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The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is before Parliament. It contains two significant changes to hold corporations accountable for economic crimes. The legislation significantly expands the circle of persons whose criminal actions will be reflected on the company. The new law will make companies liable for economic crimes committed by “senior managers,” defined as individuals who play a significant role in a company’s operations. It also introduces a new offense of failing to prevent fraud. A large organization that fails to prevent fraud by an associated person will be considered to have committed a crime under the new law. To provide effective protection, a company must demonstrate that it has sufficient procedures in place to prevent fraud. Thus, the law actually requires expansion of compliance in companies. The “non-prevention” model is already applied to bribery and tax evasion. While expanding the identification principle will make things easier for prosecutors, the UK law is still significantly narrower than the US model, in which virtually all employees' criminal acts committed in the course of their employment are attributed to the...

The Council of the European Union on Tuesday added the Seychelles and Caribbean countries of Belize and Antigua and Barbuda to a list of 16 countries and territories considered "non-cooperative" in tax matters. The council said all three jurisdictions either lacked tax information or had failed to meet commitments to governance reforms and transparency. The list also included Russia, Panama, five other Caribbean states and territories and six in the Pacific. The EU asks its members to take this list into account when making diplomatic and economic decisions. In addition, the Union undertakes to strengthen the monitoring of transactions or taxpayers linked to these countries and prohibits the channeling of some EU funds through them. The Belizean government criticized the move. Oxfam's EU tax expert Chiara Putaturo also criticized the list for not including the United States, the UK or EU states such as Luxembourg and Malta, adding that "countries considered too large to be included in the list are more cannot escape scrutiny." The council also removed the territory of the British Virgin Islands, Marshall Islands and Costa Rica from the...

The report is published on the Solictors website. Last year, we increased funding for anti-money laundering measures. 177 firms were inspected and 73 desk audits were carried out. Enforcement actions were brought against 47 firms and individuals. £137,402 in fines paid, one person suspended and one person subject to pre-employment monitoring. And 23 companies were checked for compliance with sanctions measures. The watchdog calls on all companies to ensure that appropriate resources are allocated to preventing money laundering and developing a culture in which everyone takes this important risk seriously....

Belgium is actively promoting the introduction of electronic invoicing to improve efficiency and tax compliance. Now the taxpayer himself decides whether to issue electronic invoices or not. But from January 1, 2026, Belgium plans to make electronic invoices mandatory for all B2B transactions. The government has decided to use the pan-European online public procurement network as the default standard for structured electronic invoicing. The scheme will not apply to B2G and B2C transactions. There is already a separate e-invoicing mechanism for B2G in the...

In September, the Federal Tax Administration announced an expansion of the number of jurisdictions with which Switzerland exchanges information on financial assets. This year, Kazakhstan, Maldives and Oman were added to the list of more than 100 countries for the automatic exchange of banking information. The total number of accounts serviced increased to 3.6 million, up from 3.4 million in 2022. Switzerland transmits data to more than half the countries in the world. In 2022, countries automatically exchanged information on more than 123 million financial accounts. As a result, these measures generated €126 billion in additional...

One of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitstamp, is in talks with major European banks to help them provide crypto services. Source:https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/652447d054e75971a5c40071/# The initiative is aligned with the European Union's upcoming regulatory framework known as Markets for Crypto-Assets (MiCA), designed to integrate digital currencies into traditional financial systems. The Bitstamp-as-a-service exchange product, which is a combination of licensing and white label technologies designed to help banks and fintech companies buy and sell cryptocurrency, has attracted great interest in Europe. In Europe, the relevant authorities are busy developing and introducing the necessary regulations to support the crypto sector. Traditional financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank and HSBC are already developing strategies to implement crypto...

The bill, the Global Floor Tax on Transnational Business Groups and Large Domestic Groups in the Union Act of 2023, is intended to provide a global floor on taxation. multinational enterprise groups and large domestic groups in the EU. The bill proposes rules governing the introduction of minimum effective taxation for large multinational and domestic groups with annual consolidated income of €750 million. It sets out two rules: income inclusion rule (IIR); under-taxed profit rule (UTPR). An “additional tax” must be levied whenever the effective tax rate of a multinational company in a particular jurisdiction is reduced to less than 15%. If a company pays a tax rate of less than 15% in one country, then its parent company or other related company in another country must pay the difference of up to 15%. These two rules work together to ensure that international companies do not avoid the minimum tax by transferring their profits to low-tax countries. The draft law under discussion includes all the provisions of the Directive and has been supplemented by some provisions of the OECD administrative guidance, as well as provisions regulating administrative...

PayPal and Venmo users can now add their credit and debit cards to Apple Wallet to make payments in stores, online or in apps. They will continue to earn rewards, discounts and cashbacks on their eligible purchases. You can add a PayPal card to Apple Wallet in the usual way. After that, users can immediately start using Apple Pay to pay for purchases with a PayPal or Venmo debit or credit card. The use of mobile wallets continues to gain popularity. It's fast, convenient and safe. When paying for a purchase using Apple Pay, transactions are secure because they're verified using Face ID, Touch ID, or your device's passcode, as well as a one-time, unique dynamic security code. PayPal, for its part, provides transaction protection for both smartphone and physical card...

In September, the Romanian Ministry of Finance presented a bill aimed at ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the state. The proposed bill makes some changes to the tax system. From January 1, 2024, it is planned to introduce a minimum turnover tax for taxpayers whose turnover in the previous year exceeded 50 million euros. An additional tax will also be levied on credit institutions. In addition to income tax, credit organizations will have to pay turnover tax, which is calculated as 1% of turnover. New tax rates for micro-enterprise profits are provided. An income tax at a rate of 1% will be levied on micro-enterprises whose annual turnover does not exceed 60 thousand euros. A tax at a 3% rate will be applied to companies with an annual turnover of over 60 thousand euros or to enterprises that carry out the types of activities established in the Bill. The bill also proposes other measures to support efforts to recover the budget deficit, including measures to combat tax evasion and other offenses. The Romanian Ministry of Finance has launched consultations on the proposed financial sustainability...