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While the black list of the offshore companies is only being approved, the European Union is actively discussing the economic sanctions in relation to the jurisdictions that will fall into its final version. We remind that the idea to draw up such a list arose early in the beginning of the last year with the purpose of counteracting the removal of profits from taxation and supporting the "fair tax system in the EU and in the world". According to the criteria approved at the end of 2016, the countries and territories with "weak tax transparency", preferential tax treatment and no income tax will be included in the black list. In order to avoid being included into the list, the jurisdiction must meet three main requirements, namely: to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters or conclude separate agreements on the exchange of tax information with all EU Member States by December 31, 2018; by the end of this year, to join the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Plan developed by the OECD and containing recommendations on combating evasion of income tax; to exclude the possibility of registration and operation on its territory of the...

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...

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...

The National Bank of Ukraine continues the policy of monetary liberalization, weakening already irrelevant anti-crisis restrictions. The next softening, fixed by the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of August 22, 2017 No. 81, came into force on August 24. This time, the changes have affected both the operations of the Ukrainian population and business, and the activities of banking institutions at the interbank level. Firstly, due to a significant increase in the stability of the foreign exchange market and liquidity of the banking system, the limit on the issuance of funds from bank accounts of individuals through cash desks and ATMs was canceled. We remind that since September 2016, there was a restriction, according to which the depositor was able to receive no more than 250 thousand UAH in the equivalent per day (it means cash in foreign currency and banking metals). It is assumed that this softening will positively affect the state of the foreign exchange market, promoting the increase of the level of customer confidence in banks. The following innovation concerns the liberalization of the approach to savings (deposit) bearer certificates and implies, first, the...