In an earlier post, we started discussing the IRS’ “John Doe” summons to Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange, to obtain information about every Coinbase user, who, at any time during the period of January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2015, conducted transactions in a convertible virtual currency as defined in IRS Notice 2014-21. One such user filed a motion to intervene in the proceeding and to quash the IRS’ summons ...
Florida legislature passes bill to add virtual currencies to money laundering statute in response to last year’s court ruling that bitcoin can’t be the basis for money laundering charges Last year, a Miami judge dismissed criminal charges against a Florida-based bitcoin seller who had been caught in a sting in which undercover law enforcement officers engaged him to convert cash into bitcoin. They told him they intended to use the bitcoin to buy stolen credit card numbers ...
If you spend any time reading about the virtual currency space, you’ve picked up that blockchain technology is creeping into hundreds of industries and countries worldwide as more and more people create ways to use the public electronic ledger to better our lives in the not-too-distant future. Money transfers, trade settlements, property and health records, and just about any other part of the human endeavor are being tweaked, changed, and disrupted by this new technology ...
In light of the declaration of a national state of disaster as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it is now likely that schools and further learning institutions in South Africa will remain closed for the foreseeable future (even after the national lockdown period) and online teaching will be inevitable. However, privacy, data protection and security are critical when teachers and learners are working remotely due to the higher risk of personal data breaches ...
The Crypto Assets Regulatory Working Group (“CAR WG”) of the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (“IFWG”) has released its long-anticipated position paper on crypto assets. The position paper proposes that a clear regulatory policy for crypto assets be adopted in South Africa. However, it is still recommend that crypto assets not be regarded as legal tender or public money ...
The digital signature in Bolivia was created by the General Law on Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies No. 164, published on August 8, 2011, granting full legal and evidentiary validity to the legal act or business carried out using this technological tool. Supreme Decree No ...
Cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and fintech companies are well experienced in dealing with legal and regulatory issues that are unique, unprecedented and global. While usually creative and oriented to solving problems, even the most flexible of teams are stretched with the onslaught of issues unfolding in the wake of COVID-19 ...
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has announced the Tech Startup Stabilization Fund—a $3 million fund that will provide capital and support for Michigan tech startups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. ID Ventures is administering the fund and accepting applications from tech startups across the state at TSSFund.com ...
The COVID-19 crisis has triggered an unprecedented response of federal and state relief programs to provide health care resources and economic relief. Once the country moves past the immediate crisis, the government will take a hard look at emergency payments. Along with $2 trillion in relief, the CARES Act established a new law enforcement authority within the Treasury Department: the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (the SIGPR) ...
Paycheck Protection Program On March 27, 2020, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “Act”) to provide emergency assistance for individuals, families, and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic ...
The IRS issued Notice 2020-23 on April 9, 2020, which amplifies Notice 2020-18 and Notice 2020-20 (see our prior coverage here) and provides additional relief to affected taxpayers. In this Notice 2020-23, the IRS determined that any person (i.e ...
A recent government notice amended the regulations published in terms of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 to provide for the mandatory establishment of the COVID‑19 Tracing Database by the National Department of Health. This database will trace people who are known or reasonably suspected to have come into contact with any person known or reasonably suspected to have contracted COVID-19 ...
As soon as we began to shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 crisis, most of us also started to hold virtual meetings, both professional and personal, as a better, more satisfying way to connect. For this, we turned en masse to a handful of video conferencing platforms. However, while we can all agree that these services help us do our jobs and stay in touch with loved ones, these services raise many novel privacy and security concerns ...
In light of the state of emergency declared in the Republic of Latvia as a result of the spread of COVID-19 infection, we have summarized the most essential aspects of the government business support programs.The aggregated information is based on the Act on Measures for Prevention and Management of National Threats and Their Consequences in Relation to COVID 19 Proliferation, in force (amendments) on 05.04.2020 (available here) and other legal acts ...
While stock exchanges worldwide have experienced dramatic downturns and the economy is apparently heading for a global recession, supervisory organs are taking measures to respond to the situation by means of financial market regulation ...
VAT payers, who have monthly obligations, may no longer be oriented in the flood of newly adopted tax measures to help taxpayers to overcome the current situation caused by the spread of the coronavirus. For this reason, we provide a brief overview of the tax measures specifically related to VAT and add some important remarks that should be kept in mind ...
This is a summary in which we have briefly described the main regulations issued so far in Argentina during the COVID-19 health emergency that affect or are related to fintech and digital banking activities ...
The Ministry of Finance published Decree 535 of 2020, which establishes a simplified procedure for the reimbursement or compensation of balances in favor of Income Tax and Value added Tax ("VAT") amid the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the Decree, the simplified procedure implies that requests for the reimbursement or compensation that are duly filed within the health emergency, will be decided by the Tax Office within 15 working days after their submission ...
ThThe Italian Government has adopted Law Decree no. 23 of 8 April 2020 (the "Liquidity Decree"), published in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic no. 94 of 8 April 2020, which provides for additional measures to support companies in the current COVID-19 emergency ...
