Palladium Newsletter - April 2011

Dear Clients,

We hope that you have all had an enjoyable Easter season and are looking forward to the Royal Wedding this coming Friday wherever you are working.

Welcome to our April newsletter in which we focus on some diverse issues: how Palladium may expedite VAT registrations for offshore companies, inter alia, acting as UK landlords; that Palladium UK is a registered legalisation (apostille) agent in London; and that New Zealand is now a safe harbour for EU’s information purposes, further strengthening its position in the IFC world.

Read on to find out more... For clients with offshore companies which need to elect to VAT, principally as they register under the UK’s non-resident landlord scheme for UK commercial property, obtaining VAT numbers through HMRC in Aberdeen can be troublesome to say the least. In fact, it is widely acknowledged that the last government specifically requested that VAT applications for offshore companies, usually BVI, Isle of Man or Channel Islands companies, be subject to some significant scrutiny and subsequent delay. No doubt many of you will empathise with the stress and inconvenience this can cause clients - and their service providers. Sometimes it seems rather perverse to be treated so poorly by HMRC Aberdeen: after all, its government’s rules specifically encourage non-resident landlords to invest in UK property at preferential rates of UK income taxation (usually 20% less expenses). Our solution will provide clients with a VAT number within three days rather than the many months applying via Aberdeen. For more information on the non-resident landlord scheme as well as on expedited VAT registrations for offshore entities, we are at your disposal.

For our UK based clients, especially those located in London, our status as official legalisation agents in London means that we procure legalisations from the British and Foreign Commonwealth Office in a matter of hours. This should help make cross-border completions run that much more smoothly and we are proud to be able to offer this service to our client base. We are pleased to announce our increased legal and notarial capability from our Berkeley Square office. As an overview, a notary will prepare, attest, authenticate and certify deeds and other documents, and acts as an impartial and legally trained witness to authenticate and certify the execution of documents. This is often required when dealing with international matters. This is an exciting development for us.

The European Union’s Article 29 Working Party is preparing to approve New Zealand as a 'safe' country for personal data exports from data controllers located in the European Union.

Currently, EU law prevents the transfer of personal data to locations outside of the European Economic Area unless certain safeguards are put in place, or where the data protection law in the country of the importer has been approved as 'adequate'. If approved at the Working Party's meeting in Brussels this week, New Zealand will be added to the current list of eight countries and territories: Argentina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey and Switzerland.

Please visit us at www.palladiumtrustservices.net or contact me directly at stephen@palladiumtrustservices.net if you would like more information on what Palladium can do for you.

Until next month,

Stephen

Malta tries to lure hedgies with even lower personal tax rate:
http://www.tax-news.com/news/Malta_Enacts_Incentives_For_Expat_Financial_Services_Professionals____49006.html

Non-residents limited to 10 days work in the UK:
http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2039224/-residents-days-uk

Compliance laws to become less rigid and disproportionate in the UK?:
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/newsandevents/news/view=newsarticle.law?NEWSID=435328

London the heart of global finance – and corruption?:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/the-captial-of-corruption/story-e6frg9zo-1226034500929

Prince Wills to sign a pre-nup?:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_britain_royal_wedding_prenuptial

London still leads the way as the world’s most desirable city to live in – with New York:
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-04-07/citi-knight-frank-wealth-report-cities?mod=mostread-home

Guidelines on avoiding UK tax residency following new clarifications from HMRC:
http://www.ion.icaew.com/TaxFaculty/22023

Largest ever fine for offshore skulduggery for Korean firm:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2011/04/123_84996.html

As ever, Mauritius under pressure for India DTT:
http://theindependent.mu/2011/04/26/island-tops-investor%E2%80%99s-list-in-india