The Treasury has published the Financial Markets and Insolvency (Settlement Finality) (Amendment) Regulations 2009, which will come into force on 1 October 2009. They will amend the Financial Markets and Insolvency (Settlement Finality) Regulations 1999, following changes in insolvency law.
The FSA has published a statement entitled Wider implications referral: Lehman-backed structured products.
In the statement the FSA together with the Financial Ombudsman Service have jointly concluded that the Lehman Brothers’ insolvency raises issues in the UK structured products market.
It has been agreed that the FSA will now consider issues relating to Lehman-backed structured products under “the wider implications process” in order to allow it to explore all options to achieve the best outcome for consumers.
When can shareholders also have employee status?
Generally, financial services firms in Germany (Finanzdienstleistungsinstitute) are mandatory members of a protection scheme (Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen - EdW). Members of this protection scheme are obliged to make regular financial contributions.
In 2005 Phoenix Kapitaldienst GmbH became insolvent and the EdW is due to pay out to Phoenix investors compensation which totals more than 100 million Euros. However, the EdW has insufficient funds to cover the entire amount due.
In November 2008, the European Commission (EC) found state aid granted by the Polish government to two Polish state-controlled shipyards (Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa and Stocznia Gdynia), illegal under EU single market rules and requested its return to the government with accrued interest. The EC decided however to postpone the enforcement of the return of state aid for seven months until 6 June 2009 to allow for the prior public sale of the shipyards’ assets at market price.
Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor
The waiver of debt results in the accounting ‘loss’ of a receivable. Such loss, however, is not automatically tax deductible in the hands of the creditor.
The deductibility of such loss may be prohibited, either because it is deemed not to be incurred to retain or increase taxable income (‘general deduction criterion’), or because it is deemed to be an ‘abnormal or benevolent advantage’ granted to the debtor (‘anti-abuse rule’).
Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor
In Sweden, debt is typically waived through either judicial settlement (Sw. offentligt ackord) (which will not be discussed here) or through private settlement (Sw. underhandsackord) between creditor and debtor.
Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor
The waiver of an outstanding debt by a creditor shall be treated as an extraordinary loss for accounting purposes. As taxable income for corporate income tax purposes is calculated from the company’s accounting results assessed upon accounting regulations, such loss is normally deductible unless income tax law provides for an adjustment.
Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor
Polish tax regulations provide three major methods for obtaining a tax deduction for irrecoverable debt: waiver or forgiveness of debt, debt write-off and revaluation write-off.
Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor
The tax treatment of the forgiveness of debt within a group of companies depends on whether or not such forgiveness is of a “normal nature”. In order to be considered as being of a normal nature, the ‘advantage’ granted by a parent/creditor to its subsidiary/debtor must involve valid business reasons.