All countries in the EU and Switzerland, are part of the VAT legislation requirements. And many other countries around the world have similar VAT systems. According to Swiss legislation, foreign companies need to be registered for VAT, but some companies can be part of an exception in case of services that they provide.
Last year, Switzerland introduced a new law, the "blockchain law". The implementation of this law will follow two stages: the first which already occured on the 1st of February, and the other to eventuate in August. Invoked on the 1st of February were reforms on company law. In the second phase in August, the State will put into effect upgrades of the financial market infrastructure. These will allow Switzerland to have a properly managed cryptocurrency industry where all actors are fully informed of the opportunities & risks associated.
Recently, Switzerland adopted a new DLT Regulations which sets the country as a leader in FinTech, Blockchain, DLT Technologies and other related programs. The new regulations will enter into force starting from this year.
Recently Russian Federation and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg have signed protocol regarding the amendments in the double taxation rules. This Protocol was negotiated following a request from the Russian Federation due to a change in its conventional policy regarding withholding taxes on dividends and interest.
Recently The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA introduced a new regulation act under which is implementing the Financial Services Act FinSA and the Financial Institutions Act FinIA. Additionally, it is also issuing a new FINMA Financial Institutions Ordinance. They are supposed to enter into force on 1 January 2021.
In March 2020, Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, addressed the nation to announce the main measures being taken to tackle coronavirus. As part of that, Vladimir Putin instructed the government to quickly initiate negotiations with foreign jurisdictions to amend Russia’s current DTTs to set the minimum withholding tax rate on dividends and interest paid from Russia at 15%.
Switzerland is one of the hardest hit countries by the novel COVID-19. Being a popular tourist destination, the state was hugely exposed to this contagion through visitors from all over the world. Whether the government did a plausible job to protect its economy or not, is not so hard to see if you look closely.
The web-based survey and application platform EHP is now accessible to supervised institutions and their audit firms, as well as supervisory organisations. They can now leverage the platform to submit encrypted supervisory data and authorisation applications to FINMA online. The use of this website is free of charge.
From January 1, 2020. The Swiss Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) and the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA) entered into force, updating the regulatory regime for trustees working in Switzerland. This means that all independent portfolio managers (PMs) and trustees subject to supervision under FinIA will have to be supervised by a Supervised organisations (SO) authorised by FINMA and get licensed by FINMA before they can be able to carry out their activities as financial intermediaries in Switzerland.
The new year, 2020 has brought with it a raft of new laws and changes in Switzerland.
