Legal 500 Ranking for CA Advocates for 2021
Our law firm has successfully been ranked by the Legal 500 for the fifth year in a row, under the category EMEA, Cyprus: Commercial, Corporate and M&A.
We are also proud that both our directors Celia Pourgoura and Alexia Aspri have been included for the first time in the list of Leading Individuals!
For more information please visit our website at www.ca-advocates.com.
Commencement of the Register of UBOs – 2nd Update
Within the framework of transposing into national legislation the 5th AML EU Directive (EE2018/843, 30th May 2018) which relates to the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism, the House of Parliament, has on the 18th of February 2021, adopted the Amendment of the Prevention and Combat of Legalizing Proceeds from Illegal Activities Amendment Law 2021.
The new objects of the law harmonize and strengthen the already implemented framework for preventing and combating the legalizing of proceeds from illegal activities and the financing of terrorism, as one of its main provisions relates to the creation and maintenance of a Beneficial Owners Registry of companies and other legal entities by the Registrar of Companies.
The commencement of collection of information has already started as of the 16/3/2021 and the following steps will need to be followed:
- Create an email that will be used for the registration of a company in the Government gateway portal ARIADNI. Each company must have a separate email.
- The next step is to register a company in ARIADNI using the created email at the following link: https://cge.cyprus.gov.cy/cyloginregistration/register/organization-registration. Upon the successful registration, each company obtains an account number.
- Following that, each account needs to be authenticated in designated authorized centers ( i.e. District Post Office or Citizen Service Center) as requested.
- Following the authentication of the account the entity is able to submit the required data online (in ARIADNI) and complete the registration of UBO.
Our law firm is happy to undertake the reporting on behalf of our clients, and more information on the application of the directive, any exemptions and the extent of required information to be submitted will be provided upon consultation.
Source: Registrar of Companies
DAC 6 – 2nd Update
As tax-planning structures have been evolving to be particularly sophisticated, tax authorities often experience considerable reductions in their tax revenues due to the direction of profits to lower tax jurisdictions. For this reason, it was decided that the EU Member States’ tax authorities need a way to obtain comprehensive and relevant information about potentially aggressive tax arrangements so as to be able to act in time to prevent unjustifiable loss of taxes from their tax payers.
For this reason, on the 13th of March 2018, the EU Member States reached a political agreement on the tax intermediaries’ directive (“the Directive”). The Directive was formally adopted by the EU Council as amendment to Council Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field on taxation. The Directive, commonly known as “DAC6”, provides for the mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation with respect to reportable cross-border arrangements.
DAC6 was transposed into the national legislation of Cyprus on the 31st of December 2019, however as a result of the COVID 19 consequences, an extension on the reporting deadlines was published by the EU.
Based on the Directive, intermediaries have the primary obligation to report arrangements to the tax authorities in the country in which they are resident, which will automatically share such information with the Tax Authorities of all other EU Members on a quarterly basis. If there are no intermediaries involved in the transaction who would be burdened with the reporting obligation, the taxpayers will have to proceed with the reporting.
On 31 March 2021 the Cyprus DAC6 Law (the “Law”) was published in the Government Gazette.
The extended submission deadline for filing information on reportable cross-border arrangements under the Cyprus DAC6 legislation is 30th of June 2021. It applies to the following cases:
- Reportable cross-border arrangements carried out between 25 June 2018 and 30 June 2020, that had to be reported by 28 February 2021.
- Reportable cross-border arrangements carried out between 1 July 2020 and 31 December 2020, that had to be reported by 31 January 2021.
- Reportable cross-border arrangements carried out between 1 January 2021 and 31 May 2021 and which had to be reported within 30 days from the day that have been made available for implementation, or they were ready for implementation, or the first step towards the implementation has been made (whichever took place first).
- Reportable cross-border arrangements for which secondary intermediaries have provided assistance, aid or advice between 1 January 2021 and 31 May 2021, that had to be reported within 30 days following the next day where such assistance, aid or advice was provided.
Source: www.mof.gov.cy
Cyprus: an emerging tech companies’ headquartering hub
While Cyprus is strategically located at the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Africa and Asia, it is a modern EU member-state, offering an ideal prospect to international businesses that choose to relocate on the island.
There is a wide range of reasons justifying the claim that Cyprus is one of the top headquartering jurisdictions and some of these are wide access to markets, strong economic growth, a pro-business environment, tech-savvy talent, low operating costs, and a number of incentives, including a competitive IP regime and special immigration framework.
For more information please visit our website at www.ca-advocates.com.
Fast Track Procedure for obtaining a Permanent Residence Permit
In pursuance of the provisions of Regulation 6(2) of the Aliens and Immigration Regulations, Third Country Nationals may apply for a fast-track permanent residency permit in cases where the following conditions are satisfied:
- A deposit in a Cyprus Bank account of at least €30.000, to be kept in a fixed deposit for a period of at least three years. It is necessary to provide adequate proof that the origin of the funds are from overseas.
- There must be available a secured annual income of at least €30.000, with the addition of at least €5.000 for every dependent child or spouse and of at least €8.000 for every dependent parent or parent-in-law.
- The applicant must purchase real estate, of total market value of at least €300.000+applicable VAT, the purchase price of which must be paid into a Cyprus bank account.
The holders of this type of permits are not allowed to perform any professional or business activities in Cyprus and also, they are obliged to visit Cyprus at least once every two (2) years.
Legal5oo Magazine EMEA Elite
We are proud to have Legal500 Magazine EMEA Elite, interviewing our directors Alexia Aspri and Celia Pourgoura, with a feature in the Fivehundred Elite digital microsite, an online publication, which offers one elite firm in each country, the opportunity to update the Legal500 audience on developments in their respective regions.
Please feel free to visit the link below for the full interview content:
https://www.legal500.com/fivehundred-magazine/emea-elite/interview-with-vasiliki-pourgoura-and-alexandra-aspri-pourgoura-aspri-llc/
International Wealth Portal.
We would like to inform you that the portal Offshorewealth.info has moved to a new domain: InternationalWealth.info, being evidently more neutral and reflecting better the essence of the activities of the portal.
The main reason behind the decision to move to a new domain is the fact that for many years the portal has been hosting articles not only related to services offered from classic offshore jurisdictions. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of new articles on the portal are about non-standard solutions in onshore and midshore jurisdictions.
For more successful cooperation with banks and partners, we chose a new domain name – InternationalWealth.info, which reflects the essence of our business.
Currently, the main topics that the articles cover on the portal are: immigration services (issuing of residence permits, permanent residence, citizenship and residence permits through investment in real estate) and corporate services (company registration and opening of bank accounts in onshore and midshore zones).
The portal is developing in the direction of respectable, effective cooperation and more than ever we are interested in replenishing sections for each country on the portal with new relevant articles.
