On August 31, 2017, Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas struck down a Department of Labor rule that would have raised the minimum salary for an individual to be exempt from overtime pay from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually). The final version of the overtime rule was announced last May and was set to take effect on Dec ...
Whenever emergency situations such as Hurricane Harvey cause office closures and such offices are subsequently reopened, Texas employers must remember several points to stay compliant with employment laws. In general, employees who are classified as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions must be paid a salary each week ...
IRS provides Retirement Plan Loan and Hardship Distribution Relief for Harvey Victims The IRS has released Announcement 2017-11 providing relief from some of the loan and hardship distribution requirements under qualified retirement plans (including Code Section 401(a) and 403(b) plans) for the period of August 23, 2017 through January 31, 2018. The relief applies to employees or former employees either (i) whose principal residence on Aug ...
Position of Russian Federal Tax Authorities in respect of currency control regulation August 29, 2017 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, This is to inform you that Federal Tax Authority of the Russian Federation published the Letter no. 3-H-3-17/5523@ dated July 16, 2017, in respect of the position regarding legitimacy of transactions of Russian residents on their foreign bank accounts which were not declared to the local tax authorities (the “Letter”) ...
On 27 August 2017, the United Arab Emirates (the "UAE") published the text of its domestic Value Added Tax (the "VAT") Law, shortly after releasing the text of its Excise Tax Law last week, and the Federal Tax Procedures Law earlier this month. It will be followed by implementing regulations, which will provide more detail on application of the VAT Law.The UAE Government is still planning to introduce VAT on 1 January 2018 ...
Few medical issues are as significant to an employee and an employer as major back surgery. The procedure incapacitates the injured worker for months and leaves the employer short staffed while the employee recovers. Additionally, these surgeries often do not result in the expected outcome, which leads to further impairment and expense ...
SyCipLaw Partners Imelda A. Manguiat and Carina C. Laforteza, Senior Associate Bhong Paulo A. Macasaet, and Associate Maricar G. Ramos contributed the Philippine chapter of Getting the Deal Through: Aviation Finance & Leasing 2017. The chapter addressed pivotal questions about air law and aviation financing and leasing. The scope and rules and regulations of owning, leasing, securing, financing and operating an aircraft were also discussed ...
Introduction. Panama has become a popular destination to immigrate in the region, due to its economic growth and socio-political stability which contrasts with other neighboring countries´ intricate conditions. Within the last decade, multiple infrastructure projects, as well as incentives favorable to establish and operate multinational companies have resulted in an increase of foreign nationals within the country, creating a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society ...
As seen in Human Resource Executive Online In the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, a Twitter account with the handle @YesYoureRacist began soliciting the assistance of the general public to identify rally attendees based on photographs. “If you recognize any of the Nazis marching in #Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and I’ll make them famous,” the Twitter-detective tweeted ...
In a decision made earlier this year, the Board of Equal Treatment established that the dismissal of a 62-year old teacher did not constitute discrimination on the grounds of age. The board found it proven that the teacher''s competence profile could best be dispensed with in connection with the educational institution''s forward-looking need to cover lessons with a reduced number of teachers ...
On 19 July 2017, the South African National Treasury released the 2017 Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (“draft TLAB”) for public comment. One of the proposals contained in the draft TLAB is the deletion of the exemption for foreign employment income contained in section 10(1)(o)(ii) of the Income Tax Act, 1962 with effect from 1 March 2019 ...
The first draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2017 (the “2017 TLAB”) was released on 19 July 2017 for public comment (due by 18 August 2017).Among other things, it is proposed that the current section 22B of the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”) and paragraph 43A of the Eight Schedule to the Act, be substituted with a new section 22B and paragraph 43A ...
South Africans who think that their tax burden is going to decrease because country-by-country (“CbC”) reporting does not apply to their company should think again!In addition to the recently released draft notice requiring the submission of CbC reports, master file and local file returns, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) has recently issued the External Business Requirements Specification (“BRS”) document, setting out CbC and Financial Data
The window period for South African residents to regularise their unauthorised foreign assets under the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (“SVDP”) closes on 31 August 2017. The current SVDP is the latest in a series of such opportunities offered by the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank (“SARB”), beginning with the 2003 exchange control amnesty ...
BOTSWANA: Amending protocol to treaty with France signedOn 27 July 2017, Botswana and France signed an amending protocol to the Botswana/France Income Tax Treaty, 1999 in Gaborone. CAMEROON: VAT refund procedure available onlineThe Cameroonian Minister of Finance issued a communiqué on 14 June 2017, announcing that the value-added tax (“VAT”) refund procedure has been simplified and is available online as from 3 July 2017 for enterprises registered with the Large Tax Unit ...
Earlier this year, the President of the United Arab Emirates (the “UAE”) issued the new Tax Procedures Law (the “Law”). This Law contributes to build the UAE’s tax system, to regulate the administration and collection of taxes and most importantly, to clarify the respective rights and obligations between the Federal Tax Authority (the “FTA”) and the taxpayer ...
On August 2, 2017, President Trump and Senators David Perdue (R-GA) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) announced an immigration bill, which would profoundly amend and re-structure the Immigration Nationality Act ...
It has already been in the public domain for a while that VAT will be applicable in the UAE (and the GCC) from the beginning of 2018. Under the VAT regime, businesses will be collecting taxes on behalf of the government and will file tax returns accordingly. Although the tax is collected at each stage of value addition, the burden of tax falls only on the end consumer. For all the other stages, one can claim a refund. For this reason VAT is called ‘consumption tax’ ...
The Supreme Court has ruled in a landmark case that the Tax Appeals Tribunal (“TAT”) has original jurisdiction to hear tax disputes, and the High Court only has appellate jurisdiction. Until now, the long-established position was that the High Court and the TAT had concurrent jurisdiction and a litigant had discretion to lodge an application with the TAT or file the dispute in the High Court. In Uganda Revenue Authority v Rabbo Enterprises (U) Ltd and Mt ...
The concept of unjustified tax benefit is formalized in the Russian Tax CodeAugust 03, 2017Dear Sirsand Mesdames,We would like to inform you that the Federal Law No. 163-FZ dated July 18, 2017 (the “Law”) introduced amendments to the Russian tax legislation, codifying the concept of unjustified tax benefit, which was previously described by the Supreme Arbitration Court in 2006. The new Article 54 ...
New Ruling – calculation of an hourly employee’s last wage for the purpose of calculating the severance pay to which he is entitled will be made according to the partiality of his position throughout the term of his employment On June 4, 2017, the National Labor Court rendered a judgment in Labor Appeal 44824-03-16 Y.B. See Resources Ltd. vs Adhenom Berh Teami (the “See Resources Case“) ...
Many employers routinely ask job applicants about their salary or earnings history, either in written job applications, during interviews, or during post-offer salary negotiations. Such activities will soon be prohibited in San Francisco. Earlier this month, the City’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban employers from asking job applicants about their salary history or from considering such information in determining whether to hire an applicant or what salary to offer ...
SyCipLaw''s Employment & Immigration Update (Volume XV, Issue 1) features updates and articles on issuances from the Department of Labor & Employment (DOLE), including the new guidelines on contracting and subcontracting, and the implementing rules and regulations of theAnti-Age Discrimination in Employment Act,the Data Privacy Act of 2012, and those governingthe employment and working conditions of collectors in the debt collection industry ...
A CFO of a company was dismissed for poor performance. He sued his employer arguing that his dismissal was unjustified. The company’s defense was based on several emails produced in court which were supposed to show the CFO’s poor quality work.Under French law, the golden rule is that any system collecting or processing data including professional email systems must be declared to the Data Protection Agency (“CNIL”) in order to be legal ...
A regional director was fired for poor performance.According to her dismissal letter, she was terminated because of her behavior that had led a number of co-workers to suffer from stress and harassment. More particularly, the letter pointed out her directive management style and her authoritative leadership, a lack of consistency and honesty, the fact that she aimed at discouraging her team members and did not treat them with respect using an insulting and degrading language ...
