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Dieter Endres In a case brought by the European Commission (EC) (C-284/09 Commission v. Germany, judgment of October 20 2011), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that Germany’s withholding tax on dividends to other corporations is in breach of community law in that it discourages persons from abroad from investing in Germany.

Janne Juusela In October 2011, major Finnish trade unions and employers’ organisations agreed on the conditions of a new framework agreement. To support the tendencies of both parties, the Finnish government made suggestions regarding amendments in corporate and individual taxation. The intention of the government was both to support the competitiveness of the Finnish industry and to improve employment and purchasing power. The suggestions were made in addition to the recent government’s Bill relating to the budget for 2012, suggesting several changes in different tax areas.

Francisca Middleton Benjamín Barros Foreign investors will be pleased to know that, as a consequence of recently published Law No. 20,544, the Chilean capital market has, for the first time, a formally regulated regime for derivative instruments, enforceable for instruments traded from January 1 2012.

The scope and application of the New Zealand general anti-avoidance provision has become very topical recently after a number of wins for the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department. Kirsty Keating and Mark Loveday, of Ernst & Young, explain how recent cases show how non-arm’s-length transacting can form the basis for invoking tax avoidance provisions in New Zealand.

Following the enactment of the second French Finance Amendment Act on September 21 2011, Nicolas Message of FTPA analyses the increase in real estate taxation in the country.

Dan Ciupala The Romanian law has not yet adopted the concept of trust as it is used in the common law jurisdictions. However, the recent overhaul of the Romanian Civil Code has included certain steps in that direction, even though the result is not quite the institution of trust in its common law meaning. Accordingly, the new Civil Code has extensively developed the concept of fiducia, which allows any individual or legal entity (the settler), to place real rights, receivables, securities or a collection of such assets, under the management of a third party (the trustee) to the benefit of one or several beneficiaries.

Atle Melø Since 2007, the Norwegian Fiscal Act has provided statutory authority to exit tax towards individual taxpayers on latent gains from the sale of financial instruments (shares). When in excess of NOK500,000 ($86,000) the whole latent net gain is taxable upon the taxpayer’s domestic and/or tax treaty emigration.

Sead Dado Salkovic Considering the existing status of the Montenegrin economy, with regards to unbalanced income and expenditure in the state budget, the Central Bank of Montenegro suggested that the existing VAT rate should be increased. Luckily, additional increases of any taxes, including the VAT, will not be implemented, according to the statements of government officials.

Recently, the Minister of Finance, Economy and Investment, implemented laws which provide for the granting of special tax status to individuals who meet a number of conditions.

Elena Kostovska The Parliament of FYR Macedonia picked up the speed of its law passing in September, ratifying a number of amended tax laws. Accordingly the VAT Law has been amended and its changes published in the Official Gazette on October 3 2011, entering into force on October 11.