COMOROS: Treaty with United Arab Emirates enters into forceThe income tax treaty between the Comoros Islands and the United Arab Emirates, recently entered into force. GHANA: VAT withholding agents appointed In an attempt to improve value-added tax (“VAT”) compliance, the Ghana Revenue Authority (“GRA”) announced the appointment of identified VAT withholding agents per industry on 17 May 2018 ...
DJIBOUTI: International Free Trade Zone launchedThe first phase of the Djibouti International Free Trade Zone (“DIFTZ”), expected to be the largest free trade zone in Africa, was launched on 5 July 2018. The DIFTZ will house a variety of manufacturing plants and offer investors various incentives, including tax exemptions ...
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC): Refund of input VAT credit suspendedIn terms of the DRC value added tax (“VAT”) legislation, export businesses, companies ceasing their activities, oil and mining companies (during the exploration phase) and companies making significant investments are entitled to request input VAT credit refunds ...
BOTSWANA: Amending protocol to treaty with France signedOn 27 July 2017, Botswana and France signed an amending protocol to the Botswana/France Income Tax Treaty, 1999 in Gaborone. CAMEROON: VAT refund procedure available onlineThe Cameroonian Minister of Finance issued a communiqué on 14 June 2017, announcing that the value-added tax (“VAT”) refund procedure has been simplified and is available online as from 3 July 2017 for enterprises registered with the Large Tax Unit ...
GHANA: Customs duty on spare parts abolished On 14 June 2017, pursuant to the measures proposed in the 2017 Budget, Parliament passed the Customs Amendment Bill, 2017, which amends the Customs Act, 2015 by abolishing customs duties on the importation of vehicular (including motorcycles and bicycles) spare parts. GHANA: VAT Flat Rate Scheme practice note issued The Ghana Revenue Authority published Practice Note No ...
AFRICA TAX IN BRIEF KENYA: Chinese companies investigated by Revenue Authorities Local media reports of 30 May 2014 announce that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is investigating a number of Chinese companies suspected of evading tax. KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini said it is suspected that some Chinese-owned businesses are either under- or mis-declaring cargo ...
AFRICA: African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement developments Botswana and Zambia signed the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (“ACFTA”) on 10 February 2019 at the 32nd summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, whereas the Ethiopian Council of Ministers approved the ACFTA on 2 February 2019 and the Parliament of Senegal on 23 January 2019 ...
Corporations that are in need of liquidities can, simply put, not afford to wait until the end of the fiscal year to receive payment of refundable tax credits. For this reason, some lenders offer to advance funds to eligible taxpaying corporations (hereinafter “Taxpayers”) in the form of a loan, while taking security on their future tax credits as collateral (“Advance Tax Credit Financing”) ...
The Advance Payments Code provides a protection mechanism for local highway authorities to ensure that they are not unexpectedly required to meet the costs of new roads that were not intended to be maintained by the public purse. A local highway authority can serve a notice seeking the payment of, or security for, the estimated cost of construction for the private streets in a development (an APC Notice) ...
Article 10 of the French government’s Ordinance no. 2020-306 of 25 March 2020 on the extension of the time limits during the health emergency period and the adaptation of procedures during said period provides for specific provisions aiming at adjusting certain time limits applicable to tax audits and, more specifically, at suspending their application as of 12 March 2020 until the expiry of a period of one month after the end of the state of health emergency (i.e ...
The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (Revenue)’s press release of 13 January 2021 announced the Revenue’s implementation of centralisation and dispersal of tax files for taxpayers of certain categories, with effect from 1 January 2021 ...
In order to mitigate the effects of the declaration of a State of National Emergency and provide resources to taxpayers, the following provisions have been published in the Special Edition of The Official Gazette El Peruano, on March 18, 2020: Tax deferrals and/or fractions.- Through Superintendence Resolution No ...
From 1 April 2021, a 2% Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge will apply to non-UK residents purchasing residential property in England & Northern Ireland. However, what is meant by a non-UK resident in these circumstances can result in some surprising outcomes ...
27.10.2020 –Emergency Ordinance no ...
Not long after President Trump announced that the U.S. would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Department of Commerce launched an investigation that may lead to additional duties on imported vehicles and automotive parts. Effective, the Department will now examine whether imports of vehicles and auto parts threaten U.S. national security ...
It is highly documented that the transport sector is heavily male dominated. Indeed, reports suggest that while women account for 47% of the general UK workforce, within the transport sector women only account for 20% of the workforce and only 3% of HGV drivers in the UK. Many employers are aware of the work that needs to be done in this sector in terms of addressing and challenging behaviours, changing mindsets and creating inclusive cultures ...
THE CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT, CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT IT?Patrice André [email protected] are advising a client who is selling his business. The parties have already signed a letter of intent that provides for a due diligence review to be conducted in respect of your client’s business ...
1. The long-awaited duty requiring users or promoters of operations and transactions whose sole or principal objective is to obtain tax benefits to communicate such operations or transactions to the tax authorities has finally become law in Decree-Law 29/2008 of 25 February. 2. Due to its excessively wide nature, however, the new antiabuse measure raises some very serious doubts ...
In response to the extraordinary economic and social impact of the ongoing Covid-19 public health crisis, the Government of Hong Kong has sought to provide support to the beleaguered commercial property sector. In the 2020 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced the abolition of the Double Ad Valorem Stamp Duty (DSD) on non-residential property (NRP) transactions pursuant to the Public Revenue Protection (Stamp Duty) Order 2020 taking effect from 26 November 2020 ...
In the first article of this three-part series we looked at the future of personal transport. In this second piece, we turn to consider mass public transport and how it could play a significant part in the future of commuting. Birmingham is beginning to make substantial changes to its transport infrastructure, but are the changes big enough? The Metro Opened on 30 May 1999, the West Midlands Metro provided a link between Wolverhampton and Birmingham ...
Birmingham - the nation’s second city and one that has changed greatly over the last twenty years. One thing that has not changed, however, is that Birmingham is a big polluter. Continuing growth, both in terms of the population and economy, has left the air quality in such a poor state that Birmingham City Council estimates up to 900 people per year die from diseases associated with air quality ...
Even before the Biden Administration proposed an increase to the capital gains rate, it has been increasingly common for a seller (“Seller”) of business assets to be approached by consultants promoting a transaction structure whereby Seller can immediately receive nearly all of the cash proceeds of the sale while also deferring the corresponding tax for as long as 30 years ...
The Nation published the result of a survey that basically asked two specific issues : (i) how easy (or clear) you think the tax system? and (ii) what is the main reason why some people evade taxes? Any analysis of the tax system should take into account an absolute truth: no one likes to pay taxes . As we have discussed on other occasions ... a person can understand why you pay taxes, but like ... or want to pay ... mmmm ... I do not think: that's another thing ...
General contractors, subcontractors, and builders providing construction services in North Carolina should be aware that labor charges on certain of their projects may now be subject to sales tax under the state's new repair, maintenance, and installation ("RMI") rules ...
While originally opened to great fanfare between 2017 and 2019, over the course of 2022 Shell has discreetly closed down all of its UK hydrogen filling stations, citing that "the prototype technology had reached the end of its life". This decision is perhaps not surprising, given the low volume of domestic fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) on UK roads ...
