Almost nine months after parliamentary elections in the Netherlands were held, the parties that were part of the previous government agreed on a new coalition agreement. The new coalition government's plans include various tax reforms.
The Crown Court of Southwark (London, UK) fined NatWest (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland) £ 264 million for failing to prevent money laundering in the total amount of about £ 365 million. This case was the first of its kind in modern British history.
The Cyprus Ministry of Finance is preparing a comprehensive tax reform, the corporate tax rate will increase from 12.5% to 15%, taking into account the global tax reform of the OECD.
From March 1, 2022, official documents of Uzbekistan can be certified with an electronic apostille. The corresponding regulations have been developed by the government of the country.
Employees of the Ministry of Justice of Moldova now process an average of about 1000 applications for apostilization per day, while earlier this figure was about 300 applications.
The US Treasury Department has proposed creating a special registry that will help close loopholes that allow organized crime, terrorists and corrupt officials to launder dirty money through shell companies.
The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering has issued amendments to its recommendations expanding the powers of financial intelligence agencies.
The now in opposition Labor Party has called on official London to tighten financial controls and registration procedures in the UK. The corresponding statement was made by Pat McFadden, the British shadow secretary of the Treasury.
Discussions about independence and the possibility of a referendum have resumed as a commission of inquiry created by the British government is conducting a large-scale investigation of serious abuses by the BVI authorities.
Indonesia joined the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, which abolishes the requirement for legalization of foreign official documents (the Apostille Convention), becoming its 121st party.
Malta clarified the procedure for establishing the identity of the ultimate beneficial owner if the corporate client's shares are held by a trust or foundation.
51% of companies registered in Spain and formally considered active do not actually work. This is evidenced by the results of a study carried out by Iberinform, a subsidiary of Crédito y Caución.
The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) has published proposals for amendments to Recommendation 24 and its Explanatory Note on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal entities.
The Pandora Archive has drawn the attention of regulators to the financial and crypto industries. The crypto exchanges have been branded as accomplices of money laundering and have been accused of having trouble with unregulated forex brokers in the Caribbean.
“Non-US” companies incorporated to do business in the US, as well as corporations registered in the US, will be required to file reports annually with the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Agency (FinCEN) disclosing key information about their beneficial owners.
The Pandora Papers will have implications for Swiss tax consultants. Analysts predict a tightening of control over the previously unregulated consulting sphere.
Due to the need to be reflected in the name of the Department (bureau) The Registrar of Companies and the official liquidator of Cyprus of the full range of competencies, the local authorities decided to rename it.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ireland has approved a tax increase for companies with revenues over 750 million euros per year. The rate for them will increase from the current 12.5% to 15% under the "Global Tax Agreement".
Luxembourg business registries have published a notice of technological improvements in the Trade Register. In addition, the information on the correspondence between the address and the Luxembourg identification number will be additionally checked.
The EU Council has accepted a Directive on Public Country Reporting, which will oblige large multinational companies to disclose their income taxes to the public.
With a new decree, the Government of France is reforming the procedure for consular legalization of documents and affixing apostille, significantly expanding the powers of the notary.
Following the 5th Directive, which significantly strengthened existing anti-money laundering provisions, the 6th Directive aims to enable financial institutions and authorities to further expand AML control by expanding the scope of existing legislation clarifying some regulatory details, and tightening up criminal sanctions in the EU.
Dozens of publications around the world have published investigations based on data obtained as a result of one of the largest leaks of information about offshore companies and their real beneficiaries in history.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) analyzed the level of implementation of anti-corruption commitments by Montenegro, Albania and several other countries as of 2021.
On October 5, 2021, on a meeting of EU finance ministers, a decision will be made to exclude Seychelles, Dominica and Anguilla from the EU's "black" list of tax havens said Reuters.
The Government of the Cayman Islands has published preliminary provisions for the creation of a centralized register of beneficial owners, replacing the current system in which companies keep records of their controlling persons.
The five largest banks in the Netherlands have created a transaction data exchange system - Transaction Monitoring Netherlands, which will allow tracking money laundering schemes in the early stages.
Earlier, the Turkish government published a communiqué that clarifies the system for determining the ultimate beneficiaries, as well as the procedure for submitting reports to the Turkish Tax Administration.
Spain is tightening the rules of international tax transparency, as well as introducing a special tax regime for investment funds in the real estate sector.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented a report that indicated this figure. It is significantly higher than the average for Asia (4%), Europe (11%) or the United States (4%), and results in annual revenue losses of € 19 billion for the region due to tax evasion.
The German Ministry of Finance has published a draft regulation that contains a list of “non-cooperating” jurisdictions with a view to applying protective measures.
Malta is on the gray list of the World Organization to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (FATF). The authorities of the island state talk about the unfairness of the decision and the threat to the island's economy.
131 countries, which account for more than 90% of the global economy, have agreed on the introduction of a minimum tax rate for large corporations of 15%.
The Montenegrin authorities have published publicly available data on foreigners who received Montenegrin passports for 2020-2021, including under the investment citizenship program.
The Seychelles Cabinet has approved the ratification of the BEPS MLI on the Application of Tax Treaty Measures to Prevent Tax Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.
At the meeting of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, the meeting participants voted to add Malta and Romania to the gray list. Gray listing can have far-reaching implications for a country's economy, affecting banking services, the ease of doing business and the island's attractiveness to foreign investors.
51 legislative acts - approximately the same number of acts will be proposed for consideration to the Cypriot parliament for the implementation of the "Plan for Recovery, Sustainable Development and Resource Allocation" in Cyprus.
The European Commission has filed lawsuits against the authorities of Cyprus and Malta for violation of the Commonwealth legislation due to the peculiarities of their programs of granting citizenship in exchange for investment - the so-called "golden passports".
The United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan have jointly agreed to create a single taxation for multinational IT companies.
A trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which was created as a result of difficult negotiations and a short time frame, has entered into force.
From June 2021, anonymous users will no longer be able to receive data from the Czech real estate cadaster online. This information will only be available to authorized users.
The Hong Kong SAR government has announced plans to block access to the legal address and ID numbers of directors and secretaries of Hong Kong companies in the company register.
The EU has proposed limiting foreign investment in European businesses to prevent the buy-up of companies that have fallen in price during the pandemic.
The Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands has published a draft law on the registration of beneficial owners of trusts and similar legal arrangements. The requirement to register beneficial owners of trusts and similar organizations is defined by the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5).
The German Bundestag has approved an "emergency brake" to combat the pandemic. Amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases establish uniform measures for the whole country to counteract the pandemic.
The US presidential administration has proposed a new tax model for the largest corporations, which will force them to give more money in all countries where they earn.
The German federal government has presented a bill that imposes new disclosure obligations for German companies, in particular about their beneficiaries.
German Chancellor Helge Braun warned that Germany is now experiencing "the most dangerous phase of the pandemic," and the third wave of the epidemic threatens to be worse than the second due to a more contagious mutation of the virus.
The government of the British Virgin Islands has introduced five new laws introducing significant changes to various aspects of trust and property law.
Almost sixty years after its adoption, Indonesia finally ratified the Hague Convention on the Abolition of the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents.
European countries are talking about a third wave of coronavirus: against the background of a sharp increase in the incidence of the disease, the German authorities intend to maintain quarantine measures throughout April, in Poland the number of new cases of Covid-19 increased by 30% compared to last week. A new lockdown has begun in Bulgaria
This summer, a new law will come into force in the Czech Republic, which will fundamentally change a number of conceptual and practical issues in the operation of the register of beneficial owners.
The Czech Ministry of Justice has carried out a technological modernization of the information system containing the data of the beneficiaries of Czech companies.
