As reported in our inBrief of 15 April 2020, Federal Decree-Law 19 of 2018 on Foreign Direct Investment (the FDI Law) permits majority foreign investment in certain business sectors and activities. Although majority ownership is attractive, it is not the only factor that a potential foreign direct investor should consider. One additional factor is whether the proposed business would qualify for the 5% GCC customs duty exemption that is discussed below ...
January 2022 began with the announcement that businesses and corporations will be subject to Corporate Tax (CT) from 1 June 2023. While the UAE Ministry of Finance helpfully provided information on the basic tenets of CT, including a comprehensive white paper, the CT Law governing CT was published on 9 December 2022 providing clarity. However, there are still a number of areas that will be further clarified through the implementing regulations ...
By Bashir Ahmed, Saurbh Kothari and Dimple Soni 7 June 2022 Last year we had reported that the Federal Tax Authority (the FTA) has started to impose penalties on entities that have failed to submit their economic substance notifications by the set deadline of 30 June 2020 for the financial period ended on 31 December 2019, and the economic substance reports by the set deadline of 31 December 2020 for the financial period ended on 31 December 2019 ...
The Federal Tax Authority (the FTA) has started to impose penalties on businesses that have failed to submit their economic substance notifications by the set deadline of 30 June 2020 for the financial period ended on 31 December 2019, and the economic substance reports by the set deadline of 31 December 2020 for the financial period ended on 31 December 2019 ...
On 27 August 2017, the United Arab Emirates (the "UAE") published the text of its domestic Value Added Tax (the "VAT") Law, shortly after releasing the text of its Excise Tax Law last week, and the Federal Tax Procedures Law earlier this month. It will be followed by implementing regulations, which will provide more detail on application of the VAT Law.The UAE Government is still planning to introduce VAT on 1 January 2018 ...
The Obama Administration has announced its intention of entering into negotiations with the European Union (“EU”) for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (“TTIP”) aimed at achieving a substantial increase in transatlantic trade and investment between the world’s two largest economies. In the Federal Register of April 1, the United States Trade Representative solicited comments from the public with respect to U.S. negotiating objectives ...
Like any good negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in setting out U.S. objectives for the renegotiation of NAFTA, offered only a glimpse of what the U.S. actually will be pushing for when three-country talks among Canada, Mexico and the United States begin in Washington, DC, on August 16. The U.S ...
Earlier this month, President Obama announced historic changes to U.S. policy and relevant regulations regarding diplomatic engagement, travel and trade with Cuba. The White House’s new policy represents the most dramatic shift in U.S. policy to Cuba since the enactment of the embargo in 1961. As a result of this new policy, a number of sectors of the U.S. economy are likely to see new opportunities in Cuban trade ...
China has become the largest emerging market economy and the second largest economy in the world. As a result, many Chinese companies have elected to access the U.S. capital markets for their financing needs. As of June 2020, there are over 200 China-based issuers listed on U.S. exchanges with a collective market capitalization of over $1.15 trillion. With the rising geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S ...
August 21, 2023 By: Akana K. Ma On August 14, 2023, pursuant to a Presidential executive order issued several days earlier, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposed Rulemaking) announcing a ban on investment by U.S. persons, including U.S.-registered business entities, in three advanced technology sectors in China – quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors ...
The U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has amended its Cuban Assets Control Regulations to, in OFAC’s words, “further implement elements of the policy announced by the President on December 17, 2014 to engage and empower the Cuban people.” In practice, the amendments make important changes to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, originally liberalized in January of this year ...
On January 1, 2024, regulations implementing the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) became effective, triggering new reporting obligations for many entities conducting business within the United States ...
The United States has announced that it has signed with Cuba a new agreement covering air services between the two countries. The new agreement, which replaces a suspended accord dating back to the 1950s, authorizes up to 110 daily round trip scheduled flights between the two countries by airlines of each respective country. The agreement permits twenty (20) scheduled non-stop flights between the U.S ...
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States The Exon-Florio Amendment to the 1988 U.S. Defense Production Act established the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS"). CFIUS is composed of representatives of several U.S. Government agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, State, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor and Commerce ...
The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has just enacted a revamped investor residency programme, entitling successful applicants to a permanent residence certificate (PRC). The Qualifying criteria are: Villas a. Investment of not less than $300,000 in actual construction of a new home, or in renovation of a distressed property as a home for the applicant and his or her dependants, on the islands of Grand Turk, Salt Cay, South Caicos, Middle Caicos or North Caicos; or b ...
In fact, the impact of the pandemic on private clients has been the opposite: many have experienced increases in their personal wealth that have been nothing short of startling. According to the Global Wealth Report published by Credit Suisse in June 2021, more than five million people became millionaires across the world in 2020 despite economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic ...
On June 17, the Trump Administration announced a new policy on Cuba, partially reversing certain of the market-opening measures that had been adopted by the Obama Administration during its final two years ...
2018 has passed; it was full of events and changes in legislation. We would like to share the main trends in registration of business in Russia in 2018 with you. Federal Tax Service (hereinafter the “FTS”) continued its campaign on introducing records on non-reliable data about business into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (hereinafter “USRLE”), even in respect of the compliant businesses ...
Yesterday, Shoosmiths hosted an event by The Fashion Network titled ‘Trend Forecasting & Analysis Masterclass: For Fashion & FMCG Retail Business’. During this event we heard from fashion industry leaders on how the landscape of retail and marketing is ever evolving, influenced by a myriad of factors ranging from consumer behaviour to emerging technologies ...
On 3 April 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court announced a decision in a case which has given rise to strong reactions among tax law specialists. The criticism has been harsh and concerns the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision to give the Swedish CFC-rules precedence over the Swedish-Swiss tax treaty ...
On 2 March, 25 of the 27 EU members committed to the new "Fiscal Compact" concept, signed the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. The Treaty, which is technically an intergovernmental treaty and not an EU instrument (due to the UK and the Czech Republic not wishing to sign up to it), was introduced in December 2011 by Germany and France ...
On Thursday, April 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued Notice 2020-23 (the “Notice”), updating and expanding the relief granted by Notices 2020-18 and 2020-20. Notice 2020-23 postpones tax filing and payment deadlines until July 15, 2020, for many taxpayers in order to grant some amount of relief to individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and trusts/estates amid the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis ...
On October 31, 2018, the Treasury Department released proposed regulations (“the Proposed Regulations”) providing guidance on the application of Section 956 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”) following recent tax law changes under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) ...
On May 13, 2020, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued final regulations under Section 385 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), T.D. 9897 (“Final Regulations”), which address the classification of certain related party debt as stock or equity for U.S. Federal income tax purposes ...
On Friday, March 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued Notice 2020-20, which postpones the filing and payment deadline for any taxpayer who is required to file Form 709 (U.S. Gift and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Return) or who has Federal gift or generation-skipping transfer tax payments due on April 15, 2020 ...
