Recently, California legislators passed SB 954 creating a new pre-mediation requirement – the prospective Mediation Disclosure. "As soon as reasonably possible" before agreeing to mediate, attorneys are to present to clients a Mediation Disclosure affirmatively explaining mediation's confidentiality restrictions, execution of which acknowledges the client's understanding of the restriction's impact ...
Cryptocurrencies have captured the imaginations of individuals and emerging businesses drawn to their potential to serve as alternative stores of value, to reduce transaction costs by eliminating intermediaries. Most notably in popular culture and media - to provide eye-catching opportunities for speculative investing ...
To coincide with its 250th anniversary, Shepherd and Wedderburn commissioned the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute to consider the future challenges and, more importantly, opportunities for Scotland’s economy ...
The Scottish financial sector has always punched above its weight due, in large part, to its appetite for innovation and sharp business acumen, which it has successfully exported around the globe. The successful early establishment in Scotland of current account banking and the investment trust speak to this, along with the undisputed influence of the Scottish diaspora, which established many of the great financial institutions from Paris to Hong Kong ...
When debt is reduced or written off, certain adverse tax consequences may arise for the debtor. The tax provisions dealing with the debt relief rules are contained in section 19 and paragraph 12A of the Eighth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”). The current debt relief rules were introduced by the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, 2017 and are applicable in respect of years of assessment commencing on or after 1 January 2018 ...
Impact of Trump Administration, Midterm Elections and the Rise of Automotive M&ARespondents to Dykema’s 14th Annual M&A Outlook Survey expressed the highest level of optimism for the M&A market in the 14-year history of the firm’s survey. Sixty-five percent of respondents expect the M&A market to strengthen over the next 12 months, significantly up from the mid- to high 30s where it has remained for the past several years ...
General contractors, subcontractors, and builders providing construction services in North Carolina should be aware that labor charges on certain of their projects may now be subject to sales tax under the state's new repair, maintenance, and installation ("RMI") rules ...
With the development of information and communication technologies, teleworking is a good solution to solve many problems encountered by employees and employers, as well as to solve more global issues: pollution, global warming, stress, traffic jam, car crashes, balance between private and working life, workspace, parking, etc ...
As part of Budget 2019, the Irish Minister for Finance announced that Irish betting tax will increase from 1% to 2% of turnover. Betting intermediary tax will also increase from 15% to 25%. The tax increases will take effect from 1 January 2019. Parties in support of this increase have suggested that additional revenue generated by this increase should be directed towards gambling addiction services ...
The Spanish Tax Agency published on their webpage an information notice by the Customs and Special Taxes Department with the intention of “enabling interested parties to comply with their tax and customs obligations” as it regards the arrival and departure of recreational craft from the customs territory of the Union ...
On October 3, 2018, the IRS issued guidance for employers on how to claim tax deductions for business meals this year. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ("TCJA") business expenses for "entertainment" are no longer deductible, effective for 2018. However, the TCJA did not modify the separate 50% deduction for expenses for business meals, which left employers wondering how to distinguish a business meal from entertainment ...
Many companies are currently facing challenges in relation to the GDPR compliance of their video surveillance. Main issues in this respect are questions related to transparency requirements and information notices, the need for a data protection impact assessment as well as questions concerning retention requirements and retention periods. The German Federal Labor Court (BAG) has recently commented on the admissible storage duration of lawful video recordings ...
Under newly enacted Section 1400Z of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), beginning on December 22, 2017, taxpayers may defer, and in some cases partially eliminate, capital gains by making certain investments in “qualified opportunity zones.” A qualified opportunity zone is a “population census tract” in a state designated low-income community ...
Impact of China’s investment on the South African tax base The news that China has committed to invest approximately R200-billion in South Africa was greeted with much fanfare throughout the country. Approximately ZAR33-billion of this will constitute a loan to Eskom, which is particularly good news given the funding requirements of the entity. A loan will also be advanced to Transnet in the amount of ZAR4-billion ...
As seen in Bank Director Strategic planning is one of the most important roles of a financial institution’s board of directors. Since the 2008 financial crisis, financial institution boards have dealt with the emergence of fintechs as a primary consideration in developing their strategic plans ...
France has taken steps to set up a dedicated frame for cryptocurrency transactions aiming at conciliating legal certainty, market integrity and innovation. Capitalizing on best market practices, a recent bill defines an optional visa regime for ICOs, while a report commissioned by the French government sets forth principles of minimum regulations. Taxwise, the French Administrative Supreme Court has just ruled in favour of investors in Bitcoins ...
In the framework of a globalized world and social networks that are established as a measure of possible interest of economic, social and political groups, data protection regulations become more relevant ...
It is fair to say that we are in an era of unprecedented multilateralism and convergence in tax matters. The Bahamas has already committed to the implementation of the Common Reporting Standard, having already signed onto the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement and published its list of exchange partners with automatic exchanges that commence in September 2018 ...
In two recent decisions, the Tax Court issued rulings that could impact the effectiveness of family limited partnerships in estate planning. For the first time, the Tax Court held that assets of a limited partnership could be taxed as part of the estate of a decedent who held only a limited partnership interest ...
My time is short, so let me get to my subject without delay.I begin with a few observations on the Reality we face.First, the bad news - not all of it, just some of it; just four things that I regard as being among the more worrisome realities that confront us today.Firstly, in terms of aggregate dollar volume, we are a much smaller industry now than we were just a few years ago ...
In its green paper on corporate governance reform, the Government sought views on measures designed to address "a widespread perception that executive pay has become increasingly disconnected from both the pay of ordinary working people and the underlying long-term performance of companies" ...
On September 11, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced its first enforcement actions alleging that entities offering certain investments in cryptocurrencies should be registered as an investment adviser or broker-dealer ...
Morgan & Morgan opened its first offices in The Bahamas since 1991. We created MMG (Bahamas) Ltd. as a corporate service and later on, in 1996, founded MMG Bank & Trust Ltd., which started our financial unit´s successful path into the financial service industry ...
