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Government Investigations in Singapore 2025
We have contributed the Singapore chapter of Getting the Deal Through, Government Investigations 2025.
Global | Publication | March 7, 2017
To support and improve the investment environment in Turkey, Parliament passed legislation reducing certain types of taxes and associated administrative costs for a variety of transactions. The omnibus legislation, Law No. 6728 on “Amending Certain Laws for the Improvement of the Investment Environment in Turkey” (Yatırım Ortamının İyileştirilmesi Amacıyla Bazı Kanunlarda Değişiklik Yapılmasına Dair Kanun) (the “Omnibus Law”), came into force on August 9, 2016. The Omnibus Law amended various aspects of other legislation in relation to stamp tax, charges, transfer pricing, bank checks, corporations and deferral of bankruptcy. Below is a summary of some of the most important amendments that are expected to have a positive impact on the business and investment environment in Turkey.
The Omnibus Law aims to lighten the financial burden imposed upon parties to a transaction by extending the list of documents exempt from stamp tax and by giving authority to the Council of Ministers to decrease the proportional stamp tax rates.
Similar amendments were made to the Law on Charges, which regulates different categories of charges including judicial charges, notary charges and title deed charges. Certain export and foreign exchange generating transactions, as well as PPP projects now also benefit from an exemption from such charges.
Transfer pricing rules are outlined under the Corporate Tax Law and have been in effect in Turkey since 2007. The Omnibus Law made changes to existing legislation and brought it in line with generally accepted international transfer pricing practices.
The Omnibus Law, by amending the Check Law No. 5941 and Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, introduces a secure check barcode mechanism, increases sanctions against issuers of dishonored checks and expands the oversight obligations of banks.
Amendments to the Commercial Code aim to loosen the formal requirements for the incorporation or conversion of companies thus reducing associated costs.
The Omnibus Law amends the rules applicable to the “deferral of bankruptcy” in the wake of an increased abuse of the process. Companies facing bankruptcy may request a deferral of bankruptcy proceedings by presenting a recovery plan to a commercial court. After granting the deferral, the court would suspend the enforcement and execution of the company’s debts for an initial period of one year and appoint a guardian (kayyım) to oversee the management of the company. The Omnibus Law amends the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law to restrict recourse in this measure as follows:
[1] There are two types of stamp tax: fixed amount stamp tax and proportional amount stamp tax. If the relevant document includes a monetary value, the stamp tax is levied as a percentage of such value, ranging from 0.189 percent to 0.948 percent (proportional amount stamp tax). If the relevant document does not include a monetary value or is a certain type of document, a fixed amount stamp tax applies (which is generally not a significant amount).
[2] The Stamp Tax Law provides for a capped amount, over which no stamp tax may be collected. The capped amount for 2016 was 1,797,117 Turkish Lira (approximately US$501,000) and is 1,865,947 Turkish Lira (approximately US$521,000) for 2017.
Publication
We have contributed the Singapore chapter of Getting the Deal Through, Government Investigations 2025.
Publication
The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
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The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation, commonly referred to as the AI Act, is expected to come into force during the summer of 2024 (the AI Act). The AI Act will be the first comprehensive legal framework for the use and development of artificial intelligence (AI), and is intended to ensure that AI systems developed and used in the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly.
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