative, and 100 is completely positive). Points are assigned by "subtracting negative feedback from positive." The daily sample size for the polling is 5,000 people per weekday, the company said.

Continue reading here:
Apple's reputation untarnished by tax issue, study says

Offshore savers are used to banks packing up and leaving sadly its been a common occurrence in recent years.

When a banking operation announces it is closing down, its more important than ever for those savers with the bank to keep their eyes on the ball.

After AIB announced that it is to close its business in the Isle of Man (Other OTC: MAGOF.PK - news) , AIB International, it said it would announce how the closure will take place.

We now have more details of how the wind-up will happen. Although the bank is not due to close finally until the end of next year, AIB International is putting measures into place. This means it is a good idea for the 20,000 savers with the bank to make alternative arrangements sooner rather than later.

This is because AIB International has written to all its customers telling them that from June 1, interest rates on all accounts will be reduced.

And in addition, while AIB International used to automatically reinvest fixed-rate bonds into new bonds of the same length, with effect from June 1 proceeds from any bonds maturing will instead be put into the Instant Saver account.

Currently, Instant Saver pays 2.5pc but this will change from June 1 to a less favourable rate. This means that if you have a fixed rate with AIB International, you should make a note of the maturity date and on that date, move the money elsewhere.

Some savers may still have many months to go before their saving deal ends. But if they wish to move their money before then, AIB International will allow withdrawals now without penalty.

While one bank leaves the market, another that had a possibly uncertain future has reaffirmed its commitment to offshore savers.

National Australia Bank has just announced the details of its review of its UK operations, Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, which includes its Guernsey offshoot Clydesdale International . While the bank has announced onshore cutbacks, the offshore operation is safe. A spokesman for Clydesdale said: I can confirm there will be no changes to Clydesdale Bank International as part of the strategic review outcome.

See the original post:
Expat rates: as one door shuts, another remains ajar

09 May 2012

A new report from Appleby shows that transaction values for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in major offshore financial centers rose by 25% in the first quarter of 2012.

The first ever Offshore-i report from Appleby, the worlds largest provider of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services, looks at M&A activity for the first quarter of 2012, providing sectoral analysis and expert insight on deal types and geographic trends.

The key findings of the report show that offshore deal values in Q1 2012 increased by 25% from the previous quarter's USD23.2bn to USD30.9bn. However, the volume of deals taking place offshore was down 24% on the last quarter of 2011 and was 26% lower than the same period of last year, revealing that corporate transaction activity continues to be depressed.

The number of transactions in the offshore sector in Q1 2012 amounted to 412. However, while deal volumes were lower than the same period a year ago, the report shows that there is still a reasonable amount of activity going on across the offshore world.

The most popular destinations for investors doing deals involving offshore targets are Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, while the banking, insurance and financial sector continues to dominate offshore activity, well ahead of the next area of interest, wholesaling.

The report finds that most of the deals in the quarter were minority stake transactions rather than full takeovers.

It will be interesting to see if this positive increase in values continues into the rest of 2012, said Peter Bubenzer, Applebys Bermuda-based group chairman. The challenges ahead are manifold, but there are ongoing signs of real buoyancy in Asian and other emerging markets.

The report says offshore transactional markets have been affected by global economic pressures, and in the first quarter, the United States economy faltered amid fears that any recovery may be lacklustre. This impacted transactions in the offshore jurisdictions of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, which derive the bulk of their business from America. Continuing uncertainty about the Eurozone, and the potential contagion from Greece of the sovereign debt crisis into the Spanish and Italian markets hit deal drivers elsewhere, the report said, while fears about China's ability to maintain high growth rates further dented confidence. Nonetheless, the report reveals that the continuing strength and attractiveness of the Asian markets is driving investors doing deals involving offshore targets, primarily in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands.

Meanwhile, Mauritius emerged as the offshore economy experiencing the greatest growth in M&A activity, with the number of deals involving targets there jumping from six to 12 between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012.

Read the original post:
Offshore Merger And Acquisition Activity Rises