The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced the launch of the electronic trading platform (ETP) for Exchange Fund Bills and Notes (EFBNs), which commences operation on 11 December 2007. The ETP is designed to enhance price transparency among the market players, and streamlines the trading process. With the launch of the ETP, market players can identify their trade counterparties and conclude deals more efficiently. The ETP is designed to be flexible enough to allow it to be set up according to the specific requirements of individual market players.
An unlikely alliance between several Cyprus opposition parties may see the Government defeated over the possibility of a new tax amnesty. Leading opposition parties DISY and AKEL will combine with others to force through the measure, which would relieve unpaid pre-2002 arrears from interest and other penalties.The President would then have 15 days to send the Bill back to Parliament. If it is then sent back unchanged to the President, he has to accept it. The attorney-general and the President have both said they are opposed to the Bill, which they claim is unconstitutional.
Asian Stocks Rise on U.S. Financing Plan; Toyota Leads Advance
Asian stocks rose, set for a second weekly gain, after the U.S. government announced plans to limit defaults on subprime mortgages and commodity prices climbed. Toyota Motor Corp., which gets about a third of its sales from North America, and Honda Motor Co. led exporters higher on speculation a U.S. proposal to freeze interest rates on some home loans will ease a housing slump and boost consumer spending in the world's biggest economy. PetroChina Co. and Mitsui & Co. gained after oil and copper prices advanced.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) won passage in Thursday night of legislation that would protect 19 million American families from being hit by the alternative minimum tax (AMT) this year. The Baucus amendment allows credits, and increases the exemptions taxpayers can claim to avoid paying the AMT in 2007, which will prevent the tax, dubbed a “stealth tax” by many lawmakers, from applying to those who didn’t pay it last year. The amendment, which does not include offsets for the cost of AMT relief this year, passed after a House bill containing offsets failed to win sufficient votes, and after numerous minority objections before and after the Thanksgiving recess to requests for various votes on the AMT.
Ecofin Reaches Landmark VAT Agreement
The European Council of Finance Ministers (Ecofin) has reached a landmark political agreement on two draft directives and a draft regulation aimed at changing the rules on value-added taxation intended to ensure that VAT on services accrues to the country where consumption occurs, and to prevent distortions of competition between member states operating different VAT rates. The agreement ends a five-year deadlock on the sweeping changes to the community's VAT laws, but the reverse charging of VAT on the purchases of goods and services electronically will not begin until 2015, with a revenue sharing agreement phased in over the subsequent three years. This has appeased Luxembourg, which had used its veto to block the proposed reforms.
China Agrees To End Tax Breaks For Manufacturers
After extended pressure from US trade officials, China has agreed to end a string of tax breaks which are, according to the US, giving Chinese manufacturers an unfair advantage over their rivals. According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the disputed subsidies, which mainly related to exports, gave "an unfair competitive advantage to Chinese products" whilst "denying US manufacturers the chance to compete fairly with them in the United States and in third country markets".
The US Treasury Department has this week sent to Congress a Congressionally mandated report on three international tax issues. The "Report to the Congress on Earnings Stripping, Transfer Pricing and US Income Tax Treaties" describes current issues regarding US earnings stripping rules, transfer pricing rules, and the 'misuse' of income tax treaties to which the United States is a party.
Hong Kong Retail Sales May Have Climbed 15.8% on Wages, Tourism
Hong Kong's retail sales growth in October may have maintained the fastest pace in three years on low unemployment, rising wages, stock-market gains and increased spending by tourists. Sales by value climbed 15.8 percent from a year earlier, matching the previous month's gain, according to the median estimate of 8 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The report is due at 4:15 p.m. today.
