In the summer of 2013, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released an action plan called „Base Erosion and Tax Shifting (BEPS)„, which aimed to reduce the tendency of multinational corporations to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions. The plan outlined the legislative changes to be introduced in three directions: international direct taxation consistency, […]
Food is a significant part of popular culture around the world, and beliefs, trends and practices define and change our eating habits. This type of popular culture is determined by ideas, habits, politics and objects created by a society, including all systems in the middle of which the human being lives and changes, such as […]
To begin with, articles are probably the most difficult thing about the German language. As in many related Indo-European languages, nouns in German have grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. But it is widely known that German isn’t the easiest language. Nouns always begin with a capital letter in German, and they are preceded by […]
This month our linguistic quest tackles expressions in different languages that contain demonyms, specifically names of peoples or nations, like Chinese whispers (‘inaccurately transmitted gossip’) in English, parler français comme une vache espagnole (‘to speak French very poorly’, literally ‘to speak French like a Spanish cow’) in French, or chave inglesa (‘adjustable spanner’, literally ‘English key’) in Portuguese. Such idioms may […]
As of 1 January 2015, all EU Member States are introducing VAT changes. The new rules mainly concern the supply of electronic, telecommunication and broadcasting services made by non-EU suppliers to private individuals and non-business consumers that shall be taxable in the Member State of the consumer or in the Member State where the services […]
End of the road for reduced rates for e-books? The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given judgment in the infraction proceedings brought by the European Commission against France and Luxembourg and has ruled that the supply of an e-book (a book delivered electronically) is a supply of an electronic service and […]
Tax Transparency through information exchange is one of the most important and key items on the agenda nowadays. The Multilateral Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange of information, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection, while simultaneously protecting taxpayers’ rights. […]
HSBC threatened with a Tax investigation by the US Government? The threat of U.S. prosecution looms over HSBC Holdings PLC like the sword of Damocles after a groundbreaking report revealed that it helped clients hide cash from various tax authorities. These reports cast HSBC, HSBC’s Holding’s parent bank, in an unsavory light and is the […]
Seychelles Islands 85 signatory to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters became. The signing of the Convention represents another important step in the efforts of Seychelles to improve its legal framework and practices in the field of exchange of information for tax purposes. The Convention provides for all forms of […]
If you were curious, it is not dogs who are multilingual, but us. Perhaps the most important sense of humans, hearing, is vital for us to understand and communicate with the world around us. Therefore, in order to describe sounds surrounding us, we make use of onomatopoeic words. According to the Oxford Dictionaries, onomatopoeia is […]
