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MFU Has Developed a Draft Resolution for the Operation of VAT Risk System

Published: 13/02/2018 | news

Tags:

#Taxation #Taxes #VAT

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has developed a draft Resolution on the further operation of the VAT risk system. This mechanism is a necessary measure aimed at the prevention of VAT embezzlement schemes and uninterrupted process of automatic VAT refund. We remind that in December last year, the work of the VAT risk system was suspended in order to develop a coordinated effective solution which would not entail new risks. So, the MFU together with the SFS have developed and agreed upon a decision that was made public on the official website of the Ministry on February 9, for public discussion. Now the draft Resolution is under consideration of people’s deputies of the Tax and Customs Policy Committee. It includes the following changes: In order to reduce the cases of suspension of the registration of tax invoices, a “cutoff criterion” of 3% and a threshold of the volume of supply for the month of 500 thousand UAH are established. Earlier, the coordination of evaluation criteria continued for some time, that allowed some payers to use a fictitious loan. It is proposed the SFS to establish criteria for risk assessment for a prompt response. In order to ensure the...

Hong Kong Intends to Join the OECD’s Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement

Published: 09/02/2018 | news

Tags:

#BEPS #Hong Kong

On February 2, 2018, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region officially formalized the process of ratifying the OECD’s Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA). That means that the jurisdiction will join soon the existing multilateral network of data exchange between the tax authorities of many countries and territories around the world. The Hong Kong Tax and Fees Department introduced the Ordinance on Automatic Exchange of Information on Financial Accounts (AEOI), which will optimize the process of obtaining information by the countries with which the jurisdiction agrees to exchange. This refers to the exchange both under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and the intercountry reporting exchange under the BEPS Plan. After joining of Hong Kong the Multilateral Agreement, the authorities of the country will be able to pass a rather formal procedure for finalizing the relations with other participants through the OECD secretariat. If we compare this process with the conclusion of separate bilateral agreements with a number of the countries, it is much faster and easier. It is important to note that until the end of this year, the old (bilateral) rules for...

Another 6 Countries Have Joined the BEPS Multilateral Convention

Published: 31/01/2018 | news

Tags:

#BEPS #Offshores #Taxation

On January 24, 2018, another six states signed the Multilateral Convention for the Implementation of Activities under the BEPS Plan (MLI Convention). In this regard, the countries were able to amend promptly their agreements on avoidance of double taxation, taking into account the recommendations developed by the OECD in the framework of the plan of action to counteract the base erosion and withdrawal of profits from taxation. Barbados, Côte d'Ivoire, Jamaica, Malaysia, Panama and Tunisia joined the MLI Convention, after which the total number of signers reached 78. It is also worth noting that Algeria, Kazakhstan, Oman and Swaziland have announced their intention to sign the Convention in the near future. In addition, other jurisdictions are actively working on signing the agreement in June this year, as the press service of the OECD reports. To date, four jurisdictions - Austria, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Poland - have ratified the Convention, which will enter into force three months after the fifth part of jurisdictions transfers the instruments of ratification to storage. The Convention, developed as part of large-scale negotiations involving more than 100 countries and...

NBU Has Mitigated Conditions for Business for Selling Foreign Currency

Published: 29/01/2018 | news

Tags:

#Currency control #NBU

The National Bank of Ukraine has simplified the conditions for the sale of foreign currency by the clients of the banks in the interbank foreign exchange market. The amendments to the legislation are enshrined in the NBU Resolution No.7 of January 25, 2018 “On Amending certain normative legal acts of the National Bank of Ukraine” and entered into force on January 27, 2018. The innovations provide mainly the following: Clear definition of the client’s right to apply for the sale of foreign currency to any authorized bank by his choice (regardless of the availability of a current account in foreign currency in this bank). Clarification of the terms of sale of foreign currency of the clients by the bank. We remind that an authorized bank is required by proxy of the client to sell its own funds in foreign currency no later than 5 banking days, starting from the day of writing off these funds from the client’s current account. The NBU clarified that in case of transfer of funds for sale by the client from another authorized bank, the sale of this currency is carried out within 5 days from the date of transfer of these funds to the correspondent account of the authorized...

Cyprus Imposes 19% VAT on Building Land

Published: 19/01/2018 | news

Tags:

#Cyprus #Taxes #VAT

From January 2, 2018 in Cyprus, the new VAT Law has entered into force, providing for changes in the main VAT Law No.95(I)/2000. The document introduces VAT at a standard rate for the sale of building land, as well as leasing/rental of business premises on the conditions specified in the law. It also introduces the reverse charge mechanism for VAT-subject supplies of land and property under a loan restructuring/force-sale arrangement, which will mostly influence financial institutions. Imposition of VAT at the standard rate of 19% on building land The standard VAT rate of 19% will be applied in the following cases: transfer of ownership; transfer of indivisible land portion; transfer of ownership via contract or sale agreement or agreement which specifies that the ownership will be transferred in the future or leasing agreement with buyout option. The above shall apply to non-developed building land which is meant for the construction of one or more structures in the course of carrying out a business activity. More clarifications are still needed for the application of the law, such as the circumstances whereby a transfer is not considered to be a part of a person’s...

A Number of Agreements on Automatic Exchange of Tax Information Entered into Force in Switzerland

Published: 12/01/2018 | news

Tags:

#Switzerland #Tax planning #Tax reporting #Taxation

A number of agreements on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) on taxation issues, concluded by Switzerland with other jurisdictions, entered into force on January 1, 2018. Data exchange will be carried out in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard of the OECD, which provides for the possibility of automatic exchange of information between the territories that have agreed to such an exchange. Switzerland starts to exchange tax information this year with respect to data on accounts collected for some partners under previously signed agreements, namely Australia, Canada, the European Union, Guernsey and Jersey, the Isle of Man, Iceland, Japan, Norway and South Korea . More complete list of jurisdictions with which Switzerland plans to establish automatic exchange of information since 2019 was published on the website of the State Secretariat for International Finance. In order to fulfill its obligation to exchange information automatically with these territories, Swiss financial institutions will be demanded to comply with the new requirements on information collection from January 1, 2018 for the accounts of taxpayers from such countries as Andorra, Argentina,...

Concept of Cryptocurrency Has Been Introduced in the Legislation of the European Union

Published: 29/12/2017 | news

Tags:

#Cryptocurrency #EU #Legislation

Over the past few years, the development of Bitcoin has been increased, which is actively discussed by the governments of different countries. In this regard, the European Union raised some concerns about funding of terrorism, money laundering and tax evasion, which might be related to cryptocurrencies. This is the reason why the European legislator has introduced the concept of cryptocurrency into the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, where Bitcoin is defined as a “monetary instrument”. As the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici notes, to date Bitcoin is not considered as an alternative currency along with dollar or euro due to volatility and much speculation. It is noteworthy that the differences between the definitions of Bitcoins in the EU Directive and in the US legislation are not significant. Details of the political discussions regarding the cryptocurrency in the European Parliament and the further legislative prospects for electronic money are still...

Procedural Codes will Undergo Another Changes

Published: 21/12/2017 | news

Tags:

#Tax disputes #Tax exemptions #Taxes #Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has registered changes in the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Economic Procedure and the Code of Administrative Court Procedure provided for by three relevant draft laws. We remind that on December 15, the Law which had already been amended by these codes came into effect. However, as it was noted in the explanatory notes to the latest drafts, it was adopted in violation of the regulation. In addition, the Law contains a number of contradictory norms, on the correction of which the proposed changes are aimed. In general, it is proposed to rewrite the editions of the CCP, CEP and CACP, which have just come into effect. During the consideration of the procedural codes in the parliament, none of the amendments proposed by the deputies was adopted, although several thousand amendments were submitted at the stage of their preparation. Instead, before voting for the Law as a whole, only amendments were brought to a vote approved by the profile...

Sales Threshold without Cash Registers Has Been Raised to 250-500 thousand UAH per Year

Published: 20/12/2017 | news

Tags:

#Tax disputes #Tax planning #Taxes #Ukraine

The Cabineta of Ministers of Ukraine has increased the threshold of the annual sales volume without using the RCT (registrar of clearing transactions) from 75-200 thousand UAH up to 250-500 thousand UAH per one structural subdivision of the subject, depending on its organizational form and activity. Such changes are provided for by the Resolution of the CMU, as reported by the information agency “Interfax-Ukraine”. As noted, it will enable business entities that have several separate objects of trade (provision of services) not to use the RCT in the event that none of them exceeds the threshold of clearing transactions. According to the explanatory note, which the IA possesses, the Resolution also provides that the enterprises which annual income exceeds UAH 1 million are required to use cash registers, regardless of the type of their activity. The document does not apply to economic entities that carry out retail trade of excisable goods, as well as technically complex household goods. The Resolution defines a list of activities that are exempted from compulsory use of the RCT, in particular the provision of public services on the territory of villages. According to the...

Automatic Blocking System of TI Will Be Temporarily Suspended

Published: 13/12/2017 | news

Tags:

#Tax disputes #Tax exemptions #Taxation #Taxes #Ukraine

The changes provided by the amendments to the draft Law “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the Balance of Budget Revenues in 2018” has been made in the procedure of the blocking system of tax invoices. According to the announcement made on December 7, 2017, the following has been done: 1. Clause 74.2 of the TCU has been deleted, which stipulates that the URTI ensures constant automated monitoring of the compliance of TI/AC with the criteria for assessing the degree of risk sufficient to suspend the registration. This provision will come into force on the day following the day of the publication of the Law. It is also noted that, within two months from the date of entry into force of the Law, the Cabinet of Ministers must: determine the procedure for suspension of the registration of TI/AC in the URTI in accordance with clause 201.16 of the TCU; ensure the revision and bringing of the normative legal acts in compliance with this Law by the ministries and other central executive bodies. In addition, the Cabinet is obliged, within a period of three months from the date of entry into force of this Law: to adopt the normative legal acts which are...

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