The advent of blank cheque company IPOs. Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have taken the corporate world by storm. These “blank cheque” shell companies, which raise funds in their initial public offerings (IPO) to invest in potential but as yet unidentified target businesses, have fuelled a listing frenzy in the US. SPAC IPOs have garnered US$87.9 billion in fundraising in the first three months of 2021, already exceeding last year’s total ...
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) established the COVID-19 Telehealth Program (the “Telehealth Program”) on April 2, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Telehealth Program provides $200 million in funding, appropriated by Congress as part of the CARES Act,[1] to assist certain non-profit and public healthcare providers in making telehealth services available to patients who cannot be seen in person ...
The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) has extensive powers in terms of the Tax Administration Act No. 28 of 2011 (“the TAA”). In terms of section 46(1) of the TAA, SARS may, for the purposes of the administration of a tax Act in relation to a taxpayer (“Taxpayer”), require such taxpayer or another person (“Third Party”) to submit relevant material that SARS requires within a reasonable period. SARS may require such relevant material to be submitted orally or in writing ...
In South Africa, the determination of whether a foreign entity is a company or partnership is an important one, as it subsequently determines the applicable tax treatment of the foreign entity. The issue of whether foreign entities should be recognised as foreign companies or foreign partnerships in South Africa was recently brought into the spotlight once again by the Taxation Laws Amendment Act No. 25 of 2015 (the “2015 Amendment Act”) ...
The European Court of Justice ruled last October that the data sharing framework between the EU and US, referred to as Safe Harbor, is no longer valid. On 2 February 2016, the EU and US authorities agreed in principle on a 'new' arrangement, known as the 'EU-US Privacy Shield', which is intended to replace 'Safe Harbor' ...
The Restrictive Trade Practices Law, 5748-1988 (the Law) is the primary law dealing with antitrust issues in Israel and its objective is to prevent harm to competition or the public. The Law contains the substantive rules that apply to the various restrictive trade practices (restrictive arrangements; mergers; monopolies; concerted groups) ...
Aware of the political and economic challenges facing by the European Union, the European Commission has decided to act swiftly as part of its task of monitoring state aids under Articles 107et seq.of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which require Member States to notify, prior to their implementation, measures that are likely to distort competition within the EU ...
On 21 June 2004, the European Community (“EC”) submitted its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (“WIPO”). The accession took effect from 1 October 2004.The Madrid Protocol is a treaty that facilitates the international registration of trade marks (“the International Registration System”) ...
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) – which is underpinned by competition law - allows access to third parties to data previously held only by ‘Gatekeepers’, namely, large digital platforms, such as Google or Facebook ...
At the end of March, UK Visas and Immigration closed both the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) routes, replacing them with two new visa categories, the ‘Start-up’ and the ‘Innovator’, which are contained within a new Appendix W of the Immigration Rules ...
Due to Norway’s status as a non-EU member, and instead member of the European Economic Area (the EEA), implementation of the Directives is delayed compared to the rest of the EU. For comparison, the original deadline for the implementation of the DSM Directive in the EU was 7 June 2021. Some of the proposed amendments to the Norwegian Copyright Act include: New obligations for providers of online content sharing platforms (such as Youtube, Facebook etc ...
A new report by Shoosmiths, in partnership with Beauhurst, shows that the number of venture capital ‘megadeals’ in the UK has increased tenfold over the last decade. In 2011 a modest five ‘megadeals’ (where £50 million or more is invested into a company) occurred, compared with an astounding 51 megadeals in the first half of 2021 ...
One of the key elements addressed in the Draft Reviewed Broad Based Black-Economic Empowerment (“BBBEE”) Charter for the South African Mining and Minerals Industry, 2016 (the “draft reviewed Mining Charter”) is the issue of ownership. The Department of Mineral Resources (“DMR”) seeks to achieve the ownership requirement through broad-based employee share option plans (“ESOPs”), which are likely to have an impact on both mining companies and their employees from a tax perspective ...
On May 4 2011 the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation published on its website the draft law on transfer pricing, which includes the amendments introduced after the first reading held o February 19, 2010 ...
On June 9, 2014, Mr. Moshe Asher, the General Director of the Israeli Tax Authority, announced at the CPA Association Conference that the Israel Tax Authority (the "ITA") will be launching a new voluntary disclosure program enabling taxpayers to report their concealed capital in Israel and abroad (the "new campaign") ...
BigTech has kept information about advertising (who is seeing the adverts, who is clicking on the adverts...) largely in a safe under lock and key. This is about to change and advertising agencies could be a major beneficiary. Advertising agencies likely need to invest in capabilities to analyse huge volumes of data, or engage external advisors to do this work ...
The Davis Tax Committee Issues Its Second Report on Estate Duty The Davis Tax Committee (“DTC”) released its much-anticipated second (and final) interim report (the “Report”) on estate duty on 24 August 2016. The Report has been published with amendments taking into account the public’s comments that were submitted in respect of the first interim report ...
On 18 July 2022, the UK government introduced the new Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (Bill). What is the Bill? The new Data Protection and Digital Information Bill contains the government’s proposals to reform the UK’s data protection regime. The Bill quickly follows the government’s publication in June of its response to its consultation on the Data Reform Bill carried out in Autumn 2021 ...
Although Cyprus usually tends to be associated with company formation (in an international tax planning context), Cyprus has an efficient trust legislation in force. The latest legal reform of trusts has enhanced the appeal of Cyprus International Trust (CIT) to both professionals and high net-worth individuals.Legislation and Legal Requirements CITs used to be governed by the International Trusts Law of 1992 ...
The Panama Papers represent a leak of some 11.5 million files from a Panamanian based advisory firm, Mossack Fonseca. The leak provided information on offshore bank accounts and offshore trusts based in Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles, among other jurisdictions. Many politicians and celebrities have been named, including the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who is perhaps the highest profile individual named in this leak ...
There have been fresh developments in the continuing battle between pharmaceutical manufacturers and parallel importers. National and European courts have been attempting to strike a balance between the principle of the free movement of goods within the EU and the legitimate protection of intellectual property rights. The most recent contribution has come from Advocate General Sharpston (AG) in her opinion in the ongoing case of Boehringer and others v Swingward and Dowelhurst (C-348/04) ...
