October 15, 2019
The Austrian tax court has recently opined on the question of dividend payments from Austria to an intermediate EU holding company which has no substance (while its EU parent does). Generally in Austria dividends paid out by Austrian corporations trigger a 27.5% withholding tax. Nevertheless, pursuant to the EU Parent/Subsidiary Directive applied in Austria, outbound dividends are totally exempt from withholding tax if the parent company fulfils the criteria as set out in the Directive and holds at least 10%…
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September 20, 2019
On 12 September 2019, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice held that Hungary’s advertisement tax legislation based on which Google was fined HUF 1 billion (approx. EUR 3 million) constitutes an unjustifiable restriction on the freedom to provide services. Hungary’s advertisement tax was introduced in 2014 as a special tax on the turnover from the broadcasting or publication of advertisements. Individuals or entities that broadcast or publish advertisements may – irrespective of their residence – be subject…
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August 1, 2019
On 31 July 2019, Bulgaria’s parliament adopted new transfer pricing rules in line with recommendations of the OECD. The new rules set out obligations for Bulgarian companies, Bulgarian permanent establishments of non-resident foreign companies and locally registered sole trades to maintain mandatory transfer pricing documentation evidencing the arm’s length basis of their transactions with related parties. Exemptions exist, and are relevant to the following taxpayer categories: Persons exempt from Bulgarian corporate income tax (certain collective investment schemes, national investment funds…
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March 30, 2019
Recently, the Czech government submitted to parliament a bill implementing DAC 6 on the mandatory disclosure of cross-border tax arrangements. The bill underwent several changes in comparison with the initial draft published in March 2019. DAC 6 – the EU Council Directive 2011/16 on cross border tax arrangements – is being implement by the Czech Republic via domestic legislation no later than 31 December 2019, and will start to apply as of1 July 2020. The government has drafted a bill…
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January 20, 2019
Hungary has recently amended its labour code in order to increase permissible overtime levels. On an annual basis, permissible overtime has increased from 250 hours per year to 400 hours per year. Such overtime overrides any collective labour agreements in place. The new legislation leaves the 48 hours/week work limit unchanged but raises the overtime banking period to 3 years from 1 year. In practice, it will be possible for an employer to pay the employee for overtimes in one…
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January 20, 2019
On 1 January 2019, Albania’s Income Tax Act was amended with respect to imposition of new rules on the indirect transfer of ownership of assets situated in Albania. The new rules deal with the taxation of gains arising from such indirect asset transfers. An indirect transfer occurs when an Albanian company owning assets in Albania decides to sell said assets to a third party, but such third party merely purchases the shares/quota in the Albanian company holding the assets or…
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