• January 3, 2025
• Stephanos Ayiomamitis

On December 12, 2024, the Cyprus Parliament approved the domestic bill entitled The Global Minimum Tax Assurance for Multinational Enterprise Groups and Large-Scale Domestic Groups in the Union Act of 2024. This law transposes the EU Council Directive 2022/2523 of December 14, 2022, establishing a framework for imposing a minimum effective tax rate of 15% on multinational enterprises (MNEs) and large-scale domestic groups with annual consolidated revenues exceeding €750 million. Known as the EU Pillar Two Directive or the GloBE (Global anti-Base Erosion) Directive, this legislative measure (the “Pillar 2 Directive”) aims to curb profit-shifting practices and ensure fairer taxation.

The law will come into force for fiscal years starting on or after December 31, 2023, marking a crucial step in Cyprus’s adherence to international tax reforms.

• November 6, 2024
• Polina Polycarpou

The last few years have been tough for the UK economy, which has faced unprecedented shocks from the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, an energy price spike driven by the war in Ukraine, and globally high inflation.

Consequently, the UK government has announced a series of measures including the abolition of the non-dom regime from 6 April 2025. The current rules for the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals will come to an end. As a result, the concept of domicile as a relevant connecting factor in the UK tax system will be replaced by a system based on tax residence.

• February 19, 2025
• Stephanos Ayiomamitis

In a recent case before the Supreme Court of Cyprus, the complexities and potential risks of property transactions were brought to light. The Supreme Court rejected an application by an affected property buyer seeking permission to file legal questions before it. The buyer’s claims stemmed from the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the District Court’s ruling that the Land Registry has no obligation to inform a buyer, upon the filing of a sale contract, about prior sale contracts that may already exist for the property in question.

• January 8, 2025
• Lefteris Eleftheriou

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a global information gathering and reporting mechanism developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), and requires the automatic exchange of financial accounts information between tax authorities of the participating country members. The CRS aims to combat tax evasion and promote transparency on an international scale. The Republic of Cyprus is a participating member of the CRS since 2014.

The Law on Administrative Cooperation in the Field of Taxation (Law 205(I) of 2012) Article 22C and the Law on the Assessment and Collection of Taxes (No. 4/1978) Article 27, as amended, empower the Tax Commissioner to request and obtain information from individuals or entities in order to verify compliance with tax reporting obligations.

This year, Forbes reported a rise in legal pre-paid hours in the U.S., and the trend is slowly catching up in Europe too. Here in Malta, we offer our ‘legal toolkit’ to customers who want to pre-pay for our legal and corporate services to set up a new company or to maintain their existing one. But what exactly are pre-paid legal hours, and why would your business need them?