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Klaus Henrik Wiese-Hansen Ernst Ravnaas Since 2012, Norwegian tax authorities have focused on the way Norwegian private equity firms have structured their carried interest payments. A common private equity structure in Norway is that the management of the private equity firm owns shares in the fund or directly in the underlying portfolio company, through a private limited liability investment company. Carried interest for the management is connected to these shares. Under carried interest rules, buy-out executives have until recently paid relatively low capital-gains taxes on profits made from buying and selling companies, in the same way investors or entrepreneurs do, as carried interest has mostly been classified as tax-exempted dividends or capital gains. This is odd, Norwegian tax authorities have argued, given that the money wagered on private equity buy-out deals mostly comes from external investors as opposed to the executives (management) themselves. It makes more sense for these profits to be taxed like ordinary salaries, they argue, at a significantly higher tax rate.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão On January 5 2015, the Official Gazette published Law 1/2015, which provides for the new legal regime on the system of qualifications in the fields of urban construction and urbanism. This new law will come into force on July 1 2015 and was enacted as a response to the tremendous growth that Macau SAR has been facing in the civil construction and urbanism sectors.

Daniel Futej Rudolf Sivák It has been more than a year since the amendment to the Act on Residence of Foreign Nationals took effect. In this article, we will look at the practical application of the new rules. Foreign nationals come to Slovakia for various reasons, one of the most popular being to conduct business. If a foreign national wishes to remain in the country for this reason, they must apply for temporary residence. Temporary residence permits are usually granted for one and half years for conducting business, and may be extended repeatedly.

Isil Ökten Aslihan Özbey Akbank TAS has established a covered bond programme in an aggregate principal amount of up to €1 billion ($1.1 billion), which is the first ever mortgage-backed bond programme in Turkey. The first mortgage covered bond programme in Turkey was established on December 23 2014 on the approval of the base prospectus by the Central Bank of Ireland, after a challenging process. This programme comes after many years of hard work by the legislator, the issuers and the arrangers. Numerous changes have been made to the legislation to enable the first issue, and it would still benefit from further clarifications.

The FSB’s total loss-absorbing capacity rules are still in their infancy, but market participants are worried

New rules that expand the Foreign Investment Review Board's approval of investments in agriculture follow growing concern that the sector needs more protection

Three partners at leading French law firms explain how the Euro PP templates will facilitate financing for mid-size companies

Simmons & Simmons partners Charlotte Stalin and Penny Miller explain the key regulatory themes for the year ahead

Contributors including Korea Corporate Governance Service, NYSE and Gen2 Partners provide practical advice for managing transactions in the country

Besnik Duraj For more than two decades, the Albanian electricity power sector has been facing critical financial and operational problems, as a result of a number of issues and ensuing chain reactions. The most characteristic example is end consumers who do not pay the power distributors, who in turn do not pay the transmission operators, and so forth up to the power producing companies. With the entire electricity power system in a debt downward spiral, a major objective of the Albanian Government for 2015 is the reformation of the power sector by drafting a new bill. The new draft bill was approved during the Council of Ministers meeting on January 14 2015 and sent to the Parliament for debate and approval. Apart from financial goals, the said bill aims at fulfilling Albania's obligations in the context of the Energy Community Treaty. It seeks to harmonise the local power sector legislation with EU directives and rules, with a particular focus on the Third Energy Package for gas and electricity markets.