The Legal 500

Legal Developments worldwide

• Federal Tax Service Approves the Procedure for Extending the Period for Consideration of ...

  Applications for Concluding Advance Pricing Agreements
  - Goltsblat BLP

• Extension of amnesty for late payment of tax liabilities

  In November 2011 the Cyprus Parliament enacted a law allowing for a partial write-off of interest and penalties on overdue tax liabilities of companies and individuals in respect of tax years up to and including 2008.
  - Andreas Neocleous & Co

• AIFM Directive - Analysis highlights Commission divergence from ESMA level 2 proposals.

  The Alternative Investment Management Association has published an analysis of the divergences it has identified between the European Commission's draft Level 2 regulation implementing the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and the technical advice provided to the Commission last November by the European Securities and Markets Authority.
  - Chevalier & Sciales

• HOUSING

  In Nzinga Maswaku v Westminster City Council [2012] EWCA Civ 669 the Court of Appeal clarified that in offering a homeless person with alternative temporary accommodation the local authority is obliged to point that if the offer is refused it has discharged its Part VII duties under the Housing Act 1996.
  - 11KBW

• UK Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): A new opportunity for Jersey?

  The 2012 UK Budget confirmed that, following a consultation period, changes to the current UK REIT regime are expected to be introduced in the third quarter of 2012.
  - Carey Olsen

• Public Procurement 2012

  Norway is a member of the European Economic Area (“the EEA”), and a party to the EEA agreement. Through the EEA agreement Norway has implemented EU legislation on, inter alia, public procurement.
  - Advokatfirmaet Thommessen AS

• SPCs for medicinal products – the opinion of the Advocate General in the Neurim case

  On 3rd May 2012, Advocate General Verica Trstenjak issued her opinion in case C-130/11, also known as the Neurim case. Should the Court of Justice choose to accept the findings of the opinion, it will improve the possibility for the pharmaceutical industry in Europe to obtain SPCs for medicinal products.
  - Advokatfirmaet Grette DA

• Latest developments in planning and zoning

  In Le Temps, the daily newspaper of reference of Western Switzerland, Yves de Coulon analyses the latest developments in the field of planning and zoning: Weber Initiative, Landscape Initiative, recent modifications of the Federal Law on planning and zoning, what consequences on the cantons' autonomy in the area of planning and zoning?
  - BCCC Attorneys-at-law LLC

• Revocation and Replacement of Minister of Trade Regulation on Import of Finished Goods and the...

  Issuance of Licensed Importer Numbers
  - Lubis Ganie Surowidjojo

• Lump Sum taxation

  The head of our tax practice group, partner Dominique Christin, summarises the legal requirements to obtain a lump sum taxation status in Switzerland and in the cantons of Geneva and Vaud.
  - BCCC Attorneys-at-law LLC