In order to tackle the effects of the Corona crisis, it is planned at EU level to temporarily facilitate the raising of equity capital for companies. This will enable certain issuers to publish a shortened prospectus with only 30 pages instead of a full prospectus to issue shares. Through this, issuers will have the option to issue shares at short notice, without bureaucracy and inexpensively, thereby improving the debt-to-equity ratio in their balance sheets ...
The European Union (EU) has removed the UAE from the EU’s blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. The EU Blacklist The EU maintains a blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. The EU has published criteria on tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of anti-BEPS measures that EU Member States undertake to promote ...
These days more and more use is being made of the Treaty rules on State aid. The European Commission is using the State aid rules in an innovative way to take over competence from the Member States in tax regulation by challenging the selectivity of national measures or rulings, which give preferable treatment to certain taxpayers ...
Beneficiaries of UK, USA or other non-EU state subsidies will have to notify the European Commission under a new regime when engaged in certain mergers & acquisition (M&A) transactions or tendering for certain EU public contracts.This notification obligation commences on 12 October 2023. The transaction cannot be completed or the procurement contract entered into, until consent has been received from the European Commission following notification ...
BVI government welcomes announcement. Blacklist expands to include 12 jurisdictions.On 18 February 2020, EU Finance Ministers updated the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, upgrading the British Virgin Islands to whitelist status, which designates the country as a fully co-operative tax jurisdiction in line with all of the tax good-governance standards ...
Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of February 28, 2018, on addressing geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market (the "Regulation") came into force, December 3, 2018. The Regulation seeks to increase access for customers in the EU and EEA to goods and services by preventing unjustified geo-discrimination due to the customer's nationality, place of residence or establishment ...
The European Commission recently issued guidelines on mobile applications supporting the fight against COVID-19 in relation to data protection. Mobile applications commonly installed on smartphones can act as a support mechanism for health authorities at the national and EU level in monitoring and managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and are particularly important in easing measures to reduce the spread of the disease ...
On 26 June 2013, a new Commission Regulation on what telecommunications operators (Telcos) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should do if their customers' personal data is lost, stolen or otherwise compromised, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The purpose of the new rules is to ensure businesses, operating in more than one EU country, can take a pan-EU approach in the event of a data breach ...
The European Commission has presented an Action Plan setting out ways to reboot the current EU VAT system to make it simpler, more fraud-proof and business-friendly. The current VAT rules urgently need to be updated so they can better support the Single Market, facilitate cross-border trade and keep pace with today's digital and mobile economy ...
This publication includes the latest developments in Trade for the European Union. This issue contains information on takeover bids under company law, abridged registration of pharmaceuticals, fine for cartel of steel producers, free movement of biocides, labeling of foodstuffs, compensation to crime victims and restriction on alcohol advertising for sports events ...
The European Parliament recently passed the Alternative Investment Funds Directive («AIFMD»). The AIFMD is focused on managers rather than investment funds and will implement broad regulatory measures on both fund managers located within the European Union («EU») and those established outside of the EU that provide asset management services to European alternative investment funds. The Swiss fund industry will have to closely examine the details of the AIFMD ...
Within the European Union the issue of taking evidence in another member state has been regulated uniformly by the Council regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 of 28 May 2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters. However some general rules relating to the procedure of taking evidence abroad were developed and established long before the adoption of the regulation ...
With a low percentage of Nigeria’s population investing in the stock market and fewer Nigerians interested in investment opportunities, the rise ofRoboAdvisors is a welcome alternative in the financial advisory market (“the Market”) in Nigeria. In a bid toregulateand strengthen the Market, the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently rolled out the rules onRoboAdvisory services (‘the Rules”) in Nigeria ...
A recent decision in Germany has resulted in a hefty fine being imposed on an employer for violations of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”). The decision is a strong warning to South African employers to not overprocess their employees’ information ...
In the 2017 South African Budget Review, specific statements were made from a tax and exchange control perspective in relation to fund managers. We briefly consider below whether these statements constitute a relaxation of the exchange control restrictions applicable to South African residents, and the taxes to be considered ...
Recent “gun jumping” rulings across Europe have included fines on investors and serve as reminders that exchange of information between two competitors during an M&A negotiation has to be treated with caution.In fact, if the focus in an M&A deal is usually on merger control clearances, the path towards the completion of the operation has also to be monitored very closely, in the sense that the companies involved should remain independent competitors until the deal is effectively closed ...
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which amended certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Bank boards and management teams should take time to familiarize themselves with these changes, as several amendments to the Code relate to the payment of executive compensation. For corporate executives and compensation committees, the change to the Code that has garnered the most attention concerns an amendment to Code Section 162(m) ...
On August 8, 2020, the President of the United States issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of the Treasury to use his authority pursuant to section 7508A of the Internal Revenue Code to defer the withholding, deposit, and payment of certain payroll tax obligations for the remainder of 2020. In Notice 2020-65, the IRS provides guidance implementing the payroll tax deferral. What wages are eligible? Eligibility is subject to income limits ...
For years, the South African securities lending industry has been lobbying for an exemption from securities transfer tax (“STT”) for the outright transfer of listed equity securities as collateral. On 8 January 2016, the Taxation Laws Amendment Act 25 of 2015 was promulgated, which includes the long-awaited introduction to the Securities Transfer Tax Act 25 of 2007 (the “STT Act”) of such an exemption ...
Months into the United States’ trade dispute with China, and there is no end in sight to the dispute. There are three significant deadlines for U.S. importers to consider involving the tariffs the U.S ...
Effective as of July 21, 2011, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) repeals a key exemption from investment adviser registration currently relied upon by many private fund managers and replaces it with several much more limited exemptions from registration ...
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 ...
The much anticipated Trade Marks Bill (“the Bill”) was recently circulated to the industry for comments. The Bill, which when enacted will be known as the Trade Marks Act, 2012, promises to introduce much needed change to the trademark industry in the British Virgin Islands and place the jurisdiction in line with other modern jurisdictions ...
A recent report published by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (“CEA”) on drug pricing in the United States of America has put the cost of medicine and the access thereto by the poor, firmly back in the spotlight. And on a global scale. In the CEA report, President Donald Trump’s administration argues that the USA pays higher prices for pharmaceuticals because other developed countries have systems in place to actively force down drug pricing ...
On April 30, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2020-32, 2020-21 I.R.B. 1, providing guidance on the deductibility of certain expenses incurred pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, Pub. L. No. 116-135 (“CARES Act”) ...
