Tax and Legal blog
Stay up to date with the latest tax and legal issues and developments that may affect you and your business.
Swiss Immigration Update Simplification of Process for Non-EU/EFTA Nationals
At the beginning of 2022 a series of measures were announced by the Swiss Federal Council to optimise the admission of qualified specialists from third countries (Non-EU/EFTA). The aim of these potential changes was to simplify the immigration process for certain groups of individuals and thus strengthen the Swiss economy. Now the Swiss government has published the new directives outlining more details about these changes, which are coming into effect immediately.
Higher attention to Country-by-Country Reporting going forward
Recent developments, such as the acceleration of the public Country-by-Country Reporting (“CbCR”) obligations by Romania, as well the newly published guidance regarding Pillar II safe harbour rules, have put increasing pressure and scrutiny on Multinational Enterprises’ (“MNEs”) CbCR obligations and will directly affect companies’ tax compliance obligations.
Join our OECD Pillar II webinar on 15 February 2023, 4.00pm
The implementation of the Global Minimum Tax (“OECD Pillar II”) experienced a significant push towards reality in late December 2022, which included:
- The European Union adopting the directive requiring members to transpose it into domestic legislation
- Switzerland completing the parliamentary process on its change of constitution
- The OECD`s publishing a number of papers to guide the GloBE implementation (in particular: safe harbours, information return and tax certainty)
To navigate these developments we are organising a keynote webinar on Wednesday 15, February 2023 from 4.00 to 5.30pm to discuss these and other topics.
South Korea: First Country to pass the domestic Global Minimum Tax legislation
On 23 December 2022, the Korean National Assembly officially passed the 2022 Tax Revision Bill originally announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance back in July 2022.
This is a pivotal moment in the advancement of the global minimum tax “Pillar Two” as South Korea is the first country to codify the GloBE Rules into domestic legislation. The newly passed law provides that a global minimum tax will be introduced from fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2024.
Swiss Immigration Law Work Permits for Refugees, Asylum Seekers and S permit holders
The global competition for highly skilled workers has become crucial to companies’ efforts to stay competitive in the market. Hiring refugees or asylum seekers with the right skillset and relevant work experience offers a unique opportunity for employers to tap into a key talent pool while also supporting this community.
New cross-border worker agreements between Switzerland and France: a win-win situation?
Switzerland and France have reached agreements for the daily cross-border population as well as for the weekly commuters: As of 1 January 2023, French residents working for Swiss employers can work up to 40 % of their time in France without impact on the current rules on personal income taxation between the 2 countries.
Swiss Immigration Update: Review of the year 2022 and preview of upcoming changes in 2023
As we approach the end of 2022, we would like to summarise the past few months but also look ahead into the new year and elaborate on changes that are expected from a Swiss immigration perspective.
OECD Pillar Two: Information return and safe harbors published
On 20 December 2022, the OECD published an implementation package in respect of the implementation of the Pillar Two global minimum tax rules (“Pillar Two”). The package includes: guidance on safe harbors; a public consultation document on the GloBE information return (“information return”); and a public consultation document on tax certainty.
This follows the statement on the components of global tax reform, agreed by more than 135 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (“OECD inclusive framework”) in October 2021, and the publication by the OECD inclusive framework of model rules for Pillar Two in December 2021 and commentary in March 2022.
EU to adopt its “Pillar II” Directive and a clear road to implementation
Looming over taxpayers for most of 2022, the EU-Directive to adopt the global minimum tax in member states has received consent from both Hungary and Poland according to a press release of the EU-Council on 12 December 2022. The formal adoption to finalize the project one year after publication of the initial proposal is expected to take place on 14 December 2022. The EU-Directive expects member states to transpose the directive into domestic law by 31 December 2023. The adoption ends a year-long political back and forth in the EU council and greenlights one of Europe’s most significant overhaul of tax determination of multinational enterprises (“MNE Groups”).
OECD Pillar One – Amount B transfer pricing distribution return
On 8 December 2022, the OECD published a consultation document on the main design elements of ‘Pillar One – Amount B’, outlining a new process for pricing baseline distribution activities in accordance with the arm’s length principle.
Proposed changes to the Qualified Intermediary agreement introduce burdensome requirements to collect US TINs
This blog is the second of a two-part series and discusses the due diligence challenge linked to a Qualified Intermediary (QI) holding Publicly Traded Partnership (PTP) interests in custody for non-US investors as of 1 January 2023 when the new PTP withholding regulations come into force: the collection of non-US investors’ US TINs for purposes of §1446(a) and §1446(f).
You can access here our first blog in this series which addressed QI difficulties in complying with electronic reporting obligations via FIRE due to new US TIN requirements introduced for identity verification purposes.