Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
-
In
financial transactions, the most common measure of protecting the
rights of creditors is to have the transaction secured by assets or
debts of the debtor or by other third party security creation methods.
Taking effective security specifies that the creditor can, in the event
of default of payment or on the bankruptcy of the debtor, take
possession of that asset, sell it and use the proceeds to repay its
debt. This strengthens the position of secured creditors over other
unsecured creditors of the debtor.
-
The " Decreto del
Fare " ("Decree of Doing" - Law Decree 21 st June 2013, n.
69, turned into Law 9 th
August 2013, n. 98) contains regulations designed to simplify legal matters
related to the construction industry with the purpose of helping its workers
and to kick start a sector deeply affected by the economic crisis.
-
Published: 19 Nov 2013 at 00.00
-
Published: 3 Dec 2013 at 00.00
-
The
introduction of new substance requirements for Global Business Companies
operating from Mauritius which will become effective on 1st January 2015 are
part and parcel of a strategy to further boost financial services and increase
its input to the country's GDP.
-
Separate taxation at the average rate of the last year with professional activity
-
The draft bill concerning the introduction of harmonised dismissal
rules was introduced in the House of Representatives on 21 November
2013.
-
Presumption of good faith of the parties and their actions adopted
initially in the Concept of the development of the civil legislation of
the Russian Federation dated 7 October 2009, article 10 of the Civil
Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter - the Civil Code), has been
developed by the Presidium of the Supreme Commercial Court of the
Russian Federation (hereinafter - the SCC).
-
Further to the above
issues that have a degree of uncertainty requiring court analysis and judgement,
sometimes you can face fairly odious errors in tax treaty application. These include
such "casualties" as the Promleasing case, where both the taxpayer and the
tax authorities were drawn into an embarrassing discussion proving that a
Russian LLC is a Russian enterprise because its CEO is a Russian citizen,
evidently misinterpreting the term "enterprise" for treaty purposes (see Resolution
No. КА-А40/6805-11 dated 08 July 2011). Another renowned case included a court ruling that the Protocol to the
Russia-Germany Double Tax Treaty expressly specifying an additional guarantee of
unlimited interest cost deduction could not apply at all, because this benefit
discriminates against Russian companies qualifying as Russian subsidiaries of
German residents (See the Rulog
case No. А40-37344/11-107-160 dated 19 November 2012). This statement is as
outrageous as the suggestion that an international tax treaty is required for
Russia not to discriminate its Russian companies against one another. No
practical advice can be given for avoiding such an odd situation other than
ensuring that development and presentation of the legal position in a tax
dispute is assigned to adequate professionals.
Normal
0
false
false
false
RU
ZH-CN
AR-SA
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-ansi-language:RU;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
-
The turn in the
direction of denying formal approaches discussed above does not work equally in
all respects. Given the above SCC position that the full amount of tax not withheld
can be claimed from the tax agent, it is in the interests of Russian paying
entities to invest sufficient efforts in ensuring the formal side of the matter
where a double tax treaty exemption applies. The core recommendation is simple:
to obtain, in a timely fashion, an adequate and duly apostilled tax residence
certificate for the payee that is entitled to double tax treaty exemption. If
this seems natural with independent parties, it is often an annoying routine
with group companies: why bother obtaining new certificates if the parties are quite
sure where the parent company is located and tax resident? Yet it is crucial to
prepare all the documents beforehand, since these formalities might take a
substantial time and, if you fail to present the documents during a tax audit,
you might lose the case.
Normal
0
false
false
false
RU
ZH-CN
AR-SA
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-ansi-language:RU;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
1 HARCOURT BUILDINGS, LONDON, EC4Y 9DA, ENGLAND