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Switzerland has published a new version of the VAT Law which provides for a number of amendments. The changes are aimed at improving the mechanism for taxing of local companies with the value-added tax and they will come into force on January 1, 2018. To date, the foreign companies providing services in Switzerland are exempt from the VAT from Swiss turnover if it does not exceed 100,000 Swiss francs, that is equivalent to $ 103,726. In the opinion of the Federal Council, this has caused a decline in the competitiveness of the Swiss firms, especially in the border regions. According to the adopted amendments, on calculating the obligations of the company on VAT, its global turnover will be taken into account. The enterprises with world financial turnover of 100,000 Swiss francs or more will be subject to the VAT from their supply, starting with the first franc of the turnover amount in Switzerland. The introduction of a new system for mail-order companies has been postponed until January 1, 2019, because the Swiss post offices will need more time to implement the appropriate technical provisions. With the advent of this date, the mail-order companies will be subject to the value...

On September 7, at the morning session of the Verkhovna Rada, the Law "On the amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the taxation of the incomes of non-residents investors in the securities" was adopted. We remind that clause 141.4.10 of article 141 of the TCU stipulates that interest or income (discount) of non-residents from government securities, bonds of local loans or debt securities are not subject to taxation which fulfillment of obligations is guaranteed by the state or local guarantees. Such provisions positively influence on making decisions by the foreign investors (creditors) on the purchase of Ukrainian government securities and investing in the economy of the country. However, according to the Explanatory note, to the draft of the above Law, the issue of taxation of other income from securities is not fully regulated by the provisions of this paragraph (for example, income from repurchase or exchange operations at the expense of the state or local budget, which is not a percentage or a discount). The taxation of such incomes will "reduce the investment attractiveness of relevant types of securities and their competitiveness in the capital market," which may...

We remind that on March 23, 2016, the new EU Trade Mark Regulation 2015/2424 came into force, implying significant changes to the current legislation in this field. A number of these changes will come into force on October 1, 2017. The key ones are: The cancellation of the “graphical representation" requirement. The current procedure for the registration of a trademark implies its mandatory presentation in a graphic form. On October 1, the trade mark can be represented in any form, provided that it is clear, self-contained, intelligible and objective. Thus, the applicant will have more opportunities to register such non-traditional types of trade marks as holograms, moving objects, smells, sounds, etc. The guidance of the EUIPO as to the formats of representation are provided at its official website: www.euipo.europa.eu The possibility of applying for EU Certification Marks. This mark is a guarantee of compliance with a specific standard and it is defined as being "capable of distinguishing goods or services which are certified by the proprietor of the mark in respect of material, mode of manufacture of goods or performance of services, quality, accuracy or other...

On September 4, 2017, the Central Bank of China, together with the National Commissions on Securities Regulation and five other local authorities, issued a Circular prohibiting the implementation of the ICO. According to the statement of the regulator, this decision was made in order to avoid financial risks. We remind that in the market of crypto currency, along with the concept of IPO (initial public offering), the concept of ICO (initial coin offering) appeared. The latest operations involve raising capital by a company working with blockchain technology, by issuing not digital shares, but digital tokens. The feature of this type of investment is the absence of limit on the amount of funds invested, that is, any person who has a crypto-currency purse on a trading platform can invest even a tiny amount. In this case, if investing in the shares, the investor buys a share in the company, then the members of the ICO acquire only the internal coin. In addition, the primary offers of crypto currency tokens are a kind of unauthorized (which means illegal) fundraising and may be linked to financial pyramids and other frauds, and in the event of a company failure, the investors are not...

On September 7, from 10.00 to 12.00, in the premises of the European Business Association in Kyiv (Andreevsky Slope street, 1-A), a seminar on the topic "Problems of suspended tax invoices and ways to solve them" was held. The speaker was a leading tax lawyer of the company Finance Business Service, Roland Bondarets. The event was attended by more than 30 people, including the representatives of legal, consulting, investment, industrial (including heavy industry) and international manufacturing companies. The seminar consisted of two parts - theoretical and practical. In the first half, Roland Bondarets highlighted the legal framework of this problem, schematically demonstrated the way which the tax invoice went from the filing to the moment of its blocking. He reminded about the grounds for the decision of registration refusal of the TI / AC, and presented the algorithm of the taxpayer's actions in this the case to the attention of the present people. The lawyer considered the most common errors in completing the Technological table and other documentation relating to such technical issues as "excess" by the number of characters, lines or signs in the code of the goods or...

The European Commission has developed a new system of legislative verification of foreign direct investments. The President Jean-Claude Juncker announced it in his speech in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 13, 2017. Such an initiative was caused by the growing concern of some EU countries (primarily France, Germany and Italy) with regard to the investments from non-EU countries. To date, these investments are often targeted at strategically important sectors of the economy (for example, energy, telecommunications and technology). In his speech, the President confirmed that the EU will remain open to the foreign direct investment (FDI), but an "energetic and effective policy" should be developed pursuing two objectives: "to ensure an equal playing field with the rest of the world and protect the most important European assets from the investments that damage the legitimate interests of the EU or its individual members". The verification system proposed by the European Commission is aimed at improving cooperation and coordination between the Member States that check transactions affecting the security or public order. The President set out the developed...

On September 5 and 6, 2017, the discussion regarding the situation that arose as a result of the launch of the system of the automated registration of tax invoice was held in the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Tax and Customs Policy. The Head of the Committee, Nina Yuzhanina, shared the decision made as its result. According to her words, if to this Friday, that is until September 8, the blocking system does not work properly, then the bill regarding the continuation of the test mode will be urgently drafted by the end of the year. The document must be registered on September 11 and, what is important, the unlocking and registration in the URTI of all so-called "problematic" tax invoices and adjustment calculations will be provided with it. It will be possible to return to the issue of suspension of registration of the TI until the new year. As Nina Yuzhanina noted, "this is the only quick issuance outta...

The client asked us to help him organize his gambling business. He has developed his own virtual game, assuming acceptance of monetary rates, as well as a marketing strategy, after that he needed understanding how to implement his start-up while remaining in the legal field. Since the legislation of Ukraine prohibits gambling (including on the Internet), our task was to find another jurisdiction for obtaining a gaming license, which mandatory requirements were accessibility and simplicity of the procedure for obtaining a license, as well as a low tax burden, since the client did not have experience in this sphere, and the profitability of the future business still had to be checked. In fact, the project turned out to be complex, since it supposed the organization of gambling business from scratch. The process of its implementation included the following stages: 1. registration of a legal entity, which in practice resulted in the business structuring; 2. registration and transfer of copyright to the developed software; 3. opening a bank account and concluding agreements with the providers of payment systems for the ability to conduct transactions (accept cash rates, make payouts of...

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has developed a draft law "On Amendments to article 201 of the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the registration of the tax invoices / adjustment calculations in the Unified Register of the tax invoices". The proposed amendments, designed to simplify the procedure for the registration of TI, will be considered soon by the Cabinet. We remind that this summer the Ukrainian business was stirred up by the innovation in the tax legislation concerning the launch of the system of automatic registration suspension of the risk invoices (clause 201.16 of article 201 of section V of the Tax Code of Ukraine). Starting from July 1, daily registration of approximately 0,4% of the tax invoices is suspended, including not only fictitious ones, but also those ones that are submitted by the enterprises of the real sector of the economy. According to the law, the SFS Commission must send a decision to the taxpayer to register or refuse to register the TI within 5 working days after receiving its explanations and documents. However, the current legislation does not provide any consequences in the event if this term is not observed. The concept of the bill developed by...