Focal Point of the Infrastructure Program In line with the trend of green traffic and the increasing need for rail transportation in Taiwan, the Infrastructure Program features a focus on the establishment of the national railway network including the full-scale planning of the railway structure, city lines and metropolitan railway establishment ...
Medical Cannabis approvals in the City have been the subject of intense negotiations, hearings, and appeals in the last two months. First, our law firm assisted the Apothecarium - Sunset (an additional location in the Sunset District for the medical cannabis dispensary called The Apothecarium currently near the Castro), in obtaining an approval at the Planning Commission ...
A recent Tenth Circuit decision shines light on a new avenue to challenge cannabis businesses, even in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal. Although the potential federal criminal threat to cannabis businesses in states that have legalized medical or recreational cannabis has been relatively well-discussed, the potential civil threat has received little attention. In Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper, 859 F.3d 865 (10th Cir ...
We previously reported on recent efforts to rescind the Obama Administration’s rule amending the Clean Water Act’s “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) definition. This followed, as we also reported, the Sixth Circuit’s nationwide stay of the Obama Administration’s WOTUS rule ...
What’s in the Infrastructure Program? To fortify infrastructure, unlock economy growth potential, and to ramp up investment momentum, lawmakers in Taiwan passed a special bill for Forward-looking Infrastructure Program earlier this year, allocating a budget of NT$420 billion to develop infrastructure needed for the next thirty years ...
On January 1, 2019, local agencies will be required to comply with new requirements for posting agendas on their websites (AB 2257). The California Brown Act requires that any local agency must post an agenda 72 hours in advance of a regular meeting. If an agency has a website, then the agency is required to post the agenda on their website ...
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”) ...
The Interinstitutional Committee for PPP has enacted new regulations for submission of PPPs Projects for its analysis and approval. This new regulation contains the minimum requirements and guidelines that a PPP Project must fulfill to obtain the prior authorization of the Interinstitutional Committee for PPP, before the public entity initiates the bidding process ...
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 ...
Recent proposed amendments to the rules of Strate, South Africa’s central securities depository (the “Strate Rules”) will effect a significant change to how uncertificated securities are pledged, but will not solve all of the problems that market participants hoped would be addressed ...
On 30 June 2017, after an initial round of public commentary undertaken by the JSE Limited (“JSE”) on the proposed amendments to the JSE Debt Listings Requirements (“DLRs”), the South African Registrar of Securities Services announced that “Part 2” of the 2016 amendments are available on the Financial Services Board’s website for further public comment. The deadline to review and comment on the proposals is 14 July 2017 ...
On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court held in California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc., that the three-year time limit in the Securities Act of 1933 is a statute of repose that is not subject to equitable tolling. This means that shareholders will not be able to rely on the filing of a proposed class action lawsuit to suspend the running of a statute of repose on their individual claims ...
Earlier this year, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg published the new law on the renewal of aid schemes for research, development and innovation (hereafter, the “RDI”) and on the missions of the national Agency for the promotion of innovation and research. This law amends the Law on the promotion of research, development and innovation.This reformed law aims at exploiting in Luxembourg all the potential offered by the EU rules related to State aid to RDI ...
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") ...
The purpose of this article is to highlight the principal changes to the rules and procedures governing national public procurements in Argentina, introduced by Decree 1030/2016. The new Regulation does not introduce substantial changes to its predecessor, although it does include some relevant modifications. Introduction In September 2016, the government of Argentina modified some of the rules and procedures governing national public procurement ...
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 ...
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have issued statements of non-objection to the revised draft RTS under the PRIIPs Regulation which were endorsed last month by the European Commission. Finally, the long-awaited level 2 measures have been agreed on and further guidance on level 3 as well as level 4 by the ESAs and the European Commission is expected in the near future ...
Earlier this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) reached an important decision in the case Medisanus d.o.o. v General Hospital Murska Sobota (C-296/15) concerning public procurement procedures ...
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 ...
Following South Africa’s sovereign credit rating downgrade by ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and, on 9 June 2017, Moody’s, as well as developments in political circles around allegations of “state capture”, relations between private business and the country’s public entities have become a hot topic ...
