There is currently speculation in the media that Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau's next federal budget will increase the capital gain inclusion rate from 50% to 75%. The combined marginal tax rate on capital gains is currently 26.7% for a resident of Québec. This rate would reach nearly 40% if the budget was to increase the capital gain inclusion rate to 75%. A $1,000,000 capital gain would thus generate approximately $133,000 in additional taxes ...
Industrial facility owners and operators in West Virginia should be aware of new reporting requirements that will soon go into effect. In addition to currently mandated notifications to federal, state, and local agencies after certain events occur, some facilities will soon be required to notify the state within 15 minutes of discovering specific types of emergency events or be subject to a fine of up to $100,000 ...
Resale price maintenance and price-fixing has been and still is under scrutiny by the Croatian Competition Agency (the "Agency"). Carrying on from a number of high-profile cases, in February 2017 the Agency fined Gorenje Zagreb, a subsidiary of Slovenia's premier manufacturer of household appliances for HRK 1,557,000 (approximately EUR 206,000) ...
The Convention between Ukraine and Luxembourg for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital and its Protocol have been ratified by the Government of Ukraine. Background On 6 September 1997 Luxembourg and Ukraine signed a first treaty ("Treaty"), which has been amended by a protocol signed on 30 September 2016 ("Protocol"). Both have been ratified by Luxembourg, on 1 August 2001 and 23 December 2016 respectively ...
The March 22, 2017 Budget of the Government of Canada, through its "Innovation and Skills Plan" (http://www.budget.gc.ca/2017/docs/plan/budget-2017-en.pdf) mentions that Canadian academic and research leadership in artificial intelligence will be translated into a more innovative economy and increased economic growth ...
Since the inception of the IRS determination letter program, many sponsors and administrators of qualified retirement plans have come to rely on IRS determination letters to document their plan's tax-qualified status ...
On 8 February 2017, the Luxembourg Parliament voted a new law on immigration (hereafter the “Law”) which aims at increasing Luxembourg’s attractiveness as a host country for foreign talents. The main innovation of the Law is to implement a new category of residence permit in Luxembourg for investors. Immigration represents a major pillar of Luxembourg’s economy which has always relied on foreign labour and investments ...
When startup founders get together to form a new company, one of the first steps after actually incorporating the entity is to issue the founders their initial equity in the company. This is commonly referred to as “founders stock.” Most initial cap tables target the issuance to founders of around 8 million shares, so that combined with a 2 million share option pool, the initial “fully diluted” capitalization is 10 million shares ...
Although its emergence on the business scene is fairly recent, the Series LLC has been gaining popularity as a business entity. Under the Series LLC umbrella, this entity is able to create multiple Protected Series, each with its own separate rights, powers, assets, obligations, business purposes and associated members ...
The Oberlandesgericht Celle has recently adopted a decision that is likely to be of particular interest to hospitals which are not, in principle, public contracting authorities within the meaning of the law, but which are used by public authorities to pay more than 50 percent for the construction of hospitals pursuant to Section 99, 4 of the GWB (decision ref. 13 G 8/16). In the decided case, the client planned to modernize a hospital in three construction phases ...
On June 13, 2016, the then Commissioner of Internal Revenue issued Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 62-2016 purporting to clarify the proper tax treatment of percentage tax or gross receipts tax (GRT) due on transactions covered by Sections 1211 and 1222 of the Tax Code which are shifted through contractual stipulations to borrowers/customers/clients(“passed-on” GRT) ...
The Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") has issued an update to Publication 5146 (Employment Tax Returns: Examinations and Appeal Rights) which outlines the procedures used to conduct employment tax examinations and employers' rights and responsibilities during and after the examination process ...
The question of the scope of the cost-sharing VAT exemption, also referred to in the Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 as amended ("EU VAT Directive") as "Independent Groups of Persons" or "IGPs", is currently being debated at the Court of Justice of the EU ("CJEU") in several cases. Last Thursday marked the first milestone regarding this specific VAT exemption since the CJEU released its judgment in the case Commission v Luxembourg (C-274/15) ...
The Chilean Economic Development Agency, Corfo, and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, InvestChile, have announced the opening of the first call for national and foreign companies, to express their interest in manufacturing lithium products, such as battery cathodes and electrolytes. Companies that are selected will be guaranteed 25 per cent of US producer Albemarle’s lithium production at the lowest cost available in the market ...
The Davis Tax Committee (“DTC”) issued a media statement on 25 April 2017, calling for written submissions on the introduction of a possible wealth tax in South Africa. This proposal comes two months after an increase in the top income tax bracket for individuals by 4% to 45%, resulting in an effective capital gains tax (“CGT”) rate for individuals of 18%. This should be seen on the back of the increase the CGT rate by nearly 5% from 13 ...
BENIN: Public Procurement Holders to Benefit from a Tax Regime Derogating from Indirect Taxation The 2017 budget law introduced a derogatory tax regime from which certain public procurement holders may benefit by the Benin tax authorities, assuming indirect taxation. This includes customs duties, internal taxes on turnover (mainly value-added tax ("VAT")) on prices and values of goods and supplies acquired or incorporated into the realisation of the contract ...
In terms of paragraph 19(1)(b) of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 5, 1962 (the "Fourth Schedule"), every company that is a provisional taxpayer shall, during every period within which provisional tax is or may be payable by it as provided in terms of the Fourth Schedule, submit to the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service ("SARS", a return of an estimate of the total taxable income which will be derived by the company in respect of the year of assessment i
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We would like to inform you that the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation issued a clarification dated March 02, 2017 regarding taxation on the division of matrimonial property after the divorce of the spouses ...
As expected, Luxembourg has adopted a restrictive approach of the provisions provided for under the MLI and has sought to limit the scope and impacts of this new layer of international legislation to the minimum standards required. However, the new PPT and the impact on structures and the application of tax treaties need to be carefully monitored in the furture for new and existing structures ...
RMO 8-2017 amends Revenue Memorandum Order No. (“RMO 72-2010”) by providing for new procedures in claiming preferential tax treaty benefits on dividend, interest, and royalty income of nonresidents, following a system of self-assessment and automatic withholding of taxes subject to post-reporting validation. In lieu of obtaining a tax treaty relief application (“TTRA”) ruling under RMO 72-2010 ...
The Israeli Tax Authority (the "ITA") has recently published a tax circular (the "Circular") on the tax treatment of holdback payments and of the reverse vesting mechanism in the context of merger and acquisition transactions. According to the Circular, subject to certain conditions, that will be detailed 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) ...
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 ...
In terms of paragraph 2(1) of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”), every employer, who is a resident of South Africa, or representative employer in the case of any employer who is not a resident, (whether or not registered as an employer under paragraph 15) who pays or is liable to pay any amount by way of remuneration to any employee shall, unless the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) has granted authority
In order to create a more uniform system for the administration of taxes in South Africa, section 191 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (the “TAA”) has effectively replaced various refund and set-off provisions which appeared in respective tax acts. Section 191 of the TAA now provides that all tax debts that are due must be set-off against refunds, including the interest thereon, due by the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) to that taxpayer ...
On 2 June 2017, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) published a draft public notice requiring the submission of country-by-country (“CbC”), master file and local file returns. This marks an important step towards the finalisation of South Africa’s transfer pricing documentation requirements ...
