Hong Kong Main corporate tax rate: On 16 May 2018, the Legislative Council passed the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2018 providing special tax measures including a 75% one-off reduction in profits tax, for the year of assessment 2017/18 is provided, subject to a maximum of HKD 30,000 per case.
Incentives- Industry and manufacturing: On 16 May 2018, the Legislative Council passed Bill 2018 amending the tax code, which provides for increased tax deduction for corporate expenditure on qualified research and development activities. Under the new regime, companies can claim an additional tax deduction for domestic R & D expenditure. The first HKD2 million ($ 255,000) spent on qualifying R & D will receive a tax deduction of 300%, and spending above this threshold will benefit from a deduction of 200%. There is no upper limit to the increased tax deduction.
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New Zealand Incentives: On 17 May 2018, Finance Minister submitted New Zealand’s Budget for 2018 to the Parliament. Budget includes Research and development (R&D) investment increase to 2% of GDP inside ten years and that is a 50% increase in R&D spending. Tax incentive that will provide a stable mechanism to incentivize increased business expenditure on R&D.
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Kenya Main corporate tax rate: On 15 May 2018, Kenya’s National Treasury has published the draft of the Income Tax Bill 2018 for public comment. The bill proposed a new tax rate of 35% for taxable income of more than KES 500 million. An income below this threshold will continue to have a corporation tax rate of 30%.
Taxation of capital gains: On 15 May 2018, Kenya’s National Treasury has published the draft of the Income Tax Bill 2018 for public comment. The bill, proposed the capital gains tax rate, will be increased from 5% to 20%.
Incentives-Industry/manufacturing: On 15 May 2018, Kenya’s National Treasury has published the draft of the Income Tax Bill 2018 for public comment. Under the draft law, 25% is proposed for newly listed companies for a period of five years provided at least 40% of the issued capital is listed. For non-commercial export processing (EPZ) companies, a rate of 10% is proposed for the first 10 years and a 15% proposal for a further 10 years. Also for companies whose business is the local assembly of motor vehicles, a rate of 15% is proposed for the first five years.
Incentives-Infrastructure/Other: On 15 May 2018, Kenya’s National Treasury has published the draft of the Income Tax Bill 2018 for public comment. Under the Bill, for companies that develop at least one hundred low-cost residential units annually, a 15% rate proposed for that year of income in respect of gains or profits from the development of such units and for special economic zone (SEZ) enterprises. In addition, if the company sells its products to markets within or outside Kenya, a rate of 10% is proposed for the first ten years and then a rate of 15% for another ten years.
Withholding tax rates: With respect to withholding taxes on non-resident income, the standard rates are maintained in Kenya. Further, the reduced withholding tax rates for payments from SEZ enterprises introduced from 2018 for interest, royalties, management fees, etc. are maintained at 5%. These reduced rates also apply for payments from EPZ enterprises. As from 1 January 2018, dividends paid by an SEZ enterprise, developer or operator to non-resident persons are exempt from withholding tax.
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Germany Compensation for overpaid tax and refunds: On 14 May 2018, the Federal Finance Court (BFH) issued a decision suspending the additional default interest of 0.5% per month for unpaid taxes. The additional interest is considered unconstitutional. The simple penalty of 0.5% applies to every full month starting 15 months after the end of the calendar year for which the tax is assessed. The interest is in addition to other penalties for late tax payments and also applies to tax refunds. The rate of 0.5% has not changed since 1961.
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Lithuania Incentives-Small business: On 7 May 2018, the Ministry of Finance issued a proposal to amend the Law on Corporate Income Tax. If adopted by the parliament, the amendments will enter into force on 1 January 2019. Under the proposed changes, the income of non-profit companies will generally be subject to an ordinary corporate tax rate of 15%. However, these companies may apply a 0% corporate income tax rate on income directly allocated to the financing of public interest activities.
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South Africa Compensation for overpaid tax and refunds: On 7 May 2018, The South African Revenue Service has published the interest rates on outstanding taxes and refunds for 2018.  Accordingly, as from 1 July 2018, the interest rate on overdue taxes and refunds will be reduced from 10.25% to 10.00%.
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Australia Incentives-Industry/manufacturing: On 8 May 2018, the Treasurer announced changes to the R&D Tax Incentive, as part of the Federal Budget 2018-19.The proposed changes are essentially aimed at reducing the benefits available to larger companies (with a combined revenue of at least $ 20 million), which will, in most cases, drastically reduce the net benefit of the claims. The changes will affect companies that use the R & D tax incentive that begin on or after 1 July 2018.
Incentives-Small business: On 8 May 2018, the Treasurer announced changes to the R&D Tax Incentive, as part of the Federal Budget 2018-19. Accordingly, the refund available to small businesses (less than $ 20 million in revenue) is capped at $ 4 million per year, with surplus amounts carried forward as non-refundable tax in subsequent years. This cap on the recoverable component of the compensation will be a significant change for small and medium-sized enterprises investing in research projects.
Reduced rates: The 27.5%  reduced rate applies to companies with a total annual turnover of less than AUD 25 million for the income year 2017-18; the threshold will increase to AUD 50 million from 2018-19.
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Sweden Main corporate tax rate: On 3 May 2018, the Swedish Government submitted a draft bill regarding corporate income tax changes. Accordingly, the existing corporate income tax rate of 22% would be reduced to 21.4% in 2019 and then further reduced to 20.6% in 2021.
Business income taxation-Resident companies: On 3 May 2018, a bill to limit interest deduction and to reduce the corporate income tax rate was submitted to the parliament. Accordingly, the government includes a general limitation of interest deductions for companies according to an Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) rule with a deduction of 30% and a safe-harbour which is set at SEK 5 million.
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Pakistan Main corporate tax rate: The Finance Minister of Pakistan presented the Budget 2018-19 on 27 April 2018. Accordingly, the corporate tax rate will be 29% in Tax Year 2019 and will be reduced by 1% each year up to Tax Year 2023. The levy of super tax will be gradually withdrawn by reducing the tax rate by 1% each year for banking companies.
Sanctions for non-compliance-Late returns: The Budget 2018-19, introduced the minimum penalty for non-compliance with withholding statements and will be reduced from PKR 10,000 to PKR 5,000 if settlement is submitted within 3 months from the due date. However, an existing penalty of 2,500 PKR per day (from the due date of filing the withholding tax certificate) would apply if the claim is filed three months after the due date.
Incentives-Industry/manufacturing: The Budget 2018-19, announced a three-year tax exemption for qualified start-ups with annual sales of up to 100 million PKR registered and certified by the Pakistani Software Export Board (PSEB) as an information technology company products or services for each sector of the Economy. In addition, tax credits for companies’ investments and industrial companies will be extended until 30 June 2021.
CFC-rules: Under the 2018-19 Budget, a new section 109A on CFC is proposed to be added for attributing and including income of a controlled foreign company in taxable income of a resident person subject to stipulated conditions. This is one of the 6 anti-abuse provisions that Pakistan needs to implement under international obligations, being signatory to various international tax agreements.
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China Incentive- Industry/manufacturing: On 25 April 2018, China’s Ministry of Finance has announced a series of tax incentives in order to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The proposed incentive measures will generally apply from 1 January 2018.
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Korea, Rep Of Transfer Pricing Rules-Arm’s length standard: On 2 April 2018, the South Korean National Tax Service published a notice on certain changes including arm’s length price determination. In determining the arm’s length price, non-priced transaction conditions are also taken into account in order to improve the effectiveness of the transfer pricing method.
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Belgium Incentives: On 27 April 2018, Belgium has updates investment allowance rates for the 2019 in the Official Gazette.
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India Sanctions for non-compliance-Late returns: The 2018 Indian Finance Act amended the litigation procedure (Section 276CC of the Income Tax Act) for a willful failure to file an income tax return by the due date, effective for tax returns for taxable years beginning on or after 1 April 2017. According to Finance Act 2018, the principal officer of a company, including a foreign company, may become subject to legal proceedings including prosecutions for failure to file an income tax return, even if final tax due is less than the INR3,000 minimum tax liability. This means that a foreign company in India having sufficient nexus in India or earning income in India may be subject not only to monetary penalties but also to legal proceedings for failure to file an income tax return. Penalties may apply for failure to file a return even if the income was taxed by withholding.
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