The Russian tax landscape is going through a period of transformation. The average value of assessments as a result of tax audits is increasing and taxpayers are losing more disputes. Various changes to the tax laws have acted as a contributing factor. The introduction of the anti-abuse concept of “beneficial ownership” in domestic legislation, the development of tax residency and CFC rules, and the enactment of new thin capitalization rules are just a few of the recent changes that are already having an impact on taxpayers in Russia.

On January 1, 2018, a new taxation act will enter into force in Estonia – the Entrepreneurial Income Simplified Taxation Act (hereinafter the “Act”). From an IT point of view, the Act will create a new and innovative automatic mechanism for natural persons in the calculation and payment of taxes. The main concept of the Act is that natural persons can set up an entrepreneurial income bank account, where the taxation amount is calculated automatically and transferred to the Tax Authority without the natural person having to physically make or authorize any transfers. However, use of this new account may be limited in practice. 

Unfair trading is often referred to as the cause of crisis in various sectors, holding down small and medium enterprises. In practice, unfair trading is sometimes improperly confused with predatory pricing or distortion of competition. Unfair trading may also trigger serious tax implications.

In 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto published a white-paper outlining electronic cash peer-to-peer transactions known as Bitcoin, the first virtual currency based on a technology known as blockchain. Virtual currencies present a new digital asset class that is still in a grey area in terms of defining the actual asset. This creates difficulties and uncertainty in the area of taxation of profits arising from the owning, holding, or disposing of the given assets. 

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Almost four years ago, under pressure from its European partners and the IMF exercised by means of economic adjustment programs and loan agreements broadly known as “memoranda,” the Greek State adopted a new tax procedural code.