National heads into the election with its Budget surplus target broadly intact according to the latest Treasury forecasts.

The wafer-thin surplus which the Budget pencilled in for 2014-15 is at some risk of disappearing when the Treasury updates its fiscal and economic forecasts tomorrow.

Eighteen American businesses hold 36 per cent of corporate US wealth and they are piling up cash holdings overseas because of discouraging US tax laws.

A look at some of the US firms that have incorporated overseas in moves that some say is robbing the US of billions of dollars in tax revenue.

Tax breaks for Apple, Starbucks and Fiat are under investigation in a clampdown on special treatment for companies.

Large corporations are spending millions of dollars ensuring top executives are kept safe.

Florida is joining 20 other states that collect sales tax on Amazon purchases, meaning just about everything bought there will now cost 6 per cent more.

Taxpayers would need to pay an average of $1,259 more a year to make up the federal and state taxes lost to corporations and individuals sheltering money in overseas tax havens, according to a report.

New Zealanders criticising Google for the low amount of tax it pays in this country should not brand the company as "evil".

Alesco settling its tax-avoidance stoush is likely to lead to companies in similar disputes cutting deals with the IRD, say tax specialists.

Finance Minister Bill English says he wants Google, Apple and Starbucks and other multinationals to pay more tax and hopes the issue will be raised at economic talks this week.

Name suppression has been lifted on a Wellington accountant found guilty of providing false tax returns and misleading information to the Inland Revenue.

A High Court judge has rebuked the IRD, calling its application to freeze $462,000 in the bank account of a Rotorua woman "misleading".

A Wellington businessman has been sentenced to three years and six months in prison for his part in an aggressive tax evasion scheme.

It's time to make Google, Apple and other multinational companies pay more taxes, say G20 leaders.

Inland Revenue says the conviction of three businessmen for tax evasion today shows there are consequences when the rules are broken deliberately.

A major new global plan aimed at forcing multinationals to pay more taxes has been described as underwhelming and disappointing by a Kiwi tax expert.

Building products firm Alesco's tax-avoidance battle is heading to the Supreme Court but its chances of success are slim, says one adviser.

Alesco, whose tax-avoidance battle is seen as a test case for disputes involving more than $300 million, has won the right to appeal its case to the Supreme Court.

Inland Revenue's interpretation statement on tax avoidance has taken the best part of 10 years to finalise, writes Brian Fallow.

Two groups of investors in the Trinity forestry scheme, found to be a tax avoidance arrangement in 2004, are making fresh attempts to get the 9-year-old decision set aside.