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The purpose of this study is to determine the suitability of capital statement analysis in assisting tax investigation to combat tax evasion, measured by the time taken in proving the under-declared income by the tax evader. A weakness in the investigation process that may contribute toward the delay of the tax investigation completion was examined.

Five investigation cases were randomly selected from the tax investigation organization for detailed and in-depth analysis on the whole process of reconstruction of capital statement analysis. Document analysis technique was used to analyse the data.

This study found that the capital statement analysis can be an effective tool in detecting under-reported income and tax evasion. However, the cooperation from the taxpayer is the most important factor, because if taxpayers do not cooperate, the investigation officer needs to find other informant such as third party as a source of information which usually time-consuming.

This paper selected only a small number of tax fraud cases for examination. Many other cases were not accessible due to confidentiality and considered as high-profile cases.

The outcome of this paper contributes in the way it can be used and applied by the revenue authority in implementing more practical and effective capital statement analysis technique to deter tax evasion. The investigation activities can be improved so that more cases can be covered in shorter time period.

The paper is novel and original, as it focuses on the investigation of tax fraud cases’ which is difficult to access and rare in tax literature, particularly in emerging markets. The findings of this study are inferred from direct examination of the actual cases documents that are private and confidential.

This viewpoint paper has two purposes: One is to argue that the Academy activities should increasingly be promoted and used for disseminating the practical and useful skills for the related law enforcement people who fight against financial crime, while the other is to contribute to the basis of discussions and further academy research.

This study summarizes and indicates potential usefulness of the new academy, specializing in the related social and political contexts in qualitative and descriptive ways.

This study indicates that the new academy activities in Japan would continue for a long time, thus providing immediately useful skillsets for the investigators and officers at the very frontline who face against various financial crimes.

While little research has been done about the series of related academy activities by OECD, this study describes the historical background and usefulness of the academy of the OECD in a specialized manner, thus showing its linkage with FATF.

The paper aims to examine the involvement of global accountancy firms in devising and selling tax avoidance schemes euphemistically marketed as “tax planning”.

The study draws upon a range of secondary sources, including legal cases and government reports, to demonstrate how “tax planning” involves “wilful blindness” to complicity in dubious and sometimes fraudulent activity.

The study reveals in detail the construction and promotion of elaborate tax avoidance schemes by big accounting firms. It casts doubt upon the “business culture” that has become established in these firms.

The study relies upon secondary sources. Subject to gaining adequate access to the big accounting firms, research based upon close-up investigation of “tax planning” would further illuminate such practices.

The study shows how normalised and institutionalised “tax planning” schemes have become in the big four accounting firms. It suggests that such schemes require closer scrutiny if payments of tax are to be made as intended, and thereby provide the revenues required to maintain public services such as education, health and pensions.

The study informs a debate about the payment of taxes and the role of big accounting firms in creating aggressive tax avoidance schemes. It questions the appropriateness and adequacy of private regulation of these firms and so contributes to a public debate on the tax contribution of comparatively powerful and privileged parties.

The study “blows the whistle” on the role of big accounting firms in devising schemes that reduce the “tax take” on business and thereby reduces the revenues required to provide and maintain public services.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the various means available to US authorities for obtaining foreign evidence and other types of international assistance in money laundering cases. The means analysed here include mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs) and similar processes; multilateral treaties; tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) and tax treaties (for a narrow range of money laundering offences); court‐sponsored procedures for taking foreign depositions, including letters rogatory; the use of unilateral compulsory measures, such as subpoenas, for obtaining foreign evidence, and the use of FinCEN and Interpol resources. The initiatives of the G7, the Financial Action Task Force and the OECD regarding international cooperation in money laundering matters are also briefly treated.

Organised crime groups, in particular drug traffickers, generate considerable amounts of money from their criminal activities. Over the last two decades jurisdictions around the world have therefore put in place confiscation and forfeiture legislation designed to remove such criminal gains. The Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office, in its report entitled ‘Recovering the Proceeds of Crime’, has now recommended that a national confiscation agency (NCA) for England and Wales be established, the functions of which will include the institution of civil forfeiture proceedings and the application of the taxation legislation to the proceeds of criminal activity. If enacted, this will essentially provide a threefold strategy designed to remove criminal gains. First, where the evidence permits, the individual may be prosecuted for criminal offences and, upon conviction, a confiscation order may be sought against him. Secondly, if the evidence is not sufficient for criminal prosecution, the individual may have civil forfeiture proceedings instituted against him to deprive him of the illgotten gains, seeking to prove on the balance of probabilities that the property in his possession is, directly or indirectly, the proceeds of crime. Thirdly, if an individual can be shown to have received income during a particular period which the authorities suspect, but have insufficient evidence to prove, is the proceeds of crime, then they may apply the tax legislation to that income and raise a tax assessment against him.

Ireland has extensive corporate tax allowances and low rates of corporation tax. Thus connected companies have an incentive to switch profits to Ireland using transfer pricing. This article examines value added and trade statistics of certain chemical and food sectors published by the CSO in Ireland. These data were found to be consistent with switching profits to Ireland using transfer pricing. To date in Ireland, the main debate centring on the use of transfer pricing has been the distortion to economic statistics. However it is likely that tax‐collecting authorities in other countries are concerned with tax strategies associated with profit‐switching transfer pricing (pstp). This article shows that Ireland is important in terms of tax savings for several large US‐based MNCs and as a corollary to this Ireland is also important in terms of investigations by the Internal Revenue Service of the US.

This paper aims to investigate and provide pathways for leveraging the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD’s) Ten Global Principles (TGPs) for countering tax crimes in the EU.

The study is guided by the combination of traditional and innovative research methods drawn from criminal law and justice, public regulatory theory and tax law, based on socio-legal and comparative methodologies.

The research shows that EU has achieved considerable amount of progress when it comes to meeting the TGPs. However, law and practice in EU Member States indicate that there are different legal, human and organisational approaches to fighting tax crimes. The TGPs could be strategically applied to complementing the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and other initiatives on Administrative Cooperation.

Although the TGPs appear encompassing, there are opportunities to harness the potency of these principles and to provide more tailored principles that can help engineer sustainable remedies for countering tax crimes in the EU.

The paper critically analyses, through a multidisciplinary approach, the main legal, human and organisational factors influencing the prosecution of tax crimes in the EU Member States.

Realignment and harmonisation of tax enforcement paractices in the EU Member States thus help in the reduction of tax gap resulting from tax offences.

The paper provides novel approaches and findings based on empirical info obtained from face-to-face focus groups with end users and law enforcement agencies in tax enforcement eco-system in ten different EU Member States.

This article considers briefly the general background to tax evasion, why it is a crime and the relationship between tax evasion and money laundering.

The issue of tax evasion through fraudulent financial reporting committed by companies is a major concern facing the tax authority in Malaysia. As such, the purpose of this study is to propose a cohesive model of predicting tax evasion from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting amongst small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) taxpayers.

The proposed model for this study is designed to explore the extent of the relationships between the independent variables: family ownership firms, company size, presence of tax professionals, company’s duration in business and frequency of tax audits and the moderating variable, i.e. tax audit officers’ level of competence; and the dependent variable, i.e. tax evasion from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting. This study is grounded on four theories: agency theory, political cost theory, economic deterrence theory and competency theory. Data will be gathered from actual audit cases resolved by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. Ordinary least square regression analysis is proposed for the investigation.

This study anticipates that family ownership firms, company size, presence of tax professionals, company’s duration in business and frequency of tax audits could be associated with tax evasion amongst SMEs in Malaysia. This study further proposes that highly competent tax audit officers could mitigate the relationship between frequency of tax audits and tax evasion practices amongst SMEs in Malaysia.

This study should be able to provide a cohesive model of predicting tax evasion from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting amongst SMEs in Malaysia. Research on fraudulent financial reporting amongst SMEs is very limited, especially involving the level of competence of the tax audit officers; therefore, this study should contribute to the tax evasion literature by providing a comprehensive model of predicting tax evasion through fraudulent financial reporting using a Malaysian tax setting.

This paper considers supranational initiatives ‐ particularly those emanating from the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, the Financial Action Task Force and the Financial Stability Forum ‐ proposing changes in the regulation of offshore financial centres. The implications of the withdrawal of US support for elements of the initiative are reviewed. The underlying rationales for change are considered, as are the probable and appropriate response for the stakeholders in the offshore centres, including governments, financial institutions and clients.