Recent News

On November 3, 2017, the Order of the Ministry of Finance dated 27.09.2017 No.811 “On Approval of the Procedure for provision of general tax advice” came into force, published in the bulletin “Official Bulletin of Ukraine” No.86. The order consolidates the procedure for the provision of general tax advice by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. The approved Procedure, developed in accordance with subparagraph 19-2.1.5 of clause 19-2.1 of Article 19-2 of Section I and clause 52.6 of Article 52 of Chapter 3 of Section II of the TCU stipulates that such advice shall be provided: according to the results of the periodic generalization of individual tax advice provided by the tax authorities to the taxpayers; if there are circumstances that indicate the ambiguity of certain norms of tax and other legislation, which monitoring compliance is carried out by the supervisory authorities. General tax advice is not normative legal acts. General tax advice is approved by the order of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and published on its official site within five calendar days from the date of their...

The European Commission has made an announcement about the start of public consultations on the issues related to taxation of digital economy. The purpose of such an event is to develop an optimal approach to this aspect of the EU tax policy. The consultations are organized in the form of a questionnaire, and it is indicated in the relevant materials that the Commission “studies possible solutions to certain taxation problems caused by digitalization”. First of all, the EC is focused on creating more equitable and efficient tax system, supporting state revenues and ensuring equal conditions for business. In addition, it has plans to develop the necessary measures to support the growth and competitiveness of the European Union by creating a single digital market. At the same time, the Commission emphasizes the possible need for a two-stage approach, in which, after adoption of a “target-oriented, temporary solution”, a “comprehensive, long-term package of measures” will follow. The respondents are offered a list of temporary and long-term measures with the need to indicate to what extent each of them will help to solve existing problems. The temporary solutions are...

The Parliament of Ukraine has registered the draft Law No.7240, which provides for the changes to Article 201 of the TCU relating to the registration of TI/AC in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices. The purpose of the bill is to ensure the compliance with the rights, interests and equal conditions of the taxpayers when applying the provisions of the Tax Code in case of ‘blocking” of the TI/AC and violation of the deadline for making decision and/or notification of the taxpayer by the supervisory bodies. So, according to the document, the tax authorities will be obliged to register the blocked TI/AC in the Register in case the decision about registration or refusal to register is not directed to the taxpayer within 5 working...

On October 30, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the Law "On ratification of Protocols No.15 and No.16 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" adopted by the Parliament on October 5. In accordance with Protocol No.15, the period for applying to the European Court of Human Rights is reduced from 6 to 4 months after the final decision of the national court. The document also provides for the abolition of the age limit for holding the position of a judge of the ECHR. The changes introduced by Protocol No.16 consist in providing the Supreme Court of Ukraine with an opportunity to apply to the ECHR for an advisory opinion on the matters of interpretation or application of the European Convention on Human Rights before making a decision on a particular...

The State Regulatory Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and with the support of the Office of Effective Regulation (BRDO), have launched a pilot module for planning activities of state control of IAS SSC. With its help, the draft of Implementation Plan of the comprehensive measures of state supervision (control) for 2018 (hereinafter - the Plan) has been formed in accordance with the proposals of the supervisory bodies. The official site of the pilot module for planning the measures of state supervision (control) IAS SSC provides an opportunity to check whether a particular business entity is included in the draft plan for the next year. It is available at the following link: http://www.ias.brdo.com.ua. You can find an interested enterprise by its name or by the code of the USREOU. It is important to note that you can refuse from the implementation of a comprehensive planned measure of state supervision (control), by writing to the SRS. In this case, the inspection of business entity will be held according to the individual annual plans of the supervisory bodies. The planned activities are carried out in accordance...

On October 23, the international rating agency Standard & Poor's revised the credit rating of the Bank of Cyprus, having upgraded it to “B” and changed the forecast from “stable” to “positive”. In addition, S&P announced it expected the further increase of the bank credit rating in the next 12 months, subject to continued consolidation of public finances and economic recovery at the same pace. The forecasts of the agency for the period from 2017 to 2020 are very optimistic: it is expected that GDP of Cyprus will be increased by 3% per year. Commenting on the upgrade, S&P noted that the previous estimation was due to a number of problems that the Bank of Cyprus faced and they mainly related to the need to “reduce non-performing loans and return to sustainable profitability”, as well as low asset quality. Officially, Cyprus is still in the “junk” category, that is, it does not correspond the investment level, being a step lower according to S&P assessment and three steps lower according to Moody's and Fitch (“Caa1” and “B-“ respectively). You can find out about the features of the rating systems of the three largest special agencies...

The Government of Canada has announced its intention to reduce the tax burden on small businesses and amend the forthcoming reforms in the field of tax planning. The innovations include the reduction in the tax rate for small businesses from 10.5% to 10% from January 1, 2018, and after January 1, 2019 - to 9%. According to the government forecasts, the reforms for the period up to 2022-2023 will save up to 2.9 billion Canadian dollars, which is equal to 2.3 billion US dollars). The previous conservative government in 2015 provided for the reduction in the tax rate for the next few years, down to 9% by 2019, however in 2016, these reforms were postponed. It is assumed that after the introduction of changes, Canada will have the lowest tax rate on small enterprises among the G-7 countries. So, the application of a 9 percent tax rate on the federal small business will result in a decrease in the aggregate average provincial-territorial tax from 14.4 percent to 12.9 percent. The current government will also take measures against using the status of Canadian Controlled Private Corporation (CCPC), in order to reduce the income tax obligations of employees with high wages. The government...

On September 2, 2017, an amendment to the Electronic Communications Act (hereinafter – “the Amendment”) came into effect in the Czech Republic. The most significant changes relate to customer contracts regulated by Section 63 of the above-mentioned Act: now they are more preferable for customers and provide them with greater protection. Thus, a stipulated notice period, which remains a compulsory part of customer contract, must not exceed 30 days now. We remind that previously, operators were free to exercise their discretion to set the length of notice periods. In accordance with the innovations, customer contracts must specify the possibility and extent of potential unilateral changes and the manner in which they must be notified to the other party. Previously, this option was only available if the change was substantial and would necessarily deteriorate the customer’s position. Thus, customers must not only be acquainted with any one-sided amendments to their contract, but also have to be given the option to cancel the contract without having any penalty imposed upon them. This is in contrast to the previous requirements, that allowed operators to extend time-limited...

The four parties forming the new government of the Netherlands have signed an official coalition agreement - the Programme of Action for 2017-2021, which includes important changes in tax legislation. The innovations in the system of corporate and personal income taxation are aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the Netherlands and preventing money laundering. The agreement assumes that the standard corporate tax rate will be gradually reduced from 25% to 21%, and a 20 percent rate of corporate income tax of up to 200,000 euros ($ 237,000) will be reduced to 16%. Another change is the partial cancellation of a 15 percent tax on dividends in order to increase the volume of foreign investment. However, to counteract the creation of “mailbox companies”, the government plans to introduce a withholding tax on interest payments and royalties in jurisdictions with a low level of taxation. Confirming its commitment to the OECD recommendations on BEPS and promoting the equity participation financing, the coalition intends to limit deductions for interest payments. The authorities also support the creation of the blacklist of jurisdictions with improper...