Lawyer blog - Finance Business Service

Improving investment climate in Ukraine

Published: 07/09/2017 | blog

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At the end of June, the President signed a law on removing the barriers for the foreign investors, which amends a number of existing legislative norms. In this publication we try to understand what it means for the investors themselves. So, the main achievements of the law are the establishment of the procedure for obtaining the work permit for a foreign investor at the legislative level, as well as determination of the possibility to obtain a residence by the investor (hereinafter - residence), not only permanent but also temporary. As for the work permit: the law clearly stipulates the procedure, all the necessary documents and requirements. Among the main documents are only four: 1. Application of the employer in the prescribed form 2. Copies of the passport of a foreigner with the translation 3. Color photo of a foreigner 3,5x4,5 4. Draft employment contract with a foreigner The additional documents (listed in the law) are required only for certain categories of the foreigners. It is also important that the law explicitly prohibits authorities demanding any other documents not provided for by law from the foreigners or their employers (both...

Not all tax invoices will be monitored

Published: 06/09/2017 | blog

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#Tax disputes

As it has been repeatedly noted by the experts of the Finance Business Service, the Law of Ukraine No. 1797-VIII of 21.12.2016 made numerous changes to a number of provisions of the Tax Code of Ukraine. The significant changes were made in the paragraph 74.2. art. 74 of the Tax Code of Ukraine, and no less significant addition was by the paragraph 201.16. of the article 201 of the Tax Code of Ukraine. So, the main concepts of the made changes in pp. 74.2. art. 74 of the Tax Code of Ukraine were: - implementation of the constant automated monitoring of the compliance of tax invoices / adjustment calculations (hereinafter referred to as "tax invoices" in the relevant cases), criteria for assessing the degree of risks that are sufficient to stop their registration in the Unified Register of the Tax Invoices; - entrusting the central executive authority that provides the formation and implementation of the state financial policy the obligation to determine the criteria for assessing the degree of risks that are sufficient to stop the registration of the tax invoice in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices. The changes in the paragraph 201.16. art. 201...

New rules of financial services licensing: simplified conditions of the license

Published: 22/12/2016 | blog

New licensed conditions of implementation of economic activity on provision of financial services (except professional activity in the security market) were approved by the Order of the Government No. 913 of December 7 and came into force on December 10, 2016. The license on provision of financial services can be obtained quickly and cheap. Unless, of course, all documents are in order. According to Licensed conditions, the licensing authority issues licenses for such types of financial services: providing of borrowed money, including credit and financial conditions; attraction of financial assets with an obligation to follow their return; services in the sphere of insurance regarding carrying out the specific types of insurance determined by the legislation; services in system of accumulative provision of pensions regarding administration of non-state pension funds; property management for the financing of construction projects and / or implementation of real estate transactions in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "About financial and credit mechanisms and management of property under construction housing and real estate transactions"; trust management of financial...

The Council of Europe approved the Directive on access to information about beneficial owners

Published: 19/12/2016 | blog

On December 6 at a meeting of the EU Council on financial and economic questions the Directive of the EU Council concerning access of tax authorities to information on counteraction to money-laundering was approved. This document obliges EU Member States to provide access to information on beneficial owners of the companies, which dispose the authorities responsible for counteraction to money-laundering. It will allow tax authorities to perform monitoring of application of the rules of automatic exchange information established by the Directive 2014/107/EU, and finally will contribute to the prevention of tax evasion and tax fraud. The new Directive is one of a number of measures developed by the Commission in July 2016 in response to the Panama scandal. Its adoption by the need to ensure wider access to the tax authorities information about the beneficial owners of the intermediary organizations, and also other information of complex legal evaluation of clients. Let's remind that according to the Directive 2015/849/EU in the event that the owner of the financial account is an intermediary structure, financial institutions should conduct an audit and to identify its...

The new Law about International business companies on the Seychelles came into force

Published: 28/11/2016 | blog

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#Seychelles

Within the Global forum FATF and OECD on transparency and exchange of information in the tax sphere, on July 26, 2016 in Seychelles the new law about International business companies was adopted (further in the text – "The new law"). The new law offers tough, but at the same time the attractive regulatory base promoting development of competitiveness and continuation of a strong growth of popularity of the Seychelles as the international center of financial services. Fixing of regulatory aspects of the law, for the purpose of compliance to international standards, reflects interest and observance of Seychelles Republic advanced international experience, in particular, concerning an international initiative on improvement of information openness that will affect reputation of the Seychelles in the opinion of the international community positively. From the moment of adoption of law about International Business Companies, 1994 (further – "The law of 1994"), international business companies have become very successful in the Seychelles in the sector of non-bank financial services. Despite success of the 1994 Law the Republic of Seychelles has noted the need to improve the...

Since January 1, 2017 Ukraine will join to the Plan of BEPS

Published: 25/11/2016 | blog

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#Ukraine

Such news was told by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine after transfer on November 22 by the Minister of Finance of the official letter on accession to the General secretary of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) which is the author of this Plan. The plan of BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) was developed for fight, which connected with tax evasion and creating of equal conditions for all taxpayers companies. In general the plan of BEPS provides large-scale reorganization of the existing system of the cross-border taxation. It contains 15 points of counteraction to aggressive tax planning among which there are enhancements of rules of transfer pricing, the income taxation of the controlled foreign companies, prevention of avoiding taxation by international treaties, exchange of financial information, etc. With acquisition of official membership in BEPS Ukraine will undertake the liability to implement the minimum standard of the Plan including four points: fight against the tax speculation connected with use of special tax regimes; avoidance of abuses in case of application of tax conventions; disclosure of information on using schemes of...

Compensation to individuals for damage caused by the abuse of the financial services industry

Published: 23/11/2016 | blog

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#Ukraine

Began operating a law on compensation to individuals for damage caused abuse in financial servicesOn November 18 it was officially published, and on November 19 the Law of Ukraine came into force "About introduction of amendments to some laws of Ukraine concerning compensation to physical persons, through system of guaranteeing household deposits, the harm done by abuses in the sphere of banking and other financial services", in consequence of that in some way were changed the "rules of the game" in the field of guaranteeing deposits of individuals. The main innovation is equating with a contribution of loans and household deposits in the non-bank financial institutions performed through bank which acted as the attorney under the relevant agreement and and on the date of entry into force of the Law it is recognized as insolvent. An obligatory condition for the acceptance of such funds contribution and the physical persons which performed their placement / provision – investors, is lack of the written prevention of the bank signed by the investor that the guarantees provided by the law on system of guaranteeing household deposits don't extend to these means. In practice, this...

Income tax and VAT on receiving the bonus in monetary form from non-resident supplier

Published: 18/11/2016 | blog

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#Taxation #VAT

In the letter of 28.10.2016 State Fiscal Service of Ukraine has provided clarification regarding taxation of receiving bonus in monetary form from the supplier on the basis of non-resident credit note (the settlement document which contains the message which goes the supplier to the buyer about record on credit of the account of the last certain amount in connection with approach of a circumstance which created a right of claim of such amount for buyer). This explanation is proved by numerous requests from representatives of both small, and large business in a consequence of lack clearly defined by the legislation rules governing this sector of relationships. Concerning the taxation on profit it should be noted the following. So, according to provisions of the Tax Code of Ukraine (further – the Code) the object of taxation on income tax is a profit with an origin source from Ukraine and abroad, which is determined by adjusting (increase or decrease) a financial result to the taxation (profit or loss), determined in the financial reporting of the entity in according to national provisions (standards) of financial accounting or international accounting standards, on the...

The tax residency

Published: 04/11/2016 | blog

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#Tax reporting #Ukraine

Against the background of the active introduction of more and more countries, the automatic exchange of financial accounting information provided by the multilateral agreement of the competent authorities ("The Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information", abbr. "MCAA") becomes apparent inevitability of joining in the near future Ukraine's this agreement. Recall that the MCAA involves automatic annual exchange of information on the accounts of non-residents between the competent (tax) authorities of countries that have signed the agreement. This fundamental question is the definition of tax residence of the account holder, as the information about it will be sent to the competent tax authorities of the country, the tax which he is a resident. Tax residency financial institution is determined primarily through independent determination of the account holder, on the basis of the information specified in the documentation to open an account. If the account holder declares the absence of residence for tax purposes, the financial institution determines its residency at the main office location. It is important to understand that...

Amendments to the intellectual property regime in the Republic of Cyprus

Published: 26/10/2016 | blog

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#Cyprus

October 14, 2016 in order to bring legislation into line with the BEPS requirements (plan to counter the erosion of the tax base and output gains from taxation), the Government of the Republic of Cyprus passed a law that introduces a number of amendments to existing intellectual property regime (hereinafter - the EC). These amendments to the IP regime came into force on 07.01.2016 year. It should be noted that until now existed in Cyprus IP regime has not been approved by the majority of EU member states, as well as been widely criticized. So, focus on the main points of the IP regime change which, in our view, require attention. First, once it is worth to note that the tax rate for the use of intellectual property (hereinafter - IS) unchanged at 2.5%. To determine the qualifying EC introduced a modified factor relation criterion (modified nexus approach). According to this criterion, the definition of qualifying IP narrowed. This factor suggests a link between the cost of the development of IP, most IP and income produced by the IP data objects. In this approach, the taxpayer must itself carry out research and development work (hereinafter - R & D). In addition, a special...

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