Brazil to open new tax regularisation programme

5 January 2017, the Brazilian government gazetted Provisional Measure No. 766/2017 to introduce a Tax Regularisation Programme (PTR) to incentivise individuals and companies to settle their federal tax liabilities. The PTR is an opportunity for companies and individuals to pay their tax or non-tax liabilities, due on or before 30 November 2016, or charged by…

Uruguay introduces disclosure for ultimate beneficial owners

1 January 2017, Uruguay’s Law on International Tax Transparency, the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing was brought into force. It was approved by parliament on 29 December. The Law requires certain resident and non-resident entities to disclose the identity of their ultimate beneficial owners – defined as an individual who, directly or indirectly,…

EU introduces automatic exchange for cross-border tax rulings

1 January 2017, new rules obliging EU Member States to automatically exchange information on all new cross-border tax rulings that they issue were brought into force. Exchange will be facilitated through a central depository that is accessible to all EU countries. Every six months national tax authorities will send a report to the depository, listing…

German cabinet adopts bill to combat tax avoidance

21 December 2016, the German cabinet adopted a bill to impose more stringent reporting obligations on German taxpayers with foreign financial interests and financial institutions managing foreign investment structures for their clients. If the bill is approved by parliament, the changes will be introduced on 1 January 2018. Under the proposals, taxpayers must disclose a…

Cayman Islands sets out CRS reporting duties for financial institutions

22 December 2016, the Cayman Islands government issued the Tax Information Authority (Amendment) Law 2016 (Commencement) Order and the Tax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (Common Reporting Standard) (Amendment) Regulations. This represents the second tranche of regulations “to ensure effective implementation” of the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which is the global standard for automatic…

Monaco ratifies Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters

14 December 2016, Monaco deposited its instrument of ratification for the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. By doing so, the OECD said, it had taken another important step in implementing the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters as well as automatic exchange of Country-by-Country Reports under the…