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Tax rules revised On January 1 2001, a new personal income tax regime will come into force in the Netherlands. The new rules completely overthrow the present system of income tax for private individuals by introducing a revolutionary concept of passive income taxation. Whereas now dividend and interest income is taxed at the full marginal rate of up to 60%, under the new rules tax on all investment income will be completely abolished and substituted by a flat 30% tax on a 4% deemed income on net wealth, which effectively resembles an annual net wealth tax of 1.2%. The new rules will generally not apply to non-residents. The domestic dividend withholding tax rate on dividends of 25% (for non-residents) will continue to apply.

EU directive on taxation of savings interest The proposed EU directive on the taxation of savings interest is now stalled by disagreements between the different EU member states over the desirability of imposing withholding tax on non-resident investors in the absence of information exchanges between their tax authorities. The proposal has attracted much criticism from financial institutions and the UK government, which has threatened to veto its adoption in its current form. EU government heads and finance ministers are, however, optimistic that a planned meeting in Brussels in June will result in a consensus being reached.

Linklaters completes series of central European bond issues

It may not have the highest headline value for a deal this year, but the sale of Rover car group to the UK's Phoenix consortium for a symbolic £10 by BMW has certainly generated a great deal of publicity. The transaction was notable both for the enormous public and political pressure on participants to close a deal that would save thousands of jobs in the UK and the complexity of putting together a package that could work.

UK firm Ashurst Morris Crisp is acting as lead counsel to Atlantic Telecom on its proposed acquisition of First Telecom Group. The deal values the target company at £520 million ($775 million) and will be paid in new Atlantic ordinary shares.

At a time when Nasdaq stalwarts such as Microsoft, Lycos and Novell tumbled to record lows, May was a brave month to launch high-tech IPOs. Especially for issuers in Asia's turbulent markets. But while others such as Caripac.com and ColbyNet shelved their IPOs, a handful of companies ploughed on.

Howard Davies, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, explained the rationale behind the changes to the UK listing authority during a speech at this month's annual IOSCO conference in Sydney (for a more detailed conference commentary see page 6).

It is highly unusual for internet companies to turn a profit, a fact which is only now beginning to drive down the prices of listed web businesses. It is for this reason that most mergers involving web companies are usually funded with virtual money - stock swaps.

Japan’s lawyers have never had it so good. The market for their services is booming as overseas investors pump money into the country and Japanese companies look to the international markets for funds. But there aren’t enough lawyers to do the job. And foreign practitioners say they can’t offer the service their clients want. Things need to change. Ralph Cunningham reports from Tokyo

Internet IPOs, privatizations, and the delights of the hostile takeover made 1999 a year to remember for Italian law firms. But managing partners are facing some difficult decisions, and a wrong move could lead to their firms being shut out of booming markets. Rufus Jones reports from Rome and Milan