Recent News

De-offshoring process is gaining momentum. The pressure from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is increasing to which the offshore jurisdictions are subjected. Thus, at the request of the OECD, the changes in the Law on International Commercial Companies (hereinafter the Law) have entered in force since July of this year in Belize. Among the main innovations are: the obligation to maintain a register of the beneficial owners and the register of the directors, as well as a ban on the issue or exchange of the bearer shares. Register of beneficial owners Unlike many other jurisdictions, in Belize, this obligation was realized with the requirement to store data on the beneficiaries only at the company registration address. As a rule, this is the address of the registration agent. But there is no requirement to submit data from this register to the state register of the companies. At the same time, it is not necessary to provide historical information - only the data of the current beneficiaries of the company are entered in the register. The term "beneficial owner" is defined as an individual: - who owns or ultimately controls the company; - ...

On August 27, 2017, the president of the UAE signed a law presupposing a change in the tax legislation of the country, namely, the introduction of a value-added tax. This decision was made within the framework of the economic policy of the closed international organization CCASG, which also includes Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. According to the Law, each taxpayer will be obliged to register and submit reports annually to the tax authorities in Arabic or any other language, but with translation into Arabic. The standard rate of VAT in the UAE will be 5%, but there will be some exceptions that provide for a zero-rate tax or full exemption from it. The zero rate will be applicable in such areas as the export of goods and services outside the CCASG, international transportations, operations with certain types of precious metals, the primary sale of real estate (subject to its implementation within 3 years after completion of the construction), the supply of air, sea and land transport, as well as educational and medical services. The provision of certain types of financial services, as well as transactions with residential real estate, land and local passenger...

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...

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 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...