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The European Parliament Will Undertake “Paradise Papers”

Published: 15/02/2018 | news

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The European Parliament plans to create a new committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax planning. This decision was taken by the Chairmen of the factions of the European Parliament on February 8 and it is awaiting approval in the plenary vote. The main goal of the committee, which will last 12 months, will be the completion of work done by the members of the pre-existing TAXE 1, TAXE 2 and PANA committees, as well as focusing on the so-called “Paradise Papers” - recent information leaks. Thus, the co-chairman of the Greens / European Free Alliance (Greens / EFA) fraction, Philippe Lamberts, noted: “Paradise Papers demonstrated the existence of clear objectives and serious volume of work that we must do if we want to ensure fiscal justice throughout the European Union. We want to be sure that the national treasuries are able to collect funds which are necessary to maintain the common prosperity of the EU”. According to the official, the EU Parliament’s Panama Papers Committee has already developed a well-prepared plan of measures to reduce the cases of tax evasion. The new committee will ensure the maintenance of the progress achieved and the implementation of...

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

Published: 13/02/2018 | news

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#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

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#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...

Hong Kong Legislation on Significant Controllers Register Will Enter into Force in March 2018

Published: 05/02/2018 | news

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#Hong Kong #Legislation

On January 24, 2018, the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2017 was passed, which mandates incorporated companies of Hong Kong to keep a Significant Controllers Register (SCR). The new legislation will enter into force on March 1, 2018. The Hong Kong Companies Registry has set up a special section on SCR on its website containing, amongst others, a detailed Guideline on the Keeping of SCR and specific forms for the companies to use. The main requirements for the new SCR regime are listed below. Who are required to keep a SCR? All companies “formed and registered” in accordance with the the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, including dormant companies, financial institutions, charitable organizations, companies limited by guarantee and any other types of companies incorporated in Hong Kong, except for the listed companies, and foreign companies registered under Part 16 of the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, must keep a SCR. What should be contained in the SCR? The SCR must contain information on the significant controllers of the applicable company, namely registrable persons (i.e., a natural person or a specified entity such as a government and international organisation) and/or...

EU Mitigates the Rules of Taxation for Small Business

Published: 24/01/2018 | news

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#EU #Taxation #VAT

The European Union announced its intention to expand the powers of Member States with respect to changing the rates of VAT and mitigating the rules of taxation for small businesses. These changes are only part of a large-scale plan on revision of the European VAT system aimed at creating a single VAT zone. We remind that the general rules of VAT in the European Union were agreed in 1992. According to the European Commission, they became obsolete and, in addition, too limited. The EU Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, noted: “Today we are taking another step towards the creation of a single VAT zone in the European Union with simplified rules for our Member States and, in particular, companies. These proposals will give EU countries greater freedom with regard to application of preferential VAT rates to specific products or services. At the same time, they will enable to reduce the number of bureaucratic mechanisms for small enterprises engaged in cross-border activities, thereby contributing to their growth and job creation”. The Commission proposed to give EU Member States the opportunity to introduce certain benefits, along with a standard VAT rate of at least...

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...

The European Union Intends to Exclude 8 Countries from the “Black List” of Offshore Zones

Published: 17/01/2018 | news

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#Black list #EU #Offshores #Tax disputes #Офшори

The European Union is discussing the possible exclusion of eight countries from the “black list” of offshore zones. It is reported by the IA Reuters, referring to the documents at its disposal. According to the agency, Panama, UAE, South Korea, Barbados, Grenada, Macau, Mongolia and Tunisia can be removed from the list. Such a proposal is justified by the fact that these countries have agreed to change their tax policy. In addition, an exclusion from the list of Bahrain was discussed, but in the end, it was decided to leave it on the list. On Tuesday, January 16, the issue was discussed at the ambassadorial level. And next week the proposal will be considered by the EU finance ministers. In early December, the last ones published a “black list” of countries that did not want to cooperate with the EU in the field of tax reporting, as reported by the UNIAN. The list includes 17 countries, namely: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, United Arab Emirates, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and South Korea. Offshore zones are on the territory of the most part of these states. We remind that...

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

Published: 29/12/2017 | news

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#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

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#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

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#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...

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