The United States Patent and Trademark Office has published its first major update to the rules for trademark trials and appeals in nearly a decade. The final changes to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) Rules of Practice appear in the October 7, 2016 Federal Register (81 Fed. Reg. 69950) and are scheduled to go into effect on January 14, 2017 ...
Recent media reports have informed us that the European Commission has issued an official charge sheet accusing Google of an abuse of dominance concerning its Android mobile operating system and contracts with smartphone producers and telecom operators. The European Commission considers Google dominant in the markets for general internet search services, licensable smart mobile operating systems and app stores for the Android mobile operating system ...
The Serbian Minister of Finance issued the Rulebook on the Manner and Procedure of Delivering and the Content of the Tax Administration's Notification on Commencement or Finalization of Tax Audit ("Rulebook"). Under the Rulebook, the Tax Administration ("TA") will start to deliver notifications on initiated tax audits of the legal entities and entrepreneurs to the Business Registers Agency ("BRA"). Notifications will be delivered once a day ...
Bayer AG, a German chemical company, and Monsanto Co., an American agrochemical corporation recently announced they have signed a definitive merger agreement under which Bayer plans to acquire Monsanto to create “a Global Leader in Agriculture ...
Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC ("Regulation") will replace Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data ("Directive"). The Regulation will be enforced after 25 May 2018, thus, entities are required to prepare for compliance by then ...
IN THIS ARTICLE, CHRISTOPHER TAY HANMIN BRIEFLY REVIEWS SOME OF THE OFFENCES UNDER THEGOODS AND SERVICES TAX ACT 2014("GST ACT").IntroductionOne of the most significant tax Acts to be introduced in the past 30 years is the GST Act which was gazetted on 19 June 2014 and has set 1 April 2015 as the effective date for the imposition of the Goods and Services Tax ("GST") ...
Despite being in existence for years, many have only recently become familiar with encryption. This follows heightened publicity around its use on popular social media platforms purportedly offering end-to-end encryption. Encryption (or cryptography) has been described as a mathematical formula or algorithm that encodes and decodes information, with only authorised persons having access to such information through a key ...
By way of -providing guidelines for implementing the Tax Law No.106/2016/QH13 (Law 106) effective from 1 July 2016, the government has issued Decree 100/2016/ND-CP (Decree 100) on 1 July 2016 and the Ministry of Finance has issued Official Letter 10315/BTC-TCT dated 25 July 2016 (OL 10315) and Circular 130/2016/TT-BTC dated 12 August 2016 (Circular 130) ...
contingency fees VAT inclusive or exclusive The High Court, Gauteng Local Division, considered in a recent case (case No 2012/21359, 31 August 2016) whether an agreement in terms of which a legal practitioner charged contingency fees to a client under the Contingency Fees Act, No 66 of 1997 (the “CFA”), is valid ...
Global Transfer Pricing Risk Management The realities of the business environment in which multinational groups operate today consist of a shrinking domestic market and an ongoing pressure to reduce costs. In addition, multinational groups are also faced with the different expectations of different stakeholders and the increased disclosure requirements of financial data ...
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 ...
The South African Taxation of Trusts Recent Developments The Davis Tax Committee’s (“DTC”) first interim report was released in July 2015 (the “First Report”) and made various significant recommendations to the Minister of Finance regarding (among other topics) the taxation of trusts in South Africa ...
The contemporary business world has become fundamentally tied in with the progress of globalisation, and for anyone involved in it, that is no secret. Anybody would be hard pressed to find an industry that can exist and sustain itself in a purely national context, without – at least in some regard – relying on either a piece of legislation or a practice trend that is related to whatever kind of international functioning ...
An interesting trend can be noticed recently as the Serbian Tax Administration and Tax Police have raised their level of activity in conducting routine tax inspections in companies across the country ...
On 24 August 2016, the Davis Tax Committee (“DTC”) released its long-awaited report on estate duty, which was submitted to the South African Minister of Finance (“the Minister”) for consideration on 28 April 2016. The report takes into account public commentary and submissions received following the release of the committee’s first interim report ...
Financial technologies need specific legal solutions and an open approach to the law. There are lots of indications that financial technology, or FinTech, is one of the next chapters in the digital revolution unrolling before our eyes. The role of finance in the economic life of the society was laid bare by the last financial crisis. The tragic consequences of errors committed on Wall Street, i.e ...
On taxation of electronic services from 2017 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, The law “On Amendments to Parts I and II of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation” comes into force on January 01, 2017. Pursuant to the adopted changes, starting from 2017 foreign companies which do not have permanentestablishment in Russia and provide electornic services to individuals inRussia will be required to register with the Russian tax authorities and pay VAT in Russia. 1 ...
According to recent media reports, Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications in Serbia's newly formed government, Rasim Ljajic, stated that a free trade agreement between Serbia and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) should be signed come November, while outlining that at this stage, the matter is out of Serbia's hands and fully dependent on the EEU ...
An interesting piece of news in the sphere of tax law has recently been provided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decision that found Portuguese withholding tax rules to be breaching EU law.The case concerns a loan given to Auto Estradas do Litoral SA ("Brisal"), a Portuguese company by the Irish bank – KBC Finance Limited ...
The Israeli Tax Authority (the "ITA") has recently published a draft circular ("Draft Circular") on the tax treatment of holdback payments and reverse vesting mechanism in the context of merger and acquisition transactions. According to the Draft Circular, subject to certain conditions as will detail below, the sale of shares to which holdback payments and reverse vesting mechanisms apply would be subject to a capital gains tax rate of 25% (30% in case of controlling shareholders) ...
It is common practice for suppliers to deliver the goods that they supply at the premises of their customers on the customer’s request. The suppliers then either deliver the goods themselves or they contract the services of third parties to deliver the goods on their behalf, for which they charge a delivery fee ...
