By Vulcan Consulting GERMANY   Merkel secures fourth term but difficult coalition awaits Last Sunday’s federal elections in Germany provided expected results as Chancellor Angela Merkel retained her position as leader of the largest party for a fourth straight term. However, the outcome left Ms. Merkel with an challenging parliamentary scenario as she negotiates to secure a working government majority.   The country’s two major parties, the conservative Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU-CSU) bloc to which the chancellor...

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By Dr Mansur Pour Rafsendjani, Partner, Noerr Munich | Noerr LLP On 12 September 2017 the European Parliament passed a resolution on the functioning of franchising in retail (2016/2244(INI)). In the resolution, the European Parliament takes the view that franchising regulation should be harmonised across Europe. Content of the European Parliament resolution The Parliament states that many Member States have enacted legislation, but that this is inconsistent and its focus has often been only on certain aspects, such as imposing disclosure obligations...

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By Andrew C. Collins | Managing Partner | Drew.Collinsbbgfx.com |513.386.8541 | Bannockburn Global Forex It was an eventful weekend in the world of politics with both Germany and New Zealand holding elections, British Prime Minister Theresa May outlining her latest Brexit implementation plan, and Japanese PM Abe hinting at holding snap elections later this year.  Let's briefly cover each. Angela Merkel won a fourth term in the German election but her party performed more poorly than expected, winning a declining share of seats.  Both the...

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By Vulcan Consulting EUROPEAN UNION Collection of EU states back new plan to tax digital giants Finance ministers from ten EU countries have signed a letter, pledging to throw their weight behind a new initiative to begin taxing the digital revenues of the major internet players such as Google, Amazon and Facebook. Triggered initially by France, the tax plan has gathered support from a significant cohort of additional EU states such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and several others. Such internet giants have...

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American Views New York State– FIBER OPTIC CABLE---IS IT REAL PROPERTY? The majority of jurisdictions the United States have some form of tax on what is known as tangible personal property. The definition of personal property for tax purposes in the US covers a broad range, including anything from motor vehicles and boats to items such as office computer and telephone systems, and even office carpeting and furniture. It is in those jurisdictions that do not levy a personal property tax that the greatest...

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By DS-Concept News DS-Concept, a global commercial finance company that specializes in international non-recourse factoring, has provided a $1.5 million export factoring facility to a seafood exporter and processor. The facility is structured in two currencies in order to service their markets in the UK and France. With this new facility in place, the client will benefit from accelerated cash flow and will be able to increase the amount of product processed at their factory for large scale orders and therefore...

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By Philip Nolan |Partner | +353 1 614 5078 | Mason Hayes & Curran In September 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR) overturned a January 2016 decision of its lower court regarding employee privacy in the workplace. The case, Barbulescu, concerned the monitoring of employee communications in the workplace and whether the monitoring was excessive in light of the employee’s expectation of privacy. The impact of this reversal could prove significant in the context of employers’ obligations to safeguard their employees’...

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By Vincent Wellens | Barbara Giroud | Anne-Sophie Morvan |Carmen Schellekens | NautaDutilh On 12 September 2017, a highly awaited bill implementing and complementing the EU General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR (Regulation No 2016/679) was submitted to the Luxembourg Parliament. Since the GDPR is a European regulation, its provisions will be directly applicable in Luxembourg as from 25 May 2018. However, the Member States have a number of options when it comes to implementing the GDPR. Luxembourg has made use...

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By Michael Molenaars | Jeroen Smits | Maarten de Bruin | Emile Bongers | Reinout de Boer | Robert Jean Kloprogge | Stibbe On 19 September it was budget day (Prinsjesdag) in the Netherlands on which the Dutch government announced several bills containing tax law proposals. In this Tax Alert we will provide you with a summary of the main proposals relevant for international businesses. Most attention will be given to the proposal regarding changes to the Dutch dividend withholding tax...

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By Caroline Tang  | Austin | caroline.tanogletree.com The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced, on September 18, 2017, that it has resumed premium processing for all H-1B visa petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2018 cap. USCIS had originally announced on March 3, 2017 that it would be suspending the premium processing program for all H-1B petitions received on April 3, 2017 or later, including all of the “cap-subject” H-1B petitions for FY 2018. This resumption of premium processing...

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