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Samantha Merle

Gerry Thornton

Ayesha Lau

Donka Pechilkova Proposals for amendments of the effective Local Taxes and Fees Act in Bulgaria have been published by the Bulgarian Ministry. One of the purposes of the amendments is to harmonise the Act with the existing Law on Energy Efficiency, more specifically in the part of the release from payment of local taxes and fees, tax on buildings, for the owners of buildings that cover requirements for energy effective buildings. The amendments also aim to harmonise the Bulgarian legislation with the existing European legislation by applying tax reliefs for owners of vehicles that are with low standards of noxious gas and tax reliefs for religious properties. To this date there is a contradiction between the effective Local Taxes and Fees Act and Law on Energy Efficiency. On one hand, the Law on Energy Efficiency decrees that certificates for power supply Class B, C and D for buildings could be re-issued if certain requirements are met. On the other hand, the above mentioned important text is not included in the Local Taxes and Fees Act, which is a serious obstacle for applying the tax relief in practice. The amendments make explicit provisions that the relief could be applicable only for a period not exceeding 10 years after the execution of the reconstructions of the buildings that lead to the possession of the certificate.

Tiago Cassiano Neves In a moment where the key policy objective of Portugal is moving towards a successful exit of the adjustment programme, changes to tax rules may also play a role in providing positive signs for foreign investors. Despite the much-awaited corporate tax reform is still to be approved (at the time of writing), a separate piece of legislation dealing with taxation of public and private debt securities was in the meantime published and merits a closer look. Portugal has historically favoured source-based taxation on passive income coupled with stringent documentation requirements to claim tax treaty rates or exemptions. Taxation of cross-border interest income is a good example whereby Portugal applies a 25%/28% domestic withholding tax rate (35% for payments to blacklisted jurisdictions) with non-residents having only the possibility to access either reduced rates under the tax treaties (between 10% and 15%) or selected number of exemptions to reduce impact of withholding tax.

Daniel Harrison In an effort to modernise the country's tax administration, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) is planning to implement an electronic tax collection system early next year; a test of the system was set to begin in October (2013), commencing with motor vehicles. Considered a priority project of the MoF, the Lao Electronic Tax System (LETS) is in part a response to Laos' recent ascension to the World Trade Organisation and in anticipation of the ASEAN Economic Community's (AEC) commencement in 2015.

David Farrugia

A ruling from the Madras High Court in India, in a case involving Verizon Communications Singapore, could have far-reaching implications after the court confirmed that payments made by Indian customers to Verizon for providing bandwidth/telecom services is taxable as royalty income both under Indian Tax Law and under the India-Singapore tax treaty.

Donato Raponi, head of the European Commission’s VAT Unit, discusses the new VAT rules applying from 2015 to telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services and the publication of Commission guidelines on the practical functioning of the mini one-stop shop.

See who has done the tax work on this month’s biggest deals.