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The Government Increased the List of Beneficiaries Regarding the Payment of Court Fee

Published: 03/03/2018 | news

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The Government of Ukraine has amended Art. 5 of the Law “On Court Fee”, providing for the expansion of the list of applicants and claimants, who are exempt from paying court fee. The changes are confirmed by the Law of Ukraine “On the features of the state policy on securing the state sovereignty of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions” and came into force on February 24, 2018. So, Part 1 of Art. 5 “On Court Fee” is supplemented with clauses 21 and 22 of the following content: “21) the applicants - in cases on applications for establishing facts of legal significance filed in connection with armed aggression, armed conflict, temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine, natural or man-made disasters that led to forced relocation from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, death, injury, imprisonment, unlawful deprivation of liberty or abduction, as well as violation of property rights on movable and/or immovable property; 22) the claimants - in cases on suits against the aggressor state, the Russian Federation, on the compensation of property and/or moral damage caused by the temporary occupation of the...

Cyprus Imposes 19% VAT on Building Land

Published: 19/01/2018 | news

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#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

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#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,...

Estonian Undertakings Will Disclose Beneficial Owners

Published: 10/01/2018 | news

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#Estonia

From 1 September 2018, all Estonian undertakings must disclose data on their beneficial owners in the commercial register. Therefore, name, date of birth, habitual residence and position occupied by the beneficial owner are subject to disclosure. The obligation to provide these data to the register lies with management board of the company. According to the law, a beneficial owner is defined as a natural person who, by using his influence, performs an operation or a transaction or who exercises control over a transaction, operation or another person in whose interests or on whose account a transaction or operation is performed. A beneficial owner is also a natural person who ultimately owns or controls more than 25% of the shares in the undertaking. In case if the company has failed to identify the beneficial owner and “all possible identification measures” have been exhausted, a member of the highest management board must be represented as the beneficial owner. In addition, there must be no doubt that such a person does not exist. Data on the beneficial owner must be submitted to the commercial register during company formation procedures. If they remain unchanged, the...

Ministry of Finance Reforms Institution of Financial Liability for Tax Violations

Published: 30/11/2017 | news

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#Cyprus #VAT

Recently the Ministry of Finances of Ukraine, together with the experts from the interactive tax platform TaxLink, has developed a bill “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the improvement of the prosecution system for violation of tax laws”. The essence of the document is to reform the liability for tax violations provided by the current legislation. First of all, the bill introduces more effective mechanisms for the settlement of tax disputes in cases when the violation of tax law happened not due to the fault of the payer. In addition, it is proposed to introduce the principle of fault liability of taxpayers which is inherent in all branches of Ukrainian legislation, in contrast to the current liability of the payer without fault. Therefore, the last one will be considered guilty if found guilty that he was able to comply with the relevant rules and regulations, but did not take the necessary measures for this. In this regard, when considering the verification materials by the supervisory authority, the documents of the taxpayer may be subject to the examination that show his due diligence. Another significant innovation is the introduction of the system of...

Undistributed profit in Latvia is exempt from CIT

Published: 01/09/2017 | news

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#CIT #CIT #Dividends

On the 4th and 11th of July, 2017 the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia approved a number of draft laws providing for the significant changes in the tax legislation of the country which will enter into force on January 1, 2018. The most significant of them will be the application of the CIT 0% rate for the reinvested profits. In other words, the enterprise will be subject to the corporate income tax only if it pays dividends or other payments for the purpose of actual distribution of the profits (conditionally distributed profit). Therefore since 2018, the company's profits are exempted from CIT, but it has to pay 20% of the income tax from the amount of dividends. At the same time, the shareholders will not have to pay personal income tax (PIT). Although, according to the bill, the CIT rate is 20%, and the tax base should be divided by a factor of 0.8, the effective tax rate actually equals 25%. It is notably that CIT will be applied not only to the dividends in the traditional sense, but also to the "deemed dividends", which are considered a new concept in Latvian tax legislation, and comparable with the dividends to the costs. Here it is important to note that the last ones...

Spain increases the burden of the corporate tax

Published: 06/12/2016 | news

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#Spain #Taxation #VAT

The government of Spain declared growth of a budget income on December 2, that will increase tax revenues from corporations. In spite of the fact that recently created government decided to leave the 25 percent corporate tax rate untouched, Spain will limit the corporate tax deductions. They will contribute the most part of 7 billion euros in the new income at which the government is aimed. The Budget imposes new limits on loss carry backs and restrictions for use of the pecuniary losses connected with shareholdings in the companies located in "tax harbors or in the territories with not appropriate level of a tax" in number with other changes. New measures of the corporate tax, as expected, raise the additional amount of 4.65 billion euros in revenue for the government. Besides, real estate value will be updated for property tax to increase revenues. Also, the government intends to lift a number of "guilty" taxes, including on alcohol, tobacco, and sweet drinks. Other changes are directed on modernization VAT and the fight against fraud VAT. It includes a new reporting system of the VAT in real time which announced in 2014. Taxpayers will be obliged to report about...

Switzerland and Austria dissolve the agreement withholding tax

Published: 14/11/2016 | news

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#Austria #Switzerland #Taxation

Agreement withholding tax (WHT) between Switzerland and Austria, will be phased out from 1 January 2017, when the agreement between Switzerland and the EU on the automatic exchange of tax information comes into force. 11 November 2016, Switzerland and Austria signed an agreement to ensure a smooth transition between the two modes. Austrian authorities, it regulates the arrangements for the transmission of the final amount of taxes and shipping the latest voluntary agreement. "The provisions of a tax treaty withholding will be applied on all the facts and legal rights that materialize during the period of its validity," said the Swiss Federal Council.Withholding tax agreement between Switzerland and Austria came into force on 1 January 2013. It provided for the regularization of assets held in Switzerland Austrian taxpayers and taxation of income derived from these assets. Austrian taxpayers have been an option either to pay by WHT, imposed directly on their accounts and transferred anonymously to the Austrian authorities, or to make a voluntary disclosure. The Swiss Federal Council said that this model is "generally loses its sense of existence with the introduction of an...

The Swiss government supports corporate tax reform

Published: 31/10/2016 | news

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#Reforms #Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Council announced its support for the proposed changes to the corporate tax base in Switzerland, known as - Corporate Tax Reform III (CTR III), on the eve of a referendum on the issue, which will be held early next year. CTR III cancel corporate tax arrangements, which are no longer in line with international standards. These primarily include the cantonal tax status, for possession of residential and mixed companies. "With regard to measures of tax legislation, the focus is on the promotion of innovation," said Federal Department of Finance on 27 October. "In general, the reform will allow Switzerland to remain an attractive location for companies, and for each canton, the ability to adapt their fiscal policies in the economic and financial situation," said a department statement. "Reform will prevent a mass exodus of existing companies with the status and thus, the possible tax losses amounting to more than CHF 5 billion (USD 5 billion) for the Federation, the cantons and communes." Author: Sergey Panovmanaging partner Finance Business...

Estonia – the most competitive countries in the tax system

Published: 19/10/2016 | news

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#Estonia

Estonia is the most competitive tax system in the world, largely thanks to its 20-percent income tax and a "well-structured" personal income tax system. The third annual International Competitiveness Fund measures how well the country's tax system contributes to sustainable economic growth and investment. The report looks at 40 variables of tax policy in five categories, including corporate income taxes, individual taxes, consumption taxes, property taxes, as well as the treatment of foreign exchange earnings. According to the Fund, Estonia's position at the beginning of 2016 the list of the year is mainly the result of four factors, including "its low percentage of corporate tax, well-structured, 20 percent tax rate on personal income tax, property tax is only applied to the cost of land, rather than the real value of the property or capital, as well as a well thought out territorial tax system." New Zealand and Latvia take the next two places in the list. In contrast, France is at the end of the table due to its high corporate rate - 33.33 per cent of the taxes, "high and poorly structured" property taxes, and "progressively higher individual tax rates." The United States...

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