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Brussels - The 20th International School on Indirect Taxation has extended its registration deadline until the 22nd of September. The conference will be held in Brussels, Belgium from 30 September to 4 October 2019 and is organised by the VAT Forum, an international partnership of indirect tax specialists. It will be addressed by an array of renowned European VAT experts, including Chelco VAT Ltd Managing Director, Alexis Tsielepis, who will deliver a full-day seminar on the reasoning of the EU VAT Directive as well as a series of workshops. Other seminar topics include VAT considerations in Distributed Ledger Technology, the new VAT rules for taxation of trade between Member states 2020 and an in-depth analysis of selected ECJ cases. Workshops will deal with such issues as electronic invoicing, drop shipments, supply with installation, proof of B2B supply of services, holding companies and VAT, invoices showing undue VAT, transfer pricing, logistics services, recharging expenses, the new VAT rules on vouchers and much more. The School is designed for people who already have experience in international VAT and have sufficient knowledge of their national VAT system. Its aim is to provide a forum for people who are responsible for international VAT within a company or group of companies. At the event, participants can meet and talk to VAT experts from different European countries and other people responsible for VAT in major companies. For more information and to take advantage of the registration extension, you may download the event’s brochure here.

Limassol – Managing Director of Chelco VAT, Alexis Tsielepis talks to Greek-language IN Business News media about his business and personal life, the economy, the first advice he ever gave his dad, his alarm clock, his favourite book and work-life balance… or lack of. Alexis talked to the online news site as part of a series of interviews with selected local entrepreneurs that belong to the millennial generation. https://inbusinessnews.reporter.com.cy/millennial_entrepreneurs/article/220283/a-tsielepis-to-work-life-balance-einai-thema-epilogs

Nicosia - July 2019 registered the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus for the specific month. Tourist arrivals reached 550,971 in July 2019 compared to 539,626 in July 2018, recording an increase of 2.1%. According to the Passengers Survey of the Cyprus Statistical Service, for the period of January-July 2019, arrivals of tourists totalled 2,181,994 compared to 2,184,775 in the corresponding period of 2018, recording a decrease of 0.1%. Tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom (UK) increased by 5.4% in July 2019 compared to July 2018 and an increase of 42% was recorded for tourists from Israel. A decrease of 4.8% in tourist arrivals from Russia and 9.3% from Sweden were recorded. The UK constitutes the main source of tourism for Cyprus for July 2019 with 33.4%, while arrivals from Russia comprise 21.0% of total arrivals. Israel is at 8.5% and Sweden 4.3%. For a percentage of 87% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in July 2019 was holidays, for 10.4% visit to friends and relatives, and for 2.6% business.

Limassol – There are limited seats left for the International VAT Expert Academy (IVEA) in the Netherlands in September, a high level VAT event that is not to be missed. The two-day Academy appeals to experienced VAT managers, consultants and officials dealing with VAT from all over the world, including Cyprus, who will discuss in the course of 18 interactive workshops various issues that arise in their day-to-day business. It will be held at the Grand Hotel Huis Ter Duin in Noordwijk aan Zee on 26-27 September 2019. Alexis Tsielepis, Managing Director of the island’s first VAT dedicated consulting firm, Chelco VAT Ltd, will lead a workshop on Financial Services and VAT: Understanding the difference between active and passive financial income. He will also co-lead a workshop on Nasty VAT Traps with Marja van den Oetelaar, owner of the VAT Consultancy Firm in the Netherlands. Other workshops will cover such topics as real-time reporting of VAT, Brexit and its impact on VAT and customs, EU VAT rules for online sales in Europe, intra community supplies, tax risk management, chain transactions, voluntary disclosure regimes, the latest developments on vouchers and VAT, SAP and VAT, VAT updates in the Gulf region and more. The Academy’s plenary session will be led by Prof. David Hummel, Legal Secretary at the ECJ, who will talk about ECJ case law and the impact on businesses. Apart from Cyprus, the rest of the countries represented at the Academy by their leading VAT experts are Germany, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, the Check Republic, France, Great Britain, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain and the UAE. The workshops will have an international focus and be conducted in English. Following a short introduction, individual case studies will be distributed after which, participants will be given the opportunity to discuss their individual cases and to determine best practice solutions. Limited seats are still available by contacting the organizers, the International VAT Conference Club e.V, either by email at [email protected] or by telephone at +49 89/217 5012-20. The event’s brochure can be downloaded here.

Limassol - The European Union (EU) loses more than 150 billion in Value Added Tax (VAT) revenues every year, Tax Commissioner, Yiannis Tsangaris, revealed last week. Addressing the international 20th Annual VAT Summit at Parklane, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, in Limassol on 15-17 May, the Commissioner added that €50-70 billion of the so-called VAT Gap, which shows the difference between the expected VAT and the amount actually collected, is attributed to companies. Fraud Tsangaris went on to say that cross-border yearly recovery of taxes in some member states range between 0,05% to 2,21%, compared to the average yearly amounts for which recovery assistance was requested, while Missing Trader Intracommunity (MTIC) fraud alone accounts for €40-60 billion of annual VAT revenue losses. The Commissioner said that in an effort to combat tax avoidance and streamline operations, the Tax Department is investing heavily on digitalization, adding that “digitalization changes the way tax administrations interact with taxpayers and the manner in which data is collected.” Tsangaris revealed that every year, member states exchange automatically with each other a vast amount of tax data covering non-residents’ income, as well as information on non-residents’ financial accounts, tax rulings and, as from mid-2018, multinationals’ country-by- country reports. The commissioner also announced there are plans to reinforce the Tax Department with new staff. The 20th International Annual VAT Summit, held in Cyprus for the very first time, attracted some of the world’s top VAT experts who converged in Cyprus to discuss current and future indirect tax issues. The summit was organised by VAT Forum CV, an international partnership made up of leading indirect tax specialists based in Brussels. Summit Agenda The three-day event started with a welcome cocktail reception and dinner on Wednesday evening, 15 May 2019, followed by two days of high-level interactive sessions that covered such issues as taxation of trade between member states and distance sales, the effects of Brexit, the application of Distributed Ledger Technology in VAT, the 2022 VAT Action Plan and much more. At the beginning of the event, VAT Forum President, Patrick Wille, presented to participants the wholly revamped look of the Forum and its new website, before delivering a presentation on the new VAT rules on vouchers. Haris Hadjimichael, Head of EU Affairs and Tax Treatment with the Cyprus Tax Department, spoke about VAT Compliance: The case of Cyprus, while Chelco VAT Ltd Managing Director and VAT Forum Partner, Alexis Tsielepis, presented an overview of important cases of the European Court of Justice. Networking During each session, there was sufficient time to answer questions and to discuss the issues presented with the audience. The conference also offered a unique opportunity for networking. The Summit was intended for industry professionals, such as accountants, CFOs, tax officers and tax lawyers dealing with VAT in multinational environments, VAT compliance managers responsible for VAT reporting in different Member States, VAT officials dealing with large and foreign taxable persons, VAT advisers serving multinational clients and officials from national VAT authorities. It aimed…

Limassol has been ranked among the 100 best cities in the world to live in by Mercer’s latest Quality of Living ranking. It was ranked 86th from a total of 231 cities. Vienna topped the list for the 10th year in a row, followed by Zurich. Vancouver, Munich and Auckland shared third place. Making up the rest of the top ten were Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Geneva and Basel. Athens was ranked 89th. Singapore (25), Montevideo (78) and Port Louis (83) retain their status as the highest ranking cities in Asia, South America and Africa respectively. Despite still featuring at the bottom of the quality of living list, Baghdad has witnessed significant improvements related to both safety and health services. Caracas, however, saw living standards drop following significant political and economic instability. Mercer uses 39 different criteria to determine quality of living including housing, the political and social environment, the natural environment, public services and transport, recreation, schools and education, consumer goods availability and medical and health considerations.

The Paris-based arbitration court of the International Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday ruled in favour of the Republic of Cyprus in an appeal filed against the country by the owners of FBME bank. The owners of the bank, which lost the licence of its Cyprus branch in December 2015, appealed to the court seeking €1.5bln in damages from the Republic of Cyprus, citing its failure to protect their investment. In a statement on Tuesday, Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) spokesperson, Aliki Stylianou, said that they were “completely satisfied” with the court’s ruling. “It shows the correct decisions were made by the management and staff of the Central Bank of Cyprus,” she said. The Law Office of the Republic also welcomed the decision, saying “it confirms that the Central Bank of Cyprus acted as a prudent supervisory authority and that the Republic did not violate any of its obligations”. FBME bank in Cyprus has been placed under resolution by the CBC in July 2014, following a US treasury report that the bank was implicated in money laundering. CBC issued an announcement at the time saying it had issued a decree by which it has placed the Tanzania-based bank’s branch in Cyprus under a state of resolution “with the aim of the protection of depositors.” The decree followed a suspension of the bank’s operations by the CBC and the taking over of its management. The US Treasury report listed a number of suspicious transactions and legal violations from FBME, including allegations that a bank customer “received a deposit of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a financier for Lebanese Hezbollah.”

Limassol - Well-known tax expert, Alexis Tsielepis, has been appointed on the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC). The Managing Director of Chelco VAT Ltd was appointed on the Board earlier this month following a personal request by Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades. Tsielepis was selected for his professional background and love for the arts. “When the President calls you in person and honours you with a seat on the Board of the island’s most important cultural vehicle, you can’t say no, and I didn’t want to!” Tsielepis said, adding: “Outside of my work, I have always been passionate about music, arts and the theater. Although I have an almost romanticised perception of working with the people of THOC, I am under no delusion that my professional skills will be put to good use in reviewing the current operations and determining the future path of this organization, to make a real difference in THOC and help it grow and prosper.” Tsielepis is widely considered as the foremost expert on VAT in Cyprus. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC). He also holds the Expert in European Value Added Tax (VAT) Degree, which he earned with the highest grade ever awarded in the history of the coveted diploma. He sits on various committees charged with tax matters, and has authored a number of publications on indirect tax, tax syllabuses and lectures at local and international VAT seminars and conferences. He had previously served as Vice-Chairman of the Cyprus Grain Commission. As a semi-government organisation, THOC falls under the supervision of the Minister of Education and Culture of Cyprus and is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors for a thirty-month term of office. The aims and objectives of THOC are to promote dramatic arts in Cyprus, to cultivate theatrical culture, and to promote artistic relations between the theatre world of Cyprus with those of Greece and other countries.

Limassol - Director and Head of Taxation with Costas Tsielepis & Co Ltd, Nicolas Papapanayiotou, has been offered a partnership with the firm. He made partner on 1 January 2019, joining George Tsielepis, Alexis Tsielepis, Antonis Christodoulides and Costas Constantinou. Nicolas is a seasoned tax advisor specialised in corporate and personal taxation. He has close to 15 years of solid experience in the fields of national and international tax advisory and compliance. Nicolas graduated from the University of Hull where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree (BSc) in Economics and Accounting. He then went on to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Financial Management and qualified with the Tax Department of Deloitte, Cyprus. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC). He was appointed to the firm’s Board of Directors on 1 December 2016.

Cyprus recently introduced a highly lucrative Film Scheme with the aim of providing tax incentives to film production companies. The tax incentives encourage international producers to choose Cyprus as their next film destination. A summary of the incentives is mentioned below: Cash rebate up to €650.000 for each production; or Tax exemption of income generated from the production of film; Tax allowance on investment in cultural infrastructure and equipment; VAT refund on expenditure (i) Cash rebate Companies can claim a cash rebate of up to 35% of eligible expenditure incurred in Cyprus. The maximum annual cash rebate cannot exceed €650.000 per production and €1.500.000 for all productions. For a more effective use of the Scheme, specific cultural criteria have been established, that will serve as a basis for the evaluation of the proposed productions. The rebate will be given once filming is completed, on receipt of the audit report and its review by the relevant Committee. (ii) Tax exemption As an alternative to cash rebate, a company involved in film production can benefit from a tax exemption of up to 50% of its taxable income. The exemption is limited to 35% of the eligible expenses approved by the competent authority implementing the program. Any restriction on the exemption resulting from the limitation to the 35% can be recovered over the next five years. (iii) Tax deduction Individuals, small as well as medium sized enterprises investing in film infrastructure and equipment are entitled to deduct the amount of the investment from their taxable income in the year of the investment.  The tax deduction cannot exceed 20% of the eligible expenses for individuals and small enterprises and 10% for medium sized enterprises. In order to be eligible to enjoy the deduction, the investment in equipment would need to remain in Cyprus for at least 5 years. (iv) VAT refund Companies and individuals from third countries incurring eligible expenses on film productions, are entitled to a VAT refund in the same way as those from EU Member States in accordance with the relevant EU Directive. The refund shall arise within 6 months from the end of the last deadline for submitting the VAT declaration for the period during which the expense occurred, or from the date on which the application for the VAT refund is filed. Qualifying production categories include, amongst others, feature Films (including animation), television Series or mini-series, documentaries for Theatrical or Television release, animation (digital or analogue), television research programs and natural history. The Scheme for the promotion of the Filming Industry, entered into force with the creation of the online platform ‘Film in Cyprus’ at film.investcyprus.org.cy.