South Africa: Technical Tax Proposals for 2014 Budget

11 December, 2013

South Africa’s National Treasury has invited taxpayers to submit any technical proposals to improve the tax legislation, including the closing of tax loopholes and unintended anomalies in the law. The proposals will be considered for possible

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Mexico – Tax reform legislation published in official Gazette

11 December, 2013

Mexico published new tax reform provision in official gazette on 11 December 2013, which is proceeding through the legislative process. The new legislation includes measures that may affect multinational entities with current or planned operations

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Ireland: Revenue published details of tax settlements

11 December, 2013

Ireland's Revenue organization has published data on 88 cases of the settlements arrived at with defaulting taxpayers throughout the last year. The first lists each person upon whom a fine or punishment was forced by a court. The second part covers

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Germany: Proposed coalition agreement

11 December, 2013

The German Conservatives (CDU/CSU) and their ex-opposition party the Social Democrats (SPD) signed a 185 page agreement on the formation of a “grand coalition” on 27 November 2013 which was resulted from five weeks of strong negotiations. The

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Russia-Calculate corporate property tax by using cadastral value

10 December, 2013

Russia has enacted Law No.307-FZ naming “Concerning the Use of the Cadastral Value of Real Estate for the Calculation of the Corporate Property Tax Base” that was published on November 6, 2013 and it will apply from January 1, 2014. A

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China: Extends VAT to postal services and railways

10 December, 2013

An edict recently is issued by the China’s State Council adding postal services and railway transportation to the reform of the existing Chinese Business Tax and VAT systems. This will start on 1 January 2014. The principles of the OECD VAT

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Philippines: Tax Exemptions for Haiyan Relief Goods

10 December, 2013

The Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue of Philippines has ensured that foreign donations and relief goods arriving for the victims of the Haiyan super typhoon in the Philippines will not be taxed, if their arrival is correlated with

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New Zealand – New Tax Policy Work Plan

10 December, 2013

The Inland Revenue of New Zealand released the government’s tax policy work program on 8 November 2013 that sets out the government’s focus for tax reform and development for the next 18 months. Creating further improvements to the tax and

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Netherlands – Electronic filing required for VAT returns

10 December, 2013

It has been reported that  entrepreneurs subject to value added tax (VAT) but not “established”―for VAT purposes―in the Netherlands must file their VAT returns / EC sales lists electronically (and not on paper forms) from 1 January

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Netherlands Hails Tax Amnesty A Success

10 December, 2013

On 13 November 2013 it was reported that the Dutch Financial State Secretary has hailed the Government's temporary relaxed voluntary disclosure scheme as a success.  The State Secretary emphasized the fact that since its introduction, almost 500

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Mexico: Congress passed budget for 2014

10 December, 2013

The Mexican lower house of Congress has passed the federal budget for 2014, which proposes running a deficit in 2014 to lift the country’s economy on 14 November of 2013. The budget will increase the tax revenue by around 2.5% of GDP by 2018. The

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Luxembourg: New circular declares VAT exemption for risk management services

10 December, 2013

“Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines”, the Luxembourg VAT Authorities issued a Circular (Circular n° 723 ter) on 7th November 2013, confirming that risk management services for funds could be VAT exempt. The guidance from the

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Luxembourg wants acceleration of negotiation on Savings Tax

10 December, 2013

Luxembourg has called on the European Commission (EC) to accelerate negotiations with third party countries, to make sure that progress is made on plans to modify the Savings Tax Directive. The Savings Tax Directive is designed to ensure that income

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Luxembourg Considers Tax Rise

10 December, 2013

The assessment of current negotiations on the formation of a new Government of Luxembourg is that there is a pledge to redressing the public finances if necessary with recourse to tax measures. However Luxembourg is starting from a favorable

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Ireland: Tax hike hits Irish savings

10 December, 2013

According to one well known financial institution (the Nationwide Building Society), the Irish Finance Minister has decided to raise the Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) and it represents a very bad news for Irish savers. The extent of

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Hungary- Amendments to Corporate Law

10 December, 2013

Hungary is going to modify its civil code by making significant changes to the corporate law which is likely to become effective from March 2014. According to the amendments, new companies may be permitted to establish their own company guidelines

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France – reform to the tax procedure of life insurance contracts

10 December, 2013

The French Ministry of Finance presented the year-end supplementary finance bill of 2013 to the Council of Ministers. The bill comprise of plans to reform the tax procedure of life insurance contracts. The ministry is planning to increase the rate

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Russia–Readjusting the taxable base for transfer pricing purposes may impact on the VAT base

10 December, 2013

The Russian Ministry of Finance has made public Letter No. 03-01-18/19214 clarifying the rights of tax authorities to readjust the taxable base in the case of selling goods and performing of works or services between related parties. Article 105.3

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