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Tax modifications in the pipeline Colombia's minister of finance has presented a draft bill to congress "by which new taxes are established, the Tax Code is amended and other regulations are issued". The bill proposes an important new tax reform and includes, among other things: (i) the extension of the 2/1000 tax on financial transactions; (ii) a progressive reduction of the corporate income tax rate down to 32%, as well as a reduction of the income tax rate applicable to individuals; (iii) some restrictions on the income tax deductibility of gifts; (iv) a modification of the withholding tax rate on consulting services, commissions, independent services and services in general; (v) anti-avoidance measures; (vi) measures relating to improving the collection of taxes; and (vii) the introduction of a new substitutive tax (impuesto sustitutivo) that would apply to certain small taxpayers developing commercial, industrial or services activities.

After-hours trading now permitted on the Italian Stock Exchange Trading on the Italian Stock Exchange is now permitted after regular trading hours. Changes have been made to the existing regulations and as of May 15 2000, two new markets were introduced: TAH and TAHnm. After-hours trade may be made 5.50 pm - 6.00 pm for cross-order book modalities, and between 6.00 pm - 10.00 pm for continuous dealing.

New legislation on international wire transfers By Act of January 9 2000, published on February 9 2000 and effective as from that date, Belgium implemented European directive no. 97/5/EC of January 27 1997 on international wire transfers.

IFLR presents a condensed version of the ABA committee’s letter to the SEC, in which it presents its concerns over Regulation FD and suggests an alternative approach to rule making

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse have announced plans for a merger that would create the world's second largest stock exchange, behind New York. The new company would be called iX. In addition Nasdaq and iX have signed a memorandum of understanding to create a European high growth market.

Singapore's Cycle and Carriage (C&C), which last month led a consortium to buy a $506 million stake in Indonesia's leading car-maker Astra, is now in talks to buy an additional 3.9% stake - 103 million shares - from its fellow consortium member, Lazard Fund Asia.

The Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) revealed in May that Deutsche Bank had made illegal transactions through its Tokyo securities unit. The unit could face temporary suspension from trading bonds and bond futures.

Project financiers are tiptoeing back into the Asia Pacific region. And law firms in the area are chasing after their coat-tails. The open-necked polo shirts of Latham & Watkins' west coast dealmakers were clashing recently with the pinstripes of Norton Rose's City gents when the two firms sat across the table to lawyer Eastern Power & Electric's development of the 350MW Bang Bo independent power project.

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.