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UK presses ahead with digital services tax At a time when the priority for the UK government (after dealing with COVID-19, obviously) should be securing a good trade deal with the US, it appears a risky negotiation tactic to introduce a digital services tax (DST) to which the US has made its...
Withholding tax on cross-border payments The Parent Subsidiary Directive (PSD) and the Interest and Royalties Directive (IRD) provide an EU law route for relieving withholding tax on certain cross-border payments.  How might this change in the future – and what has changed already? Payments from...
Digital technologies take top spot in EU patent applications in 2019 The European Patent Office (EPO) has recently published its Patent Index 2019 which analyses patent filing trends in 2019.  Tech patent owners will be interested to know that digital technologies, especially 5G and AI, were the most prevalent fields for...
What should you do to combat the new COVID-19 cyber risk? Organisations grappling with a variety of issues raised by the coronavirus should ensure that ‘increased cyber risk’ is on the list of new risks to manage. In response, the UK’s national cyber security centre (the NCSC)  published guidance yesterday which...
UPC update - clarification of UK non involvement sought from new IP Minister We recently reported that the UK is no longer intending to participate in the EU’s Unified Patent Court (UPC) and Unitary Patent (UP) system, due to the irreconcilable differences between the UK and EU as to the role of the Court of Justice of the EU...
Foreign investment funds inching closer to Dutch dividend withholding tax refunds The Dutch Supreme Court’s assessment whether the shareholder and distribution requirements for fiscal investment institutions (FII) in the Netherlands are compatible with EU law is keenly awaited, following the guidance given by the ECJ in Case C-156/17...
Staff secondments are subject to VAT According to the ECJ, Articles 2(1)(c) and 24(1) of the Principal VAT Directive preclude national legislation that exempts staff secondments from VAT: if a direct link exists between the secondment and the payment made to the secondee’s employer, then,...
The Bank of England is considering Cash 2.0 On 12 March the Bank of England published a discussion paper exploring the possibility of it issuing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the future. The paper initiates a dialogue with a range of stakeholders as to whether the benefits of doing so...
Auditing your AI - what does the ICO expect you to do? The ICO has been focused for some time on developing an AI auditing framework and, on 19 February 2020, it published its draft ‘Guidance on the AI auditing framework’ for consultation. The guidance proposes several tools that organisations can use to...
Digital taskforce is go! The implications of the Budget 2020 for competition law The new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, gave his first Budget Statement yesterday.  The Budget specifically recognises that "competition is essential to drive innovation, produce better outcomes for consumers and allow new entrants to the market to grow".   Most...
Budget 2020: an eye on innovation Understandably, dealing with the economic impact of Covid–19 dominated Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first Budget. But the UK government hasn’t taken its eye off the future. A number of measures – increased R&D investment and tax credits, and the abolition of...
Getting it done: the UK's March 2020 Budget Whilst the Budget was dominated by the announcement of a multi-billion pound economic stimulus to deal with the economic impact of Covid-19, a whole range of other spending and tax measures (some with immediate effect and others subject to consultation)...
Spain proposes a financial transaction tax on listed equities As discussions on an EU financial transaction tax (FTT) have so far failed to yield results, Spain is looking to introduce an FTT along the same lines as France and Italy. If the relevant bill published by the Spanish Parliament on 28 February 2020 (Bill)...
No Unified Patent Court or Unitary Patent system for UK - will the entire project now be abandoned? Tech-related patents have long been a key business asset in the US, and (despite issues around patenting computer programs) are becoming increasingly important in the EU and UK as more businesses enhance their digital capabilities. Businesses with patent...
Spanish digital services tax: another interim measure without a sunset clause The Spanish government has started the legislative process for approving a 3% digital services tax (DST): the Spanish Parliament published the DST bill on 28 February 2020. If it is approved, the DST could apply from the second quarter of 2020, with...