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In December 2022, Kazakhstan amended its tax legislation.
We set out some of the relevant amendments in this article.
New restrictions will be imposed in relation to Kazakhstani companies seeking to apply double tax treaty benefits.
The changes relate to the following payments made to a foreign related party:
In particular, where a related party is in receipt of income, then the treaty rates may only be applied if the recipient is subject to an effective income tax rate of at least 15% on receipt in its home country.
This change was effective from 1 January 2023.
Here, individuals that are not classed as independent contractors will now become withholding agents in relation to capital gains in respect of share deals.
As such, they will need to deduct and withhold capital gains tax from the purchase price of shares. They will then need to pay this over to the authorities.
This change will take effect from 21 February 2023.
For those with, or clients with, subsidiaries in Kazakhstan, we would suggest reviewing these changes in line with any proposals to pay dividends, royalties or interest.
Further, those dealing with individuals who will now be brought within the capital gains tax withholding requirements then they should ensure they consider their compliance with these obligations.
If you have any queries relating to the Kazakhstan’s recent tax amendments or tax matters in Kazakhstan more generally, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article.
Eventually, after a number of failed attempts, the EU has reached agreement on the Minimum Taxation Agreement.
The 27 European Union Member States reached agreement on the 12 December 2022.
The agreement clears the way for the implementation of a minimum level of taxation for the largest companies. These reforms are also known as the Pillar Two or Minimum Taxation Directive.
The Directive has to be transposed into Member States’ national law by the end of 2023.
Broadly, the agreed Directive reflects the global OECD agreement with some adjustments.
The new agreement will apply to any large group of companies whether domestic or international. The rules will apply to such organisations with aggregate revenues of over €750 million a year. As such, it will only apply to the biggest companies around the globe.
It should be noted that it is necessary for either the parent company or a subsidiary of the group to be situated within the EU.
The effective tax rate is established for a location by dividing the taxes paid by the entities in the jurisdiction by their income.
Where this calculation results in a rate of tax below 15% then the group must ‘top-up’ the tax paid such that the overall rate is 15%.
The development means that the EU will be a pioneer around Pillar Two. However, it seems highly likely that other jurisdictions (I.e non-EU) will follow suit.
Further, by the end of this month (Jan 2023), it is expected that the OECD will publish its own guidelines for Pillar Two. Again, these should act as a catalyst for wider adoption of Pillar Two internationally.
In addition, it is expected that they will shed some light on some of the key outstanding issues around how the US rules (such as US GILTI rules) will conform with Pillar Two.
If you have any queries about the EU agreement on Pillar Two, or international tax matters generally, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article
The United States and Croatia signed their first double tax treaty (“treaty”) on 8 December 2022.
This means that all member states of the European Union (“EU”) now has a tax treaty with the US, as Croatia was the ‘last man standing’ in terms of not having such a treaty.
So, what does the treaty say?
| Item | Description |
| Dividends | The treaty reduces withholding taxes (“WHT”) on dividends. The treaty rate is capped at 15%. One exception is where the beneficial owner of the dividend is a company which has held a direct interest of at least 10% of the company paying the dividends for the preceding twelve-month period. Here, the maximum rate under the Treaty is reduced to 5%. In addition, dividends generally paid to certain pension funds qualify for a full exemption from WHT in the source company. |
| Interest | The treaty seeks to eliminate WHT on most interest payments. However, WHT is payable and capped at 15% in some circumstances. Those circumstances include: interest arising in Croatia that is determined with reference to receipts, sales, income, profits or other cash flow of the debtor, to any change in the value of any property of the debtor or to any dividend, partnership distribution or similar payment made by the debtor interest arising in the United States that is contingent interest of a type that does not qualify as portfolio interest under the law of the United States. |
| Royalties | The treaty limits WHT on royalties to 5%. |
| Reservation | In the treaty, the US reserves the right to impose what is known as the “BEAT” tax under US Internal Revenue Code section 59A (“Tax on Base Erosion Payments of Taxpayers with Substantial Gross Receipts”). This applies to relevant profits of a company resident in Croatia and attributable to a US permanent establishment. |
| Limitation on benefits (“LoB”) | Those familiar with double tax treaties where one of the contracting parties is the US will be familiar with the LoB article. Broadly, such a clause has applied since the introduction of the 2016 US model tax convention. It is a complex limitation on benefits clause. The result of the LoB in this case means that the application of the treaty is generally limited to “qualified persons” as defined in Article 22 of the Treaty. In general, Article 22(2) requires a resident to be a qualified person at the relevant time that treaty benefits are sought. For the ownership-base erosion test under Article 22(2)(f), the resident must also satisfy the ownership threshold on at least half of the days of any 12-month period that includes the date when the treaty benefit would be accorded. Alternatively, a resident that is not a qualified person under paragraph 2 may still be eligible for treaty benefits for an item of income if it meets one of the other tests under the LOB provision, namely the active trade or business test (ATB test), derivative benefits test or headquarters company test under Articles 22(3), (4) and (5) respectively. |
The signing of the treaty by the US and Croatia is a welcome development. It will clearly be of great application to businesses and individuals operating across the two jurisdictions.
The Treaty will enter into force after both contracting parties have approved it in accordance with their internal legislative procedures.
If you have any queries about the United States / Croatia double tax treaty, or US tax or Croatia tax matters more generally, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article
Parliament is currently discussing the draft 2023 Budget Law. Although this is yet to be approved, the draft signals a potential change to the taxation of rela estate companies in Italy. Specifically, the tax treatment of shareholdings in such companies.
Article 23 of Presidential Decree no. 917/1986 proposes new provisions regarding the ‘alienation’ of shareholdings in real estate companies by certain persons.
Specifically, the proposals relate to disposals by:
In other words, companies and entities that derive their value mainly from real estate situated within the Italian territory.
It is a provision aimed at taxing capital gains on foreign shareholdings that result, de facto, the transfer of real estate properties located in Italy.
Undoubtedly, the proposal has got its inspiration fromArticle 13, paragraph 3, of the OECD Model Tax Treaty. This is often referred to as the “land rich clause”.
The proposals could have an immediate impact on cases where the shareholder realising the capital gain:
The proposals do not apply to shares listed on a stock exchange.
Where there is a tax treaty in force, the change could apply where the tax treaty with the shareholder’s state of residence grants Italy rights of taxation in respect of capital gains on shareholdings in real estate companies.
In this respect, Italy may tax such capital gains in accordance with provisions set forth by over twenty tax treaties including the land rich clause. It is likely that the number of tax treaties that reflect this position will increase over the coming years.
If you have any queries about this article on Italy real estate companies, Italian tax matters or capital gains in general then please do not hesitate to contact us.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article.
The Hong Kong SAR government is acting to implement the Multilateral Convention on Implementing Tax Treaty-Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.
The OECD developed the convention to ensure swift, coordinated and consistent implementation of its tax treaty-related base erosion and profit-shifting measures in a multilateral context.
The Multilateral Convention is one of the 15 recommended actions from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project.
It enables fast and steady implementation of the tax treaty-related recommendations under BEPS – hybrid mismatches (Action 2), tax treaty abuse (Action 6), permanent establishments (Action 7) and dispute resolution (Action 14).
The Inland Revenue (Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Order was tabled at the Legislative Council on 19 October for negative vetting.
In May 2022, China started with its approval with the OECD.
The Chinese government extended the application of the MLI to Hong Kong and its provisions will take effect here after the completion of domestic legislative procedures.
Hong Kong has listed 39 countries it has signed DTAs with as countries intended to be covered by the MLI.
The remaining six DTAs have already included BEPS-compliant provisions.
The MLI will take effect in Hong Kong concerning covered DTA’s at the beginning of April 2023 for taxes withheld at source or 1 April 2024 for other taxes.
If you have any general queries about this article on the MLI or Hong Kong tax matters, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Several weeks ago, we commented on the Spanish Government’s recently proposal to introduce a Solidarity Wealth Tax.
However, this article considers new wealth tax proposals – in respect of the Net Wealth Tax and the Solidarity Wealth Tax – for non-Spanish-tax-resident individuals who hold Spanish real estate through one or multiple non-Spanish-resident entities.
It is envisaged that non-Spanish-tax-resident individuals would be subject to the Net Wealth Tax (“NWT”) when they hold shares in an unlisted entity. This would be where “at least 50% of its assets are directly or indirectly made up of real estate located in Spain”.
These new proposals would replace the current domestic provisions which historically have required non-resident individuals to pay NWT in circumstances where they directly own real estate only.
Additionally, the Spanish Government plans to bring in the Solidarity Tax (“ST”) to supplement the regional NWT. The ST will be calculated and assessed at the federal level.
The ST will be levied on non-Spanish-tax-resident individuals with a net wealth in Spain of at least EUR 3 million. It should be noted that this will include any interests in non-resident entities that own Spanish real estate
The NWT can be credited against any ST liability.
It is expected that these measures will be passed before the end of 2022.
If the new legislation is published prior to the end of 2022, then both would apply to indirect holdings of Spanish real estate held on 31 December 2022.
It is currently expected that both would have to be paid in June or July of the following year.
If you have any queries about the Spanish Net Wealth Tax or Solidarity Wealth Tax, or Spanish tax matters in general, then please do get in touch.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article.
Malta has recently published legislation that implements Transfer Pricing Rules into Malta’s tax code (“TP Rules”).
The TP Rules apply to transactions entered into on or after 1st January 2024 as well as pre-existing ones if they are materially altered on or after that date.
The TP Rules will apply when calculating a company’s tax base derived from “cross-border arrangement” between “associated enterprises”. They will apply where associated enterprises have more than 75% (directly or indirectly) of participating rights.
This is reduced to 50% where the entity is a Multi-National Enterprise (“MNE”).
SMEs, as defined in the State Aid Rules, do not fall under these rules.
The term “MNE group”, as used in these Rules, refers to a multinational enterprise (or other entity) whose tax residence(ies) or permanent establishment(s), within and outside of Malta, exceeds 75 million Euro per year.
The TP Rules don’t apply to cross-border transactions with an aggregate arm’s length value of €6m and €20m revenue and capital respectively.
The TP Rules will apply to cross-border transactions and arrangements taking place between:
The TP Rules provide for a deeming provision that, where the actual amount differs from an arm’s-length amount under cross-border arrangements, the latter figure shall be used in ascertaining total income instead of the former.
It is anticipated that more detailed guidance will be issued in due course.
Amongst other things, it is expected that this will include reference to the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines.
If you have any queries about this article on Malta Transfer Pricing Rules or Malta tax matters in general, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article
On October 26, 2022, President Zelensky signed a law creating an electronic system through which foreign entrepreneurs can apply for residency permits.
Foreigners will be able to obtain an electronic residence (an E-Residence / E-Resident) in Ukraine without having to become Ukrainian tax residents.
It is scheduled to come into effect on April 1, 2023. Under it, foreigners will be able register themselves as private entrepreneurs and pay taxes in Ukraine.
The E-Residency program provides its participants access to a range of services, including the registration and termination of business activities in Ukraine.
The E-Residency status will not grant the right to live or visit Ukraine.
The E-Residency program is open to people who meet all of the following requirements:
To become an E-Resident, applicants must go through the “E-Resident” information system, obtain qualified digital signatures, and pass identification procedures.
Ukraine E-Residence may withdraw from the program at any time by applying for termination.
Ukrainian authorities have the power to revoke an individual’s E-Residency if they decide that this person no longer qualifies for the status.
To become an E-Resident, in addition to the above conditions, you must:
E-Residents will pay a flat tax of 5% on their business income. They are not allowed to deduct any expenses from this amount.
The nature of the business activities of the E-Resident is not restricted.
E-Residents must transfer their business income to the Ukrainian bank account they opened as part of the process.
The bank will also operate as the E-Resident’s tax agent and deduct the relevant tax and deal with all other reporting.
E-Residents are not subject to the social security charges in Ukraine.
E-Residents should consider whether the Ukrainian taxes deducted in respect of their business income can be credited against taxes they are liable in their country of tax residency.
If you have any queries about Ukraine E-Residence then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
The content of this article is provided for educational and information purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as tax or legal advice. We recommend you seek formal tax and legal advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the contents of this article