A number of tax figures are adjusted each year for inflation; for 2015, the most significant adjustments for estate and gift taxes are: Unified estate and gift tax exclusion amount. For gifts made and estates of decedents dying in 2015, the lifetime exclusion amount will be $5,430,000 individually or $10,860,000 per couple (up from $5,340,000 or $10,680,000 per couple for 2014). Generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption ...
On November 12, 2014, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”) published the ISDA Resolution Stay Protocol (“Protocol”). Eighteen of the world’s largest banks and their affiliates1 (“G-18”) have agreed to sign the Protocol, which is open for adherence and has an effective date of January 1, 2015 ...
On November 6, 2014, Law No. 20,789 was published in the Official Gazette, granting legal status to theConsejo de Estabilidad Financiera (Financial Stability Council or “CEF”). The CEF is part of the Ministry of Finance, and was originally created in 2011 by means of a ministerial decree.
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Professionals dealing with secured lending in Belgium have been looking forward for some time to the new Belgian law of 11 July 2013 on security interests over movable goods (“Wet van 11 juli 2013 tot wijziging van het Burgerlijk Wetboek wat de zakelijke zekerheden op roerende goederen betreft en tot opheffing van diverse bepalingen ter zake” / “Loi du 11 juillet 2013 modifiant le Code civil en ce qui concerne les sûretés réelles mobilières et abrogeant diverses dispositions en cette matiè
On November 4, 2014, voters in Denton made that city the first in Texas to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits. Within a day, lawsuits were filed by the Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and state lawmakers and regulators voiced strong opposition to the ballot measure ...
This article first appeared in the November 2014 issue of Hong Kong Lawyer, the official journal of The Law Society of Hong Kong. In January 2013, Alexa Lam, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), announced that the SFC and the China Securities and Regulatory Commission (CSRC) planned to implement mutual fund recognition between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese fund products ...
Crowdfunding has many faces. Charitable organisations have received support through this route, as have travelers, athletes, scientists and inventors, and the creators of such humble concepts as making potato salad—a project to which the public contributed over USD 55,000. But often crowdfunding is the main source of financing for innovative ideas which in the long run can drive economic development and positive social changes ...
Introduction: As noted in our earlier article, foreign investors in Australian entities may be unaware that in some circumstances the Australian Taxation Office can assess them for tax on gains made from the disposal of their Australian investments. In particular, a foreign investor will be liable to Australian tax where they make a gain on the disposal of taxable Australian property ...
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a contractor’s breach of an express warranty to repair does not constitute an “assumption of liability in a contract or agreement” for purposes of the “contractual liability” exclusion found in most general liability policies ...
Amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act which went into effect on 1 January 2014 provide an opportunity to revive the practice of subparticipation in lending in Poland. Regulations governing subparticipation have been in force since 2004. For tax reasons, however, subparticipation has remained much less popular in Poland than assignment of receivables, despite certain other advantages, particularly the greater ease of selling participation in loans backed by mortgages ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced today that it would allow financial institutions to provide their privacy notices to consumers online and would no longer require annual distribution of paper copies, provided that the institutions meet certain requirements. Among other things, companies that rely on this new exemption (1) must not share data in ways that would trigger consumers’ opt-out rights (e.g ...
I. Intact, compagnie d’assurances v. Théberge & Belley (1985) inc. and l’Union canadienne compagnie d’assurance and EBC inc.1In this case, the Court of Appeal held that an insurer who indemnified its insured pursuant to “contractors’ equipment” coverage cannot exercise its subrogation rights against the subcontractor who committed a fault.FACTSEBC was the general contractor for the construction of a deep water wharf ...
On September 8, the Canadian Department of Finance announced the signature of a memorandum of agreement (the "Agreement") between the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, and the federal government (the "Participating Jurisdictions") formalizing the terms and conditions of the Cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory System (the "Cooperative System"), a project to set up a national regulator for the Canadian securities industry ...
The Superior Court considered two interesting issues in the case of Banque Laurentienne du Canada v. Yuan.1 First, it had to determine whether a term loan that was used to payout an existing term loan had resulted in the novation of the first debt. Second, it had to determine what the effect the contract titled (translation) “Credit Facility Secured by Hypothec”2 had on the survival of the disputed hypothec.FACTSThe Court’s decision describes the circumstances of the dispute ...
Earlier this week, on September 29, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) took action against Michigan-based Flagstar Bank, fining it $10 million and ordering $27.5 million in payments to consumers. Flagstar allegedly “took excessive time to process borrowers’ applications for foreclosure relief, failed to tell borrowers when their applications were incomplete, denied loan modifications to qualified borrowers, and illegally delayed finalizing permanent loan modifications ...
The approval of amendments to the Tax Code and the creation of new taxes have caused upset and criticism among business sectors in El Salvador, accusations that they will affect competitiveness and a better economic performance, and lead to an increased cost of living ...
On September 19, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its ruling in the so called “banks’ cases”1, in the context of which consumers instituted class actions to recover the conversion fees charged on credit card transactions in foreign currencies by many institutions issuing such cards. The plaintiffs were maintaining that these charges were contravening the Consumer Protection Act (Quebec) (the “CPA”) ...
Those words were written nearly a decade ago and described, in brief, the complicated and confusing legal world of wills, estates and succession. The Report from which that quote comes recommended a wholesale overhaul of this area of the law. The B.C. Legislature, various interest groups and the legal community have been working on such a revision to this area of the law since ...
The Central Bank of Ireland has today issued its feedback statement on Consultation Paper 85 dealing with loan originating qualifying investor alternative investment funds (QIAIFs). In the feedback statement the Central Bank has announced that it will allow for the authorisation of QIAIFs that originate loans from 1 October 2014. The Central Bank's AIF Rulebook is being updated to reflect this change ...
In the last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges in two separate investigations related to its “Broken Windows” initiative, signaling that the Commission’s focus on what some may characterize as “minor violations” will continue ...
Last month, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued an important opinion for lenders in this state. The opinion reversed the North Carolina Court of Appeals’ decision in RL REGI N.C., LLC v. Lighthouse Cove, LLC, which found that a waiver of claims contained in a forbearance agreement could not waive a guarantor’s affirmative defense that a guaranty was obtained in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). The Lighthouse Cove case involves a familiar story for many lenders ...
Recently, there have been indications that the Israel Tax Authority (the "ITA") is strengthening its ties with foreign tax authorities and banks in order to obtain information on Israelis who hold unreported bank accounts overseas ...
GST/QST Election: Get Ready for 2015 Carolyne Corbeil and Emmanuel SalaGenerally, certain corporations or partnerships within a same group who are engaged exclusively in commercial activities, may make intra-group supplies of taxable goods or services without having to collect or remit the GST/QST otherwise applicable to such supplies ...
On September 9, 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) issued CFTC Letter No. 14-116 (the “CFTC Letter”) providing exemptive relief allowing commodity pools to use general solicitation in certain types of private offerings, including offerings of private fund interests. The CFTC Letter is available here ...
You are in charge of finances for a small business and are on vacation at the beach. Suddenly, you remember you have forgotten to pay a company bill. All is not lost, you think. You run to you room, grab a laptop, and bring it down to the Tiki Bar. There, you order a drink and connect to the hotel's wireless system. Then you call up your company's bank's Web page, click the "log-in" button, enter your password, and order a check issued to the creditor ...
