Today, the Digital Services Tax Act (“the new tax”) was published in Spain’s Official State Gazette and it will enter into force on 16 January 2021. Under this law, digital services for online advertising, online intermediation and data transfers will be subject to taxation in Spain as of 2021.
Royal Decrees 901/2020 and 902/2020, both dated 13 October and published in the Spanish State Gazette (“BOE”) on 14 October, are basically aimed at the regulatory implementation of the new provisions on equality plans, transparency and equal pay contained in Royal Decree Law 6/2019, dated 1 March, on urgent measures to ensure equal treatment and opportunities for women and men in employment and occupation. These two decrees complement each other.
The new regulations are a product of the agreement reached by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, the Ministry of Equality and the most representative national trade unions, “Comisiones Obreras” and “Unión General de Trabajadores”.
The impending end, on 30 September, of temporary redundancy schemes (ERTEs) based on COVID-19 force majeure as well as the support measures for these schemes prompted the government to pass, in extremis, Royal Decree Law 30/2020, of 29 September, on social measures to protect employment, pursuant to which a range of measures are adopted to ensure that existing ERTEs are extended and new ones approved if circumstances justify them. The regulation is based on Social Agreement to Protect Employment III, which was reached by the government, trade unions and companies. It will enter into force on 30 September 2020.
The last 10 to 15 years has seen a significant increase in criminal enforcement against companies, and an increase in co-operation between states when investigating and prosecuting corporate crime. As a result, multi-jurisdictional companies (and their employees) are at greater risk than ever of becoming involved in a criminal investigation, whether as a suspect or a witness. It is therefore important that companies and their employees are aware of the process that will be followed if they are required to provide evidence as part of a criminal investigation, and how best to prepare for that process.
As COVID-19 rapidly spreads to every corner of the globe and is officially declared a pandemic, governments across the world are adopting emergency measures to fight against this extraordinary situation. Ultimately, all these measures are aimed at protecting the health and wellbeing of citizens. However, on the healthcare and life sciences front in particular, such measures range from intervention powers to guarantee adequate supplies of treatment and medical equipment, to the relaxation of deadlines and regulatory requirements to simplify administrative procedures wherever possible, so that competent authorities, manufacturers and other actors can focus on urgent priorities related to the COVID-19 crisis.
Royal Decree Law 21/2020, dated 9 June, on urgent prevention, containment and coordination measures to deal with the health crisis caused by COVID-19, included several prevention measures aimed at ensuring the public’s right to life and health during the health crisis.
Baker McKenzie’s EMEA Tax Practice Group presented an overview on “Wealth Management” on 7 July 2020, the fourth in a series of short webinars to keep tax professionals abreast of recent developments in these less than certain times.
Recently, the Spanish Supreme Court published judgments where it analyzed if the amount of the turnover attributable to certain financial transactions should be included in the pro rata denominator as not incidental.
In addition, the Directorate of Taxes issued a ruling that analyzes the VAT consequences of the rent write-off made by the lessor during the COVID-19 pandemic and a ruling that analyzes the VAT treatment of the services rendered by a social network considering that the consideration received is the user’s data.
In light of the global pandemic, governments across the globe are faced with urgent needs whose immediate coverage is a matter of life and death. Hence, these unusual and uncertain times call for rare and exceptional measures, and without much ado, governments around the globe have provided them. Common to all approaches is the will to enable public contractors to procure the urgently needed supplies to save lives and contain the pandemic without major bureaucratic hurdles.
Baker McKenzie’s EMEA Tax Practice Group presented an overview on “Digital Tax”, the third in a series of short webinars to keep tax professionals abreast of recent developments in these less than certain times on 23 June 2020.