IRS Announcement 2017-15 provides relief to employees who have been adversely affected by the recent wildfires in Northern California by allowing them to take loans or distributions from retirement plans to alleviate hardships caused by the wildfires. The Announcement also provides relief from verification procedures required under retirement plans with respect to loans and hardship distributions ...
On November 13, 2017, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published the Outage Scheduling Guidelines (Manual de Programación de Salidas) (“Guidelines”), establishing the principles of calculation, instructions, rules and procedures that Market Participants, Transporters and Distributors shall observe to schedule their outages and obtain the corresponding authorizations from CENACE; as well as the criteria that CENACE must follow to schedule mid-term outages an
There are a number of considerations when relocating to another country that involve much more than a mere physical departure and the taking up of permanent residence in a foreign country. In South Africa, an individual will continue to be regarded as a South African resident for exchange control purposes until such time as the South African Reserve Bank (the “SARB”) has provided him/her with formal emigration approval ...
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced on November 9, 2017 that it was adding two widely used perfluorinated chemicals to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause reproductive toxicity: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) ...
The UAE Ministry of Finance has announced the Executive Regulation for the Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax (UAE VAT Legislation) at a Cabinet meeting on 7 November 2017, headed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai. It is expected that the Executive Regulation to UAE VAT Legislation will be released this week in draft form on both the UAE Ministry of Finance’s website (www.mof.gov ...
Last week, the House Republicans unveiled their highly anticipated plan for tax reform. Although clients should not rush into planning based on the House plan, it is important to be aware of potential changes in the tax code. In particular, business owners and individual high net worth clients should be prepared for the adverse and beneficial aspects of the proposed plan because the plan is intended to be effective for tax years beginning January 1, 2018 ...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act proposed by the House of Representatives last week would eliminate access to tax-exempt financing for 501(c)(3) organizations and for certain private borrowers by eliminating all private activity bonds, whether for new capital expenditures or for refinancing of existing bonds. Additionally, tax credit bonds could no longer be issued ...
In August 2016, we reviewed publicly available data for a group of 58 E&P companies and predicted how they would fare under the leverage test that had, at the time, recently been introduced by the OCC.Based on that review, we predicted that, in 2016, over 91 percent of the companies reviewed would be non-passing credits under the OCC’s leverage test. The average leverage ratio of the E&P companies reviewed in 2016 was 6.0x ...
During the months of September and October 2017, new regulations and administrative guidelines in the Mexican energy sector were issued. These are of particular importance to oil and gas producers, midstream companies, power generators, traders, developers and others looking to invest or expand operations in Mexico’s dynamic energy sector. I. Hydrocarbons September 5, 2017. NOM-167-SEMARNAT-2017 ...
A common question our Education Law Group receives is, “Can an employee rescind his or her written resignation that has been submitted to the superintendent and is waiting on approval from the board of education?” Unfortunately the question often arises frequently in situations where the employee is not the “best employee” and administration feels thankful upon receipt of the resignation ...
Simonsen Vogt Wiig and lead counsel Anders Thue represented Fosen-Linjen AS (a ferry operator) against AtB AS before the EFTA Court. AtB organises the public transportation in one of the Norwegian counties. In its judgment delivered earlier this year (in Case E-16/16), the EFTA Court replied to questions referred to it by the Frostating Court of Appeal (Frostating lagmannsrett) ...
On Oct. 6, 2017, during a speech at New York University School of Law, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explained the Department of Justice (DOJ) is reexamining current DOJ policy as part of an effort to streamline and centralize internal guidance. As of now, DOJ policies span multiple sources, including internal manuals, memoranda, speeches and articles interpreting policies ...
On October 19, 2017, the IRS announced in Notice 2017-64 cost of living adjustments to the qualified plan dollar limits for 2018. Some of these limits did not change from 2017 because the increase in the cost of living index did not meet the statutory thresholds that trigger an adjustment. Below is a summary of the limits that are generally relevant for most retirement plans ...
Contractual negotiations for ships and offshore units commonly involve commercial, legal, and technical teams negotiating different parts of the contract. It is however crucial that before the contract is signed, it is read as a whole to ensure consistency in a party’s obligations throughout the contract. The English Supreme Court’s judgment in MT Højgaard A/S v. E ...
Section 64E(1) of the South African Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”) provides that dividends tax must be levied at a rate of 20% of the amount of any dividend paid by any company, other than a headquarter company. In terms of section 64EA(a) of the Act, the beneficial owner of a cash dividend is liable for dividends tax in respect of that dividend. However, in terms of section 64F(1), a cash dividend is exempt from dividends tax in various instances ...
Attacks by the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) on the transfer pricing practices of multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) are on the rise, leading to tax disputes with SARS over significant amounts of tax. MNEs operating in South Africa provide information to SARS in various forms such as annual Corporate Income Tax returns, Country-by-Country reports as well as the extensive Transfer Pricing documentation ...
Earlier this year, right in a last minute attempt to win undecided voters for one of the political parties, the leaving members of parliament enacted a new tax law. While fundamental changes to the Austrian Tenancy Law had been vividly discussed between the socialist and the conservative parties in recent years, the new law on the abolition of stamp duty falls completely short of what could have been achieved ...
If your estate plan was put in place more than 3 years ago, the plan is likely designed to save estate taxes at the sacrifice of income tax benefits. Estate tax is no longer a concern for married couples owning less than $11 million of assets. We recommend reviewing your estate plan to confirm that it has the flexibility to adapt to tax law changes and to secure income tax benefits ...
The Slovenian National Assembly adopted the Class Action Law, which will implement an important institute to the Slovenian legal system, i.e. mechanism of class action. This mechanism is already applied in the UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden, but is yet to be implemented in numerous EU member states. The new mechanism of class action will provide for the injured parties, both natural and legal persons, to file a compensation claim in case of mass harm situations ...
Earlier this year, and the last time before next year’s parliamentary elections, the current Luxembourg Finance Minister presented the budget law for 2018 to the Parliament (Chambre des Députés) ...
As seen in NonProfit Pro With the recent state of natural disasters devastating communities both in the U.S. and abroad, many people turn to charities to see what they can do to help those affected by these tragic events. Over the past two decades, charitable giving has grown considerably in the U.S. The number of public charities is up almost 60 percent, from about 643,000 in 2000 to more than 1 million today, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics ...
Following the collapse of oil prices – from their peak of an average of $112 per barrel to their lowest point of $28 per barrel - a significant number of developments became commercially unviable. During the lowest period, oil prices were substantially lower than the breakeven price of most new developments ...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has commenced accepting registrations for Value Added Tax (VAT) through its online portal ...
