Oliver Biernat
Control and transparency are global trends following the transformation of the BEPS action plans and DAC directives into national law. That is not only reflected in the changes of tax rules worldwide but also in the articles in this edition of the GGI FYI ITPG News. Prof Sergio Guerrero Rosas (Guerrero y Santana, S.C., Mexico) explains in his article how the Mexican government wants to ensure that entities must disclose the “real” owner or beneficiary of an entity and how the controlling beneficiary figure will change the landscape in which businesses are structured and information is kept in Mexico. Other authors wish to raise the attention for (tax) risks. So, Marc Nideröst (Treuhand- und Revisionsgesellschaft Mattig-Suter & Partner, Switzerland) informs about the risk of a home office becoming a business premise in Switzerland and Bernhard Schwechel (FACT GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Germany) explains what the DAC-7 Directive means for operators and users of digital platforms.
Besides that, some authors raise the awareness for making use of favourable changes of the tax law and especially thin capitalisation rules in some countries. Tony Nunes and Susan Ma (Kelly+Partners Chartered Accountants, Australia) recommend multinationals with operations in Australia to re-test their thin capitalisation limits using the proposed changes he explains. Carla Smith (Nolands Tax, South Africa) highlights why a new interpretation note on thin capitalisation and loans with associated enterprises in South Africa are positive and offers taxpayers directions.
Gary Williams (Rosenfeld Kant & Co., Australia) suggests making use of Australia’s tax incentives for the screen industry and Prof Robert Anthony (Anthony & Cie, France) explains why France is an attractive country to be tax resident and can now compete with places like Cyprus and Ireland. Sascha Wohlgemuth and Cédric Jenoure (Bratschi AG, Switzerland) comment on chances of the revision of the stock corporation law in Switzerland, like to express their nominal capital not only in Swiss francs but also in some other currencies.
When it comes to Double Taxation Treaties, Prof Roberto M. Cagnazzo (THREE & PARTNERS Accounting Tax Legal, Italy) explains the peculiarities of the double tax treaty between Italy and Germany and Valeria Khmelevskaya (KBK Accounting, Russian Federation) provides an update on Information Exchange and Application of Double Taxation Treaties.
Last but not least, Elisabeth Colson and Bill Smith (Devry Smith Frank LLP, Canada) provide an overview of Canada’s residential tax regimes, Wojciech Jaskuła (Penteris, Poland) explains legal and tax issues of Poland’s groundbreaking family foundation bill that will come into force in Poland this year, and Ingo Prang and Marcus Rösen (KPP Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH, Germany) offer an update on a never-ending story of “Final loss deduction in Germany” and explains the latest ECJ case law.
With this little introduction I hope you now know which articles to read first. It is needless to say that I would like to thank all authors for their contributions and GGI Head Office for their continuous support of our Practice Group and in preparing this newsletter. Special thanks goes to Prof Sergio Guerrero Rosa and his company (Guerrero y Santana, S.C., Mexico) for sponsoring this edition of the GGI FYI ITPG News. Sergio served many years as the Regional Chair for Latin America for the ITPG and has always been a very active member.
In case of questions, please feel free to contact the authors directly. Please note that besides the regular Autumn Edition of this newsletter, we will publish several special articles on Transfer Pricing Filing Obligations and look at them from various jurisdictions by experts in that field from their respective countries. We expect to cover approximately 15-20 countries and to provide a good overview for multinationals.
Enjoy reading!
Oliver BiernatResponsible Editor & Global Chair of the GGI ITPG
GGI member firmBenefitax GmbH Steuerberatungsgesellschaft WirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaftFrankfurt am Main, GermanyT: +49 69 256 227 60
Advisory, Auditing & Accounting, Corporate Finance, Fiduciary & Estate Planning, Tax
Benefitax GmbH is a tax consultancy and public auditing company located in Frankfurt, which is widely recognised as the financial centre of Germany. Benefitax predominantly serves German entities of foreign multinational groups, mid-sized German companies with cross-border activities and wealthy private individuals.
Oliver Biernat is Founder and Managing Partner of Benefitax. He is a German Chartered Accountant, Certified Tax Advisor and Specialist Advisor for International Taxation with more than 30 years of experience. Since 2008, he has chaired GGI’s International Taxation Practice Group (ITPG), increasing its size to more than 570 experts from 90 countries in the process. Contact Oliver.
