June 03, 2020 | On June 3, 2020, Congress passed the PPP Flexibility Act to loosen requirements for loan forgiveness for CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) borrowers. The new forgiveness rules will allow borrowers to extend the period for spending the loan proceeds to 24 weeks from the date of disbursement, an increase from the eight-week period originally required. The PPP program will be extended from June 30, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020. The loan application cutoff date, however, remains...

June 05, 2020 | With the EU’s economy slowly reopening after months of hibernation, and the European Commission’s Next Generation EU stimulus package still several months away, the European Central Bank, on Thursday significantly stepped up its €750 billion pandemic bond-buying program. The ECB’s Governing Council’s decision to step up the institution’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) by an additional €600 billion comes as eurozone economies begin to reopen, but the European Commission’s proposed Recovery Fund faces an uphill political battle in the...

June 04, 2020 | • The Federal Reserve Board and U.S. Department of the Treasury released documentation and instructions for borrowers and lenders in advance of the opening of the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP), which is designed to provide up to $600 billion in loans for small and midsize businesses, including the documentation for the Main Street New Loan Facility (MSNLF), Main Street Expanded Loan Facility (MSELF) and Main Street Priority Loan Facility (MSPLF). • The documentation and instructions provide...

June 04, 2020 | Courts in the Netherlands have been asked to consider whether the COVID-19 pandemic justifies walking away from a deal. So far, the courts have upheld the terms of the transaction. In other words, it's business as usual. This newsflash discusses two recent decisions. Private equity firm ordered to sign share purchase agreement In one of the first COVID-19-related cases, the Amsterdam District Court ordered a private equity firm (the buyer) to proceed with the signing of a share...

June 04, 2020 | Currency Current Rate Overnight Change EUR 1.12 - 0.55% GBP 1.25 + 0.08% CHF 0.95 - 0.42% CAD 1.35 - 0.19% JPY 108 + 0.17% MXN 22.5 + 0.34% Overview  The U.S. dollar spent most of the evening enjoying relative calm after falling for five consecutive days.  However, the greenback is back under selling pressure in early trading as European Central Bank actions improved market sentiment and reduced demand for safe-havens.  It is Thursday which means it is jobless claims day.  Initial claims fell to 1.88M last week from over 2M a week prior.  While the trend shows that...

June 03, 2020 | On May 28, 2020, President Trump signed an "Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship" directed to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. §230(c)). Section 230 has long afforded protections to interactive computer services against litigation over their hosting and moderation of online content. In hundreds of cases since the law was passed in 1996, courts have held that Section 230 immunizes online services from claims based upon their hosting of third-party content, and...

This Tax Alert will address two Dutch international tax policy proposals as included in letters that the Dutch State Secretary of Finance recently sent to the Dutch parliament on 29 May 2020. We note that the proposals are still subject to parliamentary discussion and that at this moment in time, no legal text is available. 1. Proposal to introduce dividend withholding tax in relation to low tax jurisdictions as per 2024 The first letter dated 29 May 2020 contains an announcement...

May 27, 2020 | The conundrum is harnessing the power of technology while not becoming a slave to it,” David Heron, Chief Medical Officer at British Petroleum says. “We should be helping people to take a break from their workstation rather than facilitating them spending more time on the laptop.” The experience of working from home has brought a combination of remarkable achievements and fundamental questions. Zoom and WebEx as well as the timely arrival of Microsoft Teams provided a very efficient way...