Allen TAN
Head of the Tax, Trade and Wealth Management practice in Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow
Auteurs
Articles de l'auteur
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- Revue FI 2-2024 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie -Challenge of the foreign residence (c.d. Esterovestizione) - Indirect taxes - Registration fee - The Supreme Court of Cassation clarified that the challenge and reassessment of a company's foreign residence, based on the connecting criteria of Article 73, paragraph 3, of the Italian Income Tax Act (TUIR), also unfolds its effects for registration tax purposes. Also, the Court stated that bare presumptions can apply for assessing the Italian residence of a foreign registered entity. It is then for the lower courts to assess the merit of the case, possibly relying on such presumptions as well.
Corte di Cassazione, sez. V, sentenza n. 3386 del 6 febbraio 2024
Singapour - Tax Updates - Singapore Budget 2024 seeks to provide a roadmap for Singapore's way forward in light of the uncertain global geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. Singapore has affirmed its plan to implement the Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and domestic top-up tax (DTT) under Pillar 2 of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) 2.0 initiative from 2025, in view of similar steps taken by major jurisdictions and those in the region. The announcement of related measures, including the introduction of a new Refundable Investment Credit (RIC) scheme and new tiers for various concessionary tax rate incentives, also appears to be strategically timed to soften the impact for businesses. Other tax measures, including enhanced support for businesses and support for the asset and wealth management industry, were also announced.
Singapore Budget 2024, 16 February 2024
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- Revue FI 2-2023 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie -VAT on Barter Transactions - Social Media Platforms -According to recent news, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Milan opened an investigation on Meta Platform Inc. (Facebook's parent company, which also controls some of the world's most famous social platforms) for an alleged evasion of VAT. More specifically, the challenge claims that the transaction between free access to an IT platform and the user's voluntary release of personal data qualifies as a barter and is therefore relevant for VAT purposes pursuant to Article 11 of Italian Presidential Decree No. 633/1972.
Singapour - Budget 2023 - Budget 2023 focuses on building a more resilient and innovative Singapore. As the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, the nation now contends with inflationary pressures in the midst of global uncertainty. Budget 2023 seeks to provide support to businesses and households to weather the challenges ahead while ensuring that Singapore continues to uphold fiscal prudence. Importantly, the government has announced its intention to implement the OECD Pillar 2 measures from 2025 and confirmed that it will implement a domestic top-up tax which will top up multinational enterprise groups' effective tax rate in Singapore to 15%. To remain competitive, Singapore will retain and extend its major tax incentives. Changes have also been made to buyer's stamp duty rates, which are consistent with enhancing the fairness and resilience of Singapore's tax system.
Singapore's FY Budget 2023, 14 févr. 2023
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- Revue FI 2-2022 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie -Reporting Duties for Foreign Assets - Section RW of the Italian Tax Return -The CJEU issued on January 27th 2022 a decision on the compatibility of the Spanish reporting duties with EU law. Its findings in the said case directly affect the Italian rules on the matter, given that many of the issues that the EU judges stressed out are present in the Italian regulation as well.
CJUE, 27 janv. 2022, C-788/19, Commission c/ Espagne (FI 2-2022, n° 9, § 8)
Singapour - Budget 2022 - The Ministry of Finance is exploring the introduction of a minimum effective tax rate of 15% for multinational enterprise (MNE) groups with annual revenues of at least EUR 750 million. The GST rate increase will not take place in 2022 and will remain at 7% for the remainder of the year. Instead, the increase will be staggered over a two-year period and implemented in two steps, taking effect on 1 January 2023 (from 7% to 8%) and on 1 January 2024 (from 8% to 9%). The carbon tax rate will be progressively increased from 2024 onwards, with a view to reaching SGD 50 to SGD 80 per tonne by 2030. To support businesses, a transition framework will be introduced to provide companies with allowances for a share of their emissions. There have been extensions and enhancements to various tax schemes, including the Approved Royalties Incentive scheme, the Approved Foreign Loan scheme and the withholding tax exemption for the financial sector. Some schemes have also been allowed to lapse, such as the tax incentive scheme for infrastructure trustee-managers/fund management companies. Adjustments will be made to the personal income tax rates and property tax rates for residential properties. The top marginal personal income tax rate will be increased with effect from Year of Assessment (YA) 2024, with two additional tax brackets introduced for chargeable income in excess of SGD 500.000 and SGD 1 million. Additionally, property tax rates for residential property will generally be increased across the board, with significantly greater increments for non-owner-occupied residential property and owner-occupied residential property with higher annual values.
https://www.mof.gov.sg/singaporebudget
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- Revue FI 4-2021 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie - Avoir fiscal - France-Italy Tax Treaty - Cross-border dividends taxation - Avoidance of Economic Double Taxation - The Italian Supreme Court applied the ECJ's principles on the avoidance of economic double taxation confirming the combined application of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive with the provisions of Tax Treaties on the avoidance of double taxation.
Corte di Cassazione, ord. del 15 settembre 2021, n. 24874
Singapour - Transfer pricing rules - Guidance on and clarification - The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) updated its transfer pricing (TP) guidelines, with the release of the IRAS e-Tax Guide: Transfer Pricing Guidelines (Sixth Edition) ("Revised TPG"). In line with Singapore's approach to be aligned with international standards, the changes are generally consistent with the OECD's "Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations" published on 10 July 2017 ("OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines"). IRAS has provided additional guidance and clarification with respect to TP documentation (TPD) compliance, surcharges on TP adjustments, advanced pricing arrangements (APA) and mutual agreement procedure (MAP) requests.
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), 6th edition Transfer Pricing Guidelines, 10 August 2021
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- Revue FI 2-2021 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie -Transfer pricing - Below market conditions - The Italian Supreme Court ruled that although commercial reasons are relevant in determining the correct value of a transaction in a transfer pricing analysis, they cannot be used to justify an extended violation of the arm's length principle.
Corte di Cassazione sent. 21 gennaio 2021, n. 1232
Singapour - IRAS's transfer pricing guidance for headquarters - Given its strategic location and business-friendly environment, many multinational enterprise (MNE) groups have centralized operations in Singapore, and they often function as the global / regional headquarters (HQ) of the MNEs. With increasing focus on such global / regional HQ and the associated transfer pricing arrangements (both domestically and overseas), the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) published an e-tax guide entitled “Transfer Pricing Guidelines Special Topic - Centralized Activities in Multinational Enterprise Groups” (Guide) on 19 March 2021 to provide administrative guidance on determining an arm's length remuneration for centralized activities in Singapore. We highlight below the key guidance provided by IRAS.
Transfer Pricing Guidelines Special Topic - Centralized Activities in Multinational Enterprise Groups, 19 mars 2021
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- Revue FI 3-2020 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie - Registration Tax - Form over substance approach - The Italian Constitutional Court recognized that the Registration Tax must only be levied based on the nature and juridical effects of the document submitted for registration, irrespective of extra-textual elements or other related deeds.
Corte Costituzionale, sent. 21 luglio 2020, no. 158
Singapour - Tax updates - Amendments to the Singapore tax incentives regime have come into force. The Ministry of Finance has also proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act, Stamp Duties Act and Goods and Services Act, most of which are intended to give legislative effect to the tax measures introduced in the Budget 2020 and the three supplementary budgets. Recent tax decisions are also interesting.
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- Revue FI 2-2020 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierVAT Principle of Territoriality - Integrated Logistics Services - The Italian Tax Agency clarifies VAT duties in relation to the logistics services offered by a major fashion company towards a non-EU subject when immovable property is concerned.
Risposta all'interpello 96 del 27 marzo 2020
Singapour - Budget 2020 - Tax Updates - The first quarter of 2020 has seen the spread of COVID-19 globally. Within seven weeks of delivering Budget 2020, the Singapore government announced two supplementary budgets termed the “Resilience Budget” and the “Solidarity Budget" respectively, to deal with the immediate economic impact of the pandemic. This update covers the main tax measures announced in these three budgets.
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- Revue FI 1-2020 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierEmployment and self-employment income - Cross-border issues - The Italian Tax Agency offered two legal opinions to clarify some issues related to the taxation of employment and self-employment income.
Agenzia delle Entrate, Risposta agli interpelli 512 dell'11 dicembre 2019 e 521 del 13 dicembre 2019
VAT charged on fictitious transactions - Contrast with the case law of the ECJ - The Italian Supreme Court seems to have disregarded ECJ's VAT case law in a recent decision involving fictitious transactions.
Corte di Cassazione, sez. VI, ordinanza del 22 ottobre 2019, n. 26983
Singapour - GST - Multilateral Instrument- Tax agreements - Goods and services tax (GST) on imported services came into force on 1 January 2020. Amendments made by the MLI to Singapore's DTAs with Canada, Ukraine and Denmark have also taken effect. Singapore signed new or updated tax agreements.
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- Revue FI 4-2019 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierItalie - Anti-Abuse Rule - Generational transition of ownership - Leveraged cash out of the first generation of shareholders - Reverse merger of the purchasing entity set up by the second generation of shareholders into the cash rich target company - Payment of the price by the target company - Tax arbitrage between the redemption of the shares (tax rate 26%) and their sale after optional step up in basis (11% tax rate) - The Tax Agency criticize rationale of a generational transition of the ownership of a company and consider it as abusive specifically because of the arbitrage between the 26 and the 11 per cent taxation, once the funds to be used to finance the buy-out were coming from the target company itself (and the parties were not completely independent). On one hand, the same result of the reorganization could be achieved through the redemption of the shares owned by the first generation; on the other, the multi-step transaction only aimed at the tax advantage pursued by the selling shareholders/first generation.
Agenzia delle Entrate, Risposta n. 341 del 23 agosto 2019
Singapour - Tax Updates - Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) published advance rulings on specific arrangements or transactions concerning GST, and proposed changes to GST treatment for digital payment tokens. The Multilateral instrument enters into force for Singapore. Singapore has also signed five tax agreements in recent months. Legislative changes are proposed for introducing the tax framework for variable capital companies. IRAS published a new guideline on Transfer Pricing for Commodity Marketing and Trading Activities. The meaning of “control" on transfer of qualifying assets between related parties has been precised.
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- Revue FI 2-2019 Fiscalités étrangères
- 11
Chronique d’actualité
Déplier/ReplierEU-Switzerland Agreement - Exemption from the dividend withholding tax - The Italian Tax Agency addresses Switzerland's tax regime on holdings in relation to the exemption from withholding tax on dividends provided by the tax treaty between the EU and Switzerland of October 26th 2004. In so doing, it also mentions that a dividend exemption in the parent company's State of residence does not preclude to the application of the withholding exemption.
Agenzia delle Entrate, risposta all'interpello n. 57 del 15 febbraio 2019
Tobin tax - Corporate restructuring plan - The Tobin tax does not apply when the transfer of shares is made within a corporate restructuring plan.
Risoluzione dell'Agenzia delle Entrate del 29 marzo 2019, n. 38/E
Singapour -Restructuring of diesel tax - From 18 February 2019, the excise duty on diesel fuel has been increased from $0.10 per litre to $0.20 per litre. The annual special taxes on diesel cars and taxis have been permanently reduced by $100 and $850 respectively. To mitigate the impact of the increase in diesel duty, three-year road tax rebates are provided for commercial diesel vehicles. Diesel school buses, eligible diesel private hire and excursion buses are eligible to receive cash grants.
