Recent News

On December 27, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the National Revenue Strategy for 2024-2030. These are certain changes that should take place in the tax and customs sphere and ensure revenue to the state budget. If this document is adopted, the changes will be implemented gradually, starting in 2025. What changes does the strategy envisage? The status of an individual entrepreneur will be acquired by an individual automatically, after opening an account in a bank with the status "for conducting business activities", and it will be possible to close the FOP automatically when the bank account is closed. The list of types of activities will be revised for FOPs of the I group, and the tax will be paid from the received income, instead of a fixed one. FOPs of II and III groups will be combined into one (II group). In addition, rates will vary from 3% for trade to 17% for some services. And the use of PRO will be...

Fintech company Paysera from Lithuania started its activities in Georgia. Paysera received a license for digital banking from the Central Bank of Georgia. One of the key advantages of the company is instant SEPA transfers, which is especially important and beneficial for Georgia, which is not a member of SEPA. Also, the Central Bank of Georgia has extended Paysera Georgia's banking license, so the institution will be able to provide loans in the future. Paysera offers various payment services for individuals and legal entities, including more than 100 payment methods for European online stores, international transfers, currency exchange, gold trading and much more. Currently, the system is present in nine countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Albania, Kosovo, and now in...

The new electronic portal is designed to search for information about registered companies and submit documents using a single integrated online platform. The previous site no longer works. In addition, a new unique business identification code (Unique Business Identifier, UBI) was introduced for all companies, instead of a registration number. The companies' UBI will be the first eight digits in the business license. Before the introduction of UBI, the Registrar of Companies updated 117 official forms for filing applications and submitting information to the registry. The new forms are applied from December 27, while the Registrar of Companies undertakes to accept the previous registration forms NNC1, NNC1G, NNC5, NN1 for the period until January 25, 2024, as well as other forms of documents provided for by the Ordinance “On Companies” - within six months from the beginning of the use of new forms of...

The agreement between the countries provides for joint access to markets for banks and insurance companies that manage exchange markets. The agreement is designed to increase trade turnover, mutual recognition of rules and supervisory authorities. The so-called Berne Agreement is still awaiting parliamentary approval. Once all the rules come into force, financial companies from both countries will be able to operate in each other's markets with simplified licensing and supervision procedures. The agreement applies to investment services, asset management, banks, and corporate insurance. And the rules for servicing clients from the “partner country” are...

We are talking about the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme. The so-called “golden visa” will be available from 2024, and the minimum investment threshold is set at $3.8 million. The updated version of the program has a number of conditions for applicants. Firstly, applicants must be over 18 years old. The program does not have a limited number of people who can apply. Cash investments must be invested for a minimum of 7 years and in sectors that are strategically important for Hong Kong. These can be securities, deposits, shares of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, etc. At the same time, you can invest in land and non-residential buildings, but not in residential real estate. Investors must be reliable, have no criminal record and prove the legal origin of the capital. By resuming the program for the first time since 2015, Hong Kong authorities are trying to provide new opportunities for economic growth and...

The rules will come into force on May 1, 2024 and will apply to all payment organizations that process payments for Chinese customers. Depending on the availability or inability to open accounts and accept deposits, all payment organizations will be divided into two types: deposit account operators and payment processors. The issuance of prepaid cards is exempt from the new rules and will be regulated separately. Detailed rules for the classification and supervision of different types of payment institutions will be separately determined by the People's Bank of China. The activities of payment organizations require a license from the People's Bank of China. The minimum registered capital of a payment organization is 100 million yuan and must be fully paid by participants at the time of obtaining a license from their own capital; Depending on the type, territory and scale of activity, the People's Bank of China has the right to establish an increased amount of authorized capital to obtain a license. If fraud in the payment of the authorized capital is detected when submitting an application for a license, the applicant will be deprived of the right to re-submit the...

On January 1, amendments to the Corporate Transparency Act will come into force in the United States. The law should strengthen the liability of lawyers, accountants and other corporate service providers who assist individuals in laundering funds. In 2014, an investigator posing as a representative of a corrupt foreign government met with 16 Manhattan lawyers to help move millions in suspicious money to the United States. All but one of them essentially provided a roadmap for money laundering through shell corporations. There were no regulations that explicitly required lawyers or other corporate service providers to comply with KYC. The new legislation changes this situation. Under the Corporate Transparency Act, consultants providing legal entity formation services in the United States must report themselves to the government as “corporate applicants.” This means that corporate service providers will be forever linked in the federal database with the founders of such organizations. Violation of the requirements of the law in some cases may result in liability in the form of imprisonment for up to two...

5 departments (Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury, Department of Justice, Department of State and the US Department of Homeland Security) have issued an interesting Alert on best security and compliance practices for the transportation of goods by sea and other means of transportation. You can read the full text here. The document provides various so-called red flags (for example, manipulation of locations, falsification of documents, pumping on the high seas (ship-to-ship transfer)) as well as examples of criminal and civil prosecution for illegal transportation of goods. Including one criminal case from September 2023 and many other examples. “To avoid potentially illegal behavior, individuals and entities directly involved in and facilitating the global movement of goods - organizations such as ship owners, charterers, exporters, managers, brokers, shipping companies, freight companies, freight forwarders, commodity traders and financial institutions — must be responsible for assessing their risk profile and implementing rigorous, risk-based internal compliance programs." - it is written in the...

One of the tasks of the future division will be to reduce tax benefits in Portugal. Source:https://www.publico.pt/2023/12/07/economia/noticia/governo-lanca-unidade-tecnica-monitorizar-beneficios-fiscais-2072897 The structure is called the Technical Unit for Tax and Customs Assessment (U-TAX), whose mission is to “ensure the assessment of tax policies and in particular tax incentives,” the Council of Ministers said in a statement. Portugal has more than 500 tax breaks, the value of which, calculated as the tax expenditure incurred by the government from lost revenue, is around 17,300 million euros, according to the government's latest tax expenditure report for 2022. One of the tasks the new division will be responsible for will be evaluating incentives to reduce costs associated with tax...