In a welcome move, the European Union has notified the United Kingdom that all EU countries will apply the 'detached worker' exception to UK employees who are temporarily seconded to work in the European Union. Similarly, the United Kingdom will apply the detached worker exception for EU employees who are temporarily seconded to work in the United Kingdom. This article reviews the latest position.
Introduction
On 1 January 2021 a number of tax law amendments introduced by Federal Law 374-FZ of 23 November 2020 entered into force. Among these amendments was the introduction of a rule concerning the taxation of transactions involving the transfer and acquisition of property rights to the Tax Code. Now, the law directly states that property rights, along with other property, are exempt from taxation. At present, according to Article 251(1)(11) of the Tax Code, where one company directly or indirectly participates in the charter capital of the other and the participating interest is at least 50%, a property rights transfer between the companies is exempt from corporate income tax.
Introduction
Across the globe, more companies are looking into ways to strengthen their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) profile as investors realise that a strong ESG profile is the key to safeguarding a company s long-term profit and growth.
Besides pressure from investors, the importance of sustainability has also been driven by public debate and consumers using spending power to signal their priorities.
With the topic of sustainability moving up the global political agenda (eg, achieving the sustainability goals set out in the EU Green Deal has become one of the European Commission s top priorities) and eco-credentials becoming an important feature of companies products, there is an increasing need for competition policy to respond.
Extension of 10% threshold for listed companies until end of 2021
On 28 December 2020 a decree extended until 31 December 2021 (instead of 30 December 2020) the decreased threshold of 10% applying to shareholdings acquisitions of listed companies made by non-EU and non-EEA investors in French sensitive sectors (for further details please see Private M&A transactions: tightening state control over foreign investment due to COVID-19 pandemic ).
Photonis/Teledyne
In mid-December 2020 the government vetoed a foreign investment project for the first time by rejecting the takeover of Photonis by US company Teledyne. Photonis is a French company specialised in, among other things, the manufacturing of night vision products used in the aeronautics and defence sectors. Photonis also uses advanced technology in the nuclear sector. The government s decision aims to protect France s strategic interests in the domain of defence. The government is hoping for alternate solutions which could co
Wong v The Commissioner of Police & Anor,
(1) the High Court released a party from an implied undertaking not to use documents for a collateral purpose. In this case, the documents in question had been provided by the second respondent (the respondent) to the police in support of its criminal complaint against the applicant. Copies of the documents were passed by the police to the applicant during their investigation. While the implied undertaking generally arises in the context of documents that a party is compelled to disclose to another as a result of discovery in a civil action, it can have a wider application to (for example) documents obtained by a party during a criminal investigation. The applicant wished to use the documents in support of her defence to civil proceedings commenced by the respondent. On an exceptional basis and good cause having been shown, the court allowed the applicant s application to be released from the implied undertaking. The case serves as a useful