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Following public consultation on the draft bill earlier in the year, the final version of the 2017 Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB) is now before Parliament.

The Minister of Finance (MoF) enacted MoF Regulation No. 165/PMK.03/2017 on November 20 2017, concerning the second amendment to MoF Regulation No. 118/PMK.03/2016 regarding the implementation of Law No. 11 of 2006 concerning the tax amnesty (MoF Regulation 165). The MoF Regulation 165 provides amnesty for those who did not participate in the tax amnesty programme and those who participated but have not reported all of their assets.

The Maltese notional interest deduction rules (the rules) were published on October 5 2017, further to an announcement made in the previous 2017 budget. Traditionally, debt financing in Malta has been regarded as more efficient from a tax perspective due to the deductibility against chargeable income of finance costs incurred by companies upon the granting of loans. The main objective of the rules is to approximate the manner in which cost of equity and cost of debt are treated from a tax perspective. The rules provide certain undertakings with the possibility of deducting interest they are deemed to have incurred on equity.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a decision on October 4 2017 that clarifies the VAT treatment of certain automobile leasing agreements.

From January 1 2018, research and development (R&D) expenses may be deducted twice for tax purposes in Poland.

The Montenegro Parliament, on its 26th convocation on October 11 2017, adopted the Law ratifying the agreement signed between Montenegro and Republic of Portugal on the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion.

Georgia is becoming an increasingly popular jurisdiction for doing business both domestically and internationally. The attractive factors include the country's top ranks in international ratings on ease of starting and maintaining a business, as well as the fact that Georgia has proven itself to be a corruption-free destination. Additionally, due to a number of benefits – such as the absence of currency control rules, the free inflow and outflow of foreign capital, the comparatively low cost of services, as well as the stability of banking system – Georgia constitutes an attractive non-EU hub for structuring an international business. Of further importance is the fact that a foreign investor may enjoy all respective benefits of doing business in or via Georgia without the necessity to stay or come to Georgia. Worth noting is also that Georgia has not yet committed to the global automatic exchange of financial account information and common reporting standard.

Technology companies may feel targeted by the UK's budget, which introduced measures that will hit companies including Amazon, eBay, Google, Facebook and Twitter, but there were also some sweeteners to encourage post-Brexit economic prosperity.

The EU maintains that the blacklist is an opportunity to develop a dialogue with uncooperative jurisdictions to facilitate change. Let's see if that happens The EU Council has listed 17 jurisdictions as non-cooperative for tax purposes in its latest blacklist, and also released a grey list of 47 countries, but it has played it safe by excluding known tax havens.

The changes are expected to improve the state of affairs for taxpayers and tax professionals The French government has released a second corrective finance bill for 2017, which contains new provisions for cross-border mergers in response to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in March 2017 and complementing Emmanuel Macron's pro-business agenda.