Europe is currently hit by a heat wave with life-threatening temperatures. It has been raging across the Mediterranean and much of Western Europe, with Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and the UK, seeing extended droughts, devastating forest fires, and public infrastructure damaged. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre warned this week that 46% of the EU’s territory is at high risk of drought, with rivers lacking water and an alert level of 11%. In Belgium, public transport has been limited as it is feared that the heat could cause the rails to expand so much that, in the...

Read more

Government regulation in the U.S. and elsewhere is expected to actively influence the development of digital asset products and markets over the next decade. As the digital assets industry and consumers await regulatory clarity, recent events have exacerbated longstanding concerns about the potential use of cryptocurrency to facilitate illicit activities and sanctions evasion. Despite the recent market contraction in digital assets, industry market cap still stands at around $1 trillion, up from $14 billion from five years ago.1, 2, 3...

Read more

Amesto Global has a proven track record of assisting clients with their market entry and ongoing operations to ensure that our clients are in full compliance with Irish local laws and regulations. Our hands-on approach is fully embedded in our day-to-day practice and service delivery. As a licensed service provider in Ireland, we can manage and control all accounting, finance, HR administrative and company secretarial aspects of a company’s operations and effectively act as an extension of the head-office. We...

Read more

Tax filing – and penalties – for foreign accounts may soon be the subject of a major legal decision. The U.S. Supreme Court plans this fall to hear Bittner v. U.S. This case presents a conflict over statutes under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The question is whether a “violation” under the BSA is the failure to file an annual FBAR no matter the number of foreign accounts or whether there is a separate violation for each account that isn’t...

Read more

The EU and the UK are developing significant changes to their regulatory frameworks to reflect the growing importance of the cryptoasset sector in Europe. We discuss a major EU development—the proposed Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCA)—immediately below and significant UK regulatory initiatives in the following section. MiCA On June 30, 2022 the Parliament and Council of the EU reached provisional political agreement in relation to MiCA. MiCA aims to introduce a harmonized legal framework for certain cryptoassets and cryptoasset market participants...

Read more

The EIB’s new Transport Lending Policy comes after a public consultation involving over 3 500 individuals and organisations. The new policy sets out the EIB’s priorities for supporting the transport sector, in line with the EIB Group Climate Bank Roadmap. Priorities include more investment in public transport; shared and active transport; clean vehicles; alternative fuel infrastructure; intelligent transport systems; inter and multimodal transport; safe system approach to road safety; resilience of transport infrastructure; completion of networks in all...

Read more

In February 2022, Executive Order 14024 highlighted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened not only Ukraine but also the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Pursuant to this executive order, and in the face of national security concerns, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has instituted extensive sanctions, including both economic and trade sanctions. Also, in response to the national security concerns, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a...

Read more

The EACC, in partnership with the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), wants to keep its members up to date with the latest developments in property taxes in the USA and Europe. IPTI has put together below a selection of articles from IPTI Xtracts; more articles can be found on its website (www.ipti.org). United States New York: The dubious value of ‘value capture’ financing Gov. Hochul’s Penn Station Area Civic and Land Use Improvement Project is speeding toward a vote this summer. But...

Read more

The European Commission next week will publish an EU-wide emergency plan to reduce gas use this winter. The initiative comes in light of the Russia’s significantly reduced gas deliveries, as well as the increasing likelihood that Gazprom will not restore deliveries after the planned maintenance period of the Nord-Stream 1 pipeline.  Among others, the plan to reduce gas usage includes recommendations for limit heating in public buildings and offices to only 19°C and cooling to 25°C, as well as measures...

Read more