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 ...
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 ...
Bunge argues that the section 7805(b) limitation on retroactive regulations was meant to apply to all regulations issued after July 30, 1996, regardless of when the underlying statute was enacted. A. Retroactive Treasury Regulations Generally Many legal systems discourage or disallow retroactive laws in various contexts.1 The U.S ...
On July 31, the Mexican Ministry of Commerce submitted to the Senate the Priorities of Mexico in the Negotiations for theModernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)(the “Position Paper”) ...
It's a quiet Friday afternoon edging uneventfully toward the end of the day when a client calls: they’re interested in acquiring a U.S.-based widget maker. After your internal conflict check clears, reality hits – what do you do now? Whether your client is a foreign (non-U.S.) business targeting a U.S.-based company, or the U.S. target of a foreign purchaser, your deal may have Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) implications ...
Like any good negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in setting out U.S. objectives for the renegotiation of NAFTA, offered only a glimpse of what the U.S. actually will be pushing for when three-country talks among Canada, Mexico and the United States begin in Washington, DC, on August 16. The U.S ...
On 9 July the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Finance (MOF) published an update of the Value Added Tax (VAT) FAQ section of its website.Following on the awareness workshops launched by the MOF, such update provides some clarification on substantive and procedural aspects pertaining to the implication and implementation of VAT ...
What you need to know about Transfer Pricing in a 30-minute video entitled ''''Is your pricing still arms length?''''. Transfer pricing - Is your pricing still arms length? #TAX from Arendt & Medernach on Vimeo.This video was realised during our Tax seminar, held on 29 March 2017.Should you require more information, please contact our partners in Tax Law: Thierry Lesage, Alain Goebel, Jan Neugebauer and Mehdi Fernane-Jallier ...
GHANA: Customs duty on spare parts abolished On 14 June 2017, pursuant to the measures proposed in the 2017 Budget, Parliament passed the Customs Amendment Bill, 2017, which amends the Customs Act, 2015 by abolishing customs duties on the importation of vehicular (including motorcycles and bicycles) spare parts. GHANA: VAT Flat Rate Scheme practice note issued The Ghana Revenue Authority published Practice Note No ...
One of the main action items identified by South Africa’s National Treasury in its summary of the country’s position on the G20/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) action plan on base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”), is the requirement for the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) to update the Transfer Pricing Practice Note in line with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines to include new guidance on the ar
On 6 June 2017, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) issued binding private ruling 274 (“BPR 274”). BPR 274 deals with a venture capital company (“VCC”) investing in a company providing and expanding plants for the generation of solar electricity. This brings the number of binding private rulings that SARS has issued in respect of venture capital companies to four ...
On 29 May 2017, Judge Fabricius delivered judgment in the Gauteng High Court in the case of Pienaar Brothers (Pty) Ltd vs Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service and the Minister of Finance, in a case dealing with the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, 2007 (the “Amending Act”) which inserted section 44(9A) into the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”) ...
Former Secretary of Finance Cesar Purisima issued Revenue Regulation ("RR") No. 3-2016 prescribing the policies and guidelines on the adoption of credit, debit, and prepaid cards as an additional mode of payment for internal revenue taxes. Credit, debit, and prepaid cards were made available as an additional mode of payment in order to ease the burden to taxpayers in the payment of their taxes ...
We write to inform you about a precedent-setting ruling by a District Court in Israel in a case between Gteko, a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, and the Israel Tax Authority ("ITA") regarding a transaction for the sale and purchase of intellectual property assets and its valuation.In 2006, Microsoft acquired the entire share capital of Gteko for $90 million (pursuant to a "Share Agreement") ...
Prior to imposing, extending, or increasing any tax, a public agency must submit the tax to a vote of the electorate. However, public agencies need no such approval to impose certain types of fees. In Jacks v. City of Santa Barbara, the Supreme Court considered whether and when municipal franchise fees—fees charged to utilities and others for the use of public rights of way—constitute taxes requiring voter approval ...
In November of 2016, San Francisco residents voted to pass a new law ("Proposition E"), effective July 1, 2017, that transfers back responsibility from private property owners to the City of San Francisco to maintain and care for street trees and surrounding sidewalks damaged by the trees. The City had taken care of trees several decades ago, but then shifted responsibility back to property owners after that (during a time of budget crisis) ...
ANGOLA: Working group for negotiation of investment protection agreements and tax treaties created The Ministry of Economics and Finances and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued Joint Order No.205/17 on 27 April 2017, creating a technical working group to coordinate the negotiation of investment protection and double tax agreements. The working group will be responsible for guiding negotiations and reporting to relevant ministers ...
In terms of paragraph 2(1) of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”), every employer, who is a resident of South Africa, or representative employer in the case of any employer who is not a resident, (whether or not registered as an employer under paragraph 15) who pays or is liable to pay any amount by way of remuneration to any employee shall, unless the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) has granted authority
In order to create a more uniform system for the administration of taxes in South Africa, section 191 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (the “TAA”) has effectively replaced various refund and set-off provisions which appeared in respective tax acts. Section 191 of the TAA now provides that all tax debts that are due must be set-off against refunds, including the interest thereon, due by the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) to that taxpayer ...
On 2 June 2017, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) published a draft public notice requiring the submission of country-by-country (“CbC”), master file and local file returns. This marks an important step towards the finalisation of South Africa’s transfer pricing documentation requirements ...
On 7 June 2017, South Africa was one of more than 70 countries that signed the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“MLI”). The MLI is the result of certain of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s action points aimed at preventing base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”) ...
