South Africa has issued a guide on the value-added tax rate increase to 15 percent from 14 percent due to take effect from April 1, 2018.

COVID-19 will lead to fundamental, and possibly, permanent behavioural changes in the way people shop, consume media and how they regard the brands they do business with, said Prabhu Ram of CMR

Engineers have done preliminary work and talked to smartphone operating system makers Apple Inc and Google about possibly adopting technology the companies plan to release jointly this month to make tracing easier

Under complete lockdown less than a quarter of India's $2.8 trillion economy is functional. We are expected to lose over Rs 32,000 crore ($4.5 billion) every day during the lockdown

Companies' success in the next 18 months won't be determined by their growth or profitability, but merely by their ability to survive and not run out of cash

According to figures declared by the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), pharmaceutical exports registered a growth of 11.21 percent during the first quarter of FY20

Sri Lanka signed its first ever comprehensive free trade agreement on January 23, with Singapore.

On July 5, 2019, Singapore's tax agency released a draft guide that includes proposals for more favorable GST rules for virtual currencies.

The crisis served as a wake-up call for banks whose digital operations were growing at a snail's pace. They have started embracing the change

Coronavirus news: Fears ran amok that Franklin Templeton closing its six debt mutual fund schemes may trigger outflows from debt mutual funds. However, net outflows were only seen in credit risk and medium duration categories

On January 15, 2020, three tax bills were made law to give effect to measures announced in South Africa's 2019 Budget.

New Zealand's Inland Revenue has announced that those who buy and sell property will be required to provide their IRD number on land transfer documentation, to improve the agency's ability to enforce the tax rules on property speculation.

The OECD on September 2, 2019, announced that Ecuador and Serbia have ratified the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

UC Davis researchers have designed a plug-in interface which will usher in the new generation of compact medical devices. "We think there is a huge

Highlights: World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on 21st March every year Creates awareness about this genetic

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Three-quarters of Europeans want the European Union to do more to tackle tax evasion, according to a new survey by Eurobarometer.

Hong Kong on February 2, 2018, ratified an Ordinance to enable the territory to soon join the OECD's Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and thereby more simply and more broadly agree to exchange tax information with other countries' tax authorities.

Three years on from the commitments made at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, the overwhelming majority of governments have not taken the necessary action to contain growing risks to the climate, says the OECD. It said, with emissions on the rise again, OECD governments need to get serious about shifting their economies to a low-carbon model and stop investing in carbon-intensive infrastructure.

The OECD recently released the seventh round of stage one peer review reports, assessing eight jurisdictions' efforts to implement the BEPS Action 14 minimum standard on tax dispute resolution.

Combination of cannabidiol (CBD) and bacitracin (BAC) can help in the treatment of infections with antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive bacteria. The findings

New study has shed light on how an important front-line ethambutol drug kills the tuberculosis bacterium. The study has been conducted by University of Birmingham scientists.

The Korean Government has announced that the 2019 Tax Revision Bill was enacted on January 6, 2020, with a number of new measures added to the existing proposals.

The OECD is to host a webcast on February 13, 2020, to present its analysis of the potential impact of its proposals for international tax reform to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy.

The European Council has approved new rules for the exchange of VAT payment data relating to cross-border e-commerce transactions.

The European Union value-added tax gap – the overall difference between expected VAT revenue and actual EU member state collections – was EUR152bn in 2015, says the European Commission, highlighting the need for further reforms to tackle avoidance, error, and evasion.

The OECD on August 13, 2019, released follow-up reports for Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States on their efforts to implement BEPS recommendations on dispute resolution.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has presented a final proposal for a European Union financial transactions tax to the 10 member states participating in the initiative.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has said he is confident that an agreement can be reached on a European Union financial transactions tax.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has said that Austria does not agree with new German proposals for a European financial transactions tax.

On February 19, 2020, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz issued a statement to say that he remains "committed" to the introduction of a financial transactions tax at European Union level along the same lines as that proposed by the German Government last month, despite opposition from within the EU, notably from Austria.

On March 24, 2020, the Belgian tax authority announced value-added tax will not be levied on medical equipment donated to hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Hong Kong on February 2, 2018, ratified an Ordinance to enable the territory to soon join the OECD's Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and thereby more simply and more broadly agree to exchange tax information with other countries' tax authorities.

The OECD recently released the seventh round of stage one peer review reports, assessing eight jurisdictions' efforts to implement the BEPS Action 14 minimum standard on tax dispute resolution.

The Swiss Federal Council has launched a consultation on proposals to close what it says is a loophole in the withholding tax system, in a bid to strengthen the country's debt market.

The UAE's Federal Tax Authority has issued guidance on whether a supplier or consumer is liable for VAT on goods or services for contracts negotiated before VAT was introduced.

The OECD is seeking taxpayers' input on the mutual agreement procedure frameworks in place in the fourth batch of countries that will now be peer reviewed under the base erosion and profit shifting project: Australia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, and Portugal.

In an e-brief issued on December 12, 2017, the Irish tax agency announced that maximum withholding tax rates on cross-border passive income have been lowered under the Ireland-Chile double tax agreement.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, has announced a task force will be set up to consider ways to mitigate the negative impact of the planned 2019 consumption tax rise.

Highlights: Bacteria living in household dust particles have been detected These are capable of transmitting

Highlights: A common intestinal bacterium has been identified that secretes a carcinogen The carcinogen produ

Highlights : Coronavirus cases have crossed over 50,000 in India, despite being under strict lockdown Social distanc

The OECD on August 13, 2019, released follow-up reports for Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States on their efforts to implement BEPS recommendations on dispute resolution.

New Zealand has enacted The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill to support businesses and individuals cope with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Swiss Federal Council has launched a consultation on proposals to close what it says is a loophole in the withholding tax system, in a bid to strengthen the country's debt market.

The OECD has recently launched a new program – the International Compliance Assurance Programme – being spearhead by the Forum on Tax Administration that is aimed at providing assurance to multinationals with regards to their transfer pricing affairs.

The European Commission is taking Spain to the Court of Justice over the imposition of "disproportionate" sanctions for failure to report assets held abroad.

The United States Senate has approved protocols to four existing bilateral double tax avoidance treaties that have been pending in the chamber for as much as a decade.

Australia is to require businesses seeking to tender for significant federal government procurement contracts to demonstrate their record of tax compliance.

Seychelles' new Immovable Property Tax Act, 2019, was enacted on December 27, 2019.