South Africa Main corporate tax rate: The Budget for 2016-17 was presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance on 24 February 2016. The effective rate on capital gains tax for individuals will rise from 13.7% to 16.4%, and for companies from 18.6% to 22.4%. The rate will be effective from 1 March 2016.
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Latvia Special tax rate: The amendment tax law regarding Micro-Enterprise has entered into force on January 1, 2016. Under the amendments, with effect from 1 January 2017, Micro-enterprise whose annual turnover : EUR 0 – 7,000 the rate is 5%; EUR 7,000.01 – 100,000, 5% (for the first 3 years of business with micro-enterprise status) and 8% (from the fourth year of business with micro-enterprise status) EUR 100,000.01 and above is 20%.
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China Submission of returns: The State Administration of Taxation issued SAT Public Notice [2016] No. 6, accordingly, from April 2016, the qualified small and low-profit enterprises have to file only the enterprise income tax return for advance payments on a quarterly basis. The enterprises that are assessed on a deemed basis and make tax payments at the fixed times by using the designated electronic system are no longer required to file tax returns separately. The tax payment itself is considered to also serve the purpose of filing.
Incentives: In late January 2016, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly issued the new Administrative Measures for Certification of High and New Technology Enterprises Circular (Circular 32), which significantly changes the high and new technology enterprises certification rules and came into effect as of 1 January 2016. Further a tax reduction from 25% to 15% for high and new technology enterprises is a key tax incentive under current China tax laws and plays an important role in encouraging investment in high-tech and R&D areas. However, Circular 32 lowers the criteria for qualifying as an high and new technology enterprises, but at the same time enhances the requirements for compliance.
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Hong Kong Incentives/Tax rate : The Budget for 2016/17 was presented to the Legislative Council by the Financial Secretary on 24 February 2016. The Financial Secretary proposed a one-off reduction of profits tax for the year of assessment 2015/16 by 75%, subject to a ceiling of $20,000 per case. For profits tax, the ceiling of the tax reduction is applied to each business.
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Malaysia Incentives: The Finance Ministry has approved tax incentives on 18 February 2016 for companies participating in the National Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program for 2015 and 2016 (MY Carbon program) said Natural Resources and Environment Minister of Malaysia. Under the scheme, corporate entities were eligible to deduct the actual expenses incurred ranging from RM30,000 to RM200,000 in preparing and verifying their greenhouse gas inventories.
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Turkey Incentives: The Law No. 6676 on the Research and Development (R&D) Reform Package was published in Official Gazette on February 26, 2016 and will be entered into force on March 1, 2016. It enhances the opportunity of R&D incentives under the Income Tax Law. Under article 14 of the Law No. 6676, income resulting from R&D, innovation and design activities in technology development centers is exempted from income and corporate tax until 31 December 2023.
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Peru Tax Compliance: The tax authorities of Peru published Resolution No. 358-2015 in the Official Gazette on 30 December 2015. The Resolution establishes new filing conditions and requirements for the entities and individuals of the income tax return for tax year 2015. According to the published Resolution, corporate income tax returns will be due from 23 March 2016 to 8 April 2016, based on the taxpayer’s tax identification number or status.
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Thailand Incentives: The government of Thailand recently released an emergency decree providing a “tax audit exemption program” which has become effective and available to taxpayers beginning in 2016. According to the program, any kind of tax examination, inquiry, assessment, payment demands or criminal prosecution in respect of income generated before 1 January 2016 will be waived. Eligible taxpayers to get facility from the program are those companies and partnerships whose revenue does not exceed THB 500 million (approximately U.S. $14 million) for any accounting period ending on or before 31 December 2015. Thus the program is available for many small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
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Portugal Portugal announced further Budget measures on 5 February 2016. Accordingly the most important measures are:
Participation exemption: The participation exemption regime will be modified and a holding period of 1 year instead of the current 2 years will be required. Furthermore, the required minimum shareholding will be increased from 5% to 10%.
Loss carry-forward: The loss carry-forward period will be reduced from 12 to 5 years from 2017.
Group taxation: Companies having benefited from the exemption of internal profits under the special group taxation regime in force until the year 2000 will include those exempt profits in their taxable base for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Incentives : The draft Budget provides for the introduction of a corporate income tax deduction for expenses related to cinematographic productions exceeding EUR 1 million.
Special deduction : The draft Budget provides for a deduction for companies or personal income tax businesses in respect of the acquisition of fuel destined to be used for the transport of merchandise or passengers.
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Venezuela E-filing: The President has announced six general economic measures including a tax plan in order to fight tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax fraud on February 17, 2016. One of the declared tax measures is the outline of an electronic invoicing system.
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Indonesia Withholding rates on Interest: New Government Regulation No. 123/2015 issued in late December 2015, according to the new guidelines, the final withholding income tax rates are now: 7.5%, for one-month deposits; 5%, for three-month deposits; and 0%, for more than six-month deposits. For all other deposits, the 20% final withholding income tax rate continues to apply.
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