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Official reports estimate that Germany will be short of seven million skilled workers by 2035 due to an aging population. On March 1, 2024, the second stage of the Law on Immigration of Skilled Workers to Germany came into force, opening up new opportunities for foreigners to work in the country. Source:https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/germany-facilitates-visa-rules-for-working-international-students/ The new Skilled Workers Act, which came into force in March, allows international students to work while studying. The move is expected to increase the number of skilled workers in Germany. The study visa allows students from non-EU countries to come to Germany nine months in advance and work up to 20 hours a week. During this time, they can take English and German language courses, depending on the language of instruction, prepare an application and get to know the country. The new law will now allow international students to work between 120 and 140 full days per year or 280 half days per calendar year. The new changes may especially affect students from low-income families. The previous law also allowed aspiring students to come to Germany nine months before...

The new "Patent Box" regime was introduced in the recent Internal Revenue Bill. The new regime implies a special preferential rate for intellectual property. Source:https://www.ey.com/en_gl/tax-alerts/hong-kong-announces-2024-25-annual-budget-with-new-patent-box-re In this way, the authorities are trying to stimulate investment in research and development. It is planned that the new rules will make Hong Kong more competitive as a center for trading intellectual property. An important feature is that the emphasis is placed on increasing applications for registration of intellectual property. The project will be reviewed on April 10, and is highly likely to be...

Requirements for crypto companies operating on the Lithuanian market will be strengthened, and from 2025, mandatory licensing for activities related to digital assets will be implemented. Source:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-03/a-european-fintech-hub-prepares-to-get-tough-on-crypto-companies?utm_source=telegram&embedded-checkout=true About 580 crypto companies are currently registered in Lithuania. However, the Central Bank believes that not all of them meet the necessary criteria for obtaining a license. The licensing process will be completed by June 2025. Firms that have not passed it will be forced to "leave the ecosystem". 7 of the largest global crypto exchanges are already operating in Lithuania. Some crypto firms have received licenses in other EU countries, so they may not need a license in Lithuania. Lithuania's desire to become a financial and technological hub has provoked an influx of unregulated crypto firms into the country. This could cause problems amid the introduction of MiCA, a pan-European crypto regulation aimed at fighting money laundering and protecting investors, which will come into force in January 2025. The Central...

Thus, the filing of declarations for 2023 should occur 2 months earlier. Now you need to have time to file your income tax return before September 30, 2024. In addition, the decree, which was approved in January, also regulates the deadlines for submitting transfer pricing reports. The measures taken oblige taxpayers to prepare TP reports with an electronic signature and indicating the time on the new dates for filing the tax return. All taxpayers should take this information into account when preparing their returns to avoid...

The rating assessed the attractiveness of doing business among 82 countries. Inflation, cost of living, tax policy, economic growth, and budget are taken into account. Source:https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/singapore-denmark-us-are-the-best-places-to-do-business-eiu.html Singapore topped the list. “It remains the best place in the world to do business, as it has been for the past 16 years,” said EIU manager Prianti Roy. Singapore was followed by Denmark and the United States in the top three, respectively. According to forecasts from the report, there will be the best conditions for doing business in the near future. Thus, the top ten included: Singapore, Denmark, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Finland. The authors of the rating consider these countries safe for...

Compared to the data obtained for 2021, the number has doubled. Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20240327-1 The number of EU residents emigrating to other countries remained stable, with approximately one million each in 2021 and 2022. In terms of resident population, Malta had the highest immigration rate in 2022 (66 immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants), followed by Luxembourg (48) and Estonia (37). This includes both immigrants from other EU countries and foreigners from third countries. In contrast, Slovakia has the lowest immigration rate, with 1 immigrant per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria and France, each with 6 immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants. This information is taken from data on migration and migrant populations published by...

VISA continues to expand its value-added business services with the introduction of three new AI-based risk and fraud prevention solutions. Source:https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/visas-growing-services-business-infused-with-new-ai-powered-products/ The new products, part of the comprehensive Visa Protect suite, are designed to reduce fraud in instant account-to-account and card-not-present (CNP) payments and transactions both on and off the Visa network. Visa Protect is part of Visa's broad suite of value-added services, which has grown to nearly 200 products and spans the five most in-demand categories: Acceptance, Advisory, Issuance, Open Banking and Protection. Security and fraud prevention are fundamental to Visa. Last year, Visa helped block $40 billion in fraudulent activity, nearly double the level the year before. Visa Deep Authorization (VDA): Designed to address the challenges issuers face from increasingly sophisticated digital fraud, VDA is a new transaction risk assessment solution designed to better manage CNP payments. Addition of Visa Enhanced Authorization (VAA) and Visa Risk Manager (VRM) for non-Visa card payments: Visa's extensive AI-powered fraud...

The tax authorities will pay compensation due to an error in the application, which was supposed to evaluate the persons to whom special scrutiny should be applied. Thus, unfounded audits of the tax returns of certain individuals were carried out. The selection was made based on incorrect criteria. To conduct a correct check, we had to check more than 10,000 declarations manually. It turned out that 2,500 taxpayers should not have been audited. Compensation will be paid as tax...

The IRS will take action against 125,000 high-income taxpayers who did not file taxes from 2017 to 2021. Starting this week, the IRS will be sending tax compliance letters to more than 125,000 taxpayers. Notices will be sent to approximately 25,000 taxpayers with income over $1 million. Taxpayers with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million will also receive notices. The plan is to send between 20,000 and 40,000 emails every week. Thus, the agency plans to receive a certain amount, but it is not yet...