Author: Алёна Выдыш

The European Commission has announced new measures to improve the protection of the EU’s Value Added Tax system against fraud. The EU plans to close all the loopholes in the existing legislation for large-scale frauds. According to the EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici, VAT fraud may be a source of funding of criminal activities, including terrorism. “Combating this phenomenon requires much more effective information exchange between competent state bodies, and the mechanisms proposed by us will help this,” the official said at the presentation of introductions. “For example, the experts from the Eurofisk anti-fraud office will be given the access to information on registration of cars from Member States, that will help eliminate one of the main sources of VAT fraud associated with the sale of new and used cars.” Although the tax services of the EU states are still exchanging data on cross-border sales today, manual processing of information plays a significant role in this process. In addition, the data from national union law enforcement authorities regarding criminal groups in ​​VAT frauds are not received...

Recently, it has become known that on November 28, the European Parliament will hold hearings in Brussels regarding the publication of the materials of the Paradise Papers. These materials were made public by the deputy of European Parliament from the German party “The Greens” Sven Giegold on his Twitter page. The hearings will be held by the parliamentary committee for investigating money laundering and tax evasion. We remind that on November 5, 2017, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published the so-called “Paradise Papers”, relating the offshore companies of the richest people in the world. Initially, these documents were received by the German newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. About 100 media out of 67 countries were involved in the international investigation of the data. The sensational documents related to the Russian investments in Twitter and Facebook, tax evasion schemes of Apple, offshore of Queen Elizabeth II and many other stories of famous personalities who hide personal files or avoid taxes using complex systems of funds, trusts and “one-day...

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...

On October 9, Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland amended the Agreement on avoidance of double taxation, provided for by the relevant Protocol. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Finance. The amendments to the agreement are aimed at exemption of the physical and legal entities from paying double taxes on incomes received in the territories of both parties. This can be achieved both by distributing the right to tax certain types of income depending on the place of their receipt between the two countries, and by taking into account the taxes paid in the territory of the other country in the tax obligations of a taxpayer of one country. It is expected that the signing of the Protocol will contribute to the creation of the favorable conditions for the investors in Ukraine and the United Kingdom, as well as to increase the business initiative of the entrepreneurs. The settlement of income taxation in bilateral relations between Ukraine and Great Britain will allow to eliminate tax discrimination, to ensure the exchange of tax information and improve the cooperation between the tax authorities of the states through the...

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; -...