Recent News

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has developed a solution that will improve the operation of the system of registration suspension of the TI and it will allow to avoid blocking of the TI of the real sector of the economy. The innovation mainly relates to the agricultural sector, since the increase in the percentage of "blockages" has been recorded in it recently. We remind that since July 1, the system of automated registration of tax invoices has begun to work in full force, designed to prevent billions of twists with VAT and to counter the receipt of tax credits by the unscrupulous payers. However, the practice shows that due to inadequate operation of the system, the honest Ukrainian business sometimes suffers. According to the results of daily monitoring of the system's operation in the context of different branches, the Ministry of Finance discovered a significant increase in the number of suspended tax invoices of the payers of the real sector in the sphere of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. In June 2017, the share of the invoices issued in this industry was 5% of the total number of suspended TI/ AC, in July - 18%, and in August - 29%. After holding a series of...

On September 27, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine, Alexander Danilyuk, met with the representatives of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to discuss the implementation of the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) and joining of Ukraine to the automatic exchange of information between fiscal authorities (AEOI standard). With this visit, the OECD representatives launched the first common program for the implementation of the international standards for information exchange and BEPS activities. According to Alexander Danilyuk, the Ministry has developed a detailed Roadmap for the introduction of the Minimum Standard of the Plan, according to which Ukraine will join the MLI (Multilateral Instrument) before the end of this year. The implementation of the Steps 6 and 14 of the Minimum Standard of the Plan will contribute to improving the mechanisms for combating the artificial use of the additional benefits of the international conventions in order to exempt profits from taxation. The corresponding amendments will be introduced in more than 60 existing international conventions on the avoidance of double taxation. It is also worth noting...

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 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...