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The Republic of Panama recently enacted Law 76 of February 13 2019 (Law 76 or Tax Procedure Code), through which the new tax procedure code is approved. This new Tax Procedure Code, which will come into effect on January 1 2020, does not replace the Tax Code, but rather establishes the basic principles and the fundamental rules that constitute the legal regime of the Panamanian tax system and is applicable to all national taxes.

Areej Hamada, founder of Kuwaiti law firm Legal challenges group, looks at the bridges Kuwait has been building with its largest trading partner, China, and how it has modernised its foreign investment rules

The market has evolved from catering solely for offshore lenders financing Thai borrowers to include Thai lenders financing foreign ventures. Nattaporn Pengkul and Passawan Navanithikul of Weerawong C&P look at the latest developments in lending rules

The fintech ecosystem in Guatemala has seen a steady rise in the number of fintech startups and operational companies that provide alternative financial services in country. According to the Inter-American Development Bank in its 2018 report entitled 'Fintech Latin America 2018 – growth and consolidation', as of December 2017 there were four operational fintech companies in Guatemala. However, according to the Asociación Fintech de Guatemala, which was recently formed by various fintech companies, as of the second quarter of 2019 there were 16 fintech companies in Guatemala.

In a referendum held on May 19 2019, the Federal Act on Tax Reform and AHV Financing (TRAF) was adopted by the Swiss people and the cantons. The reform includes several measures directed at corporate income taxation, such as the abolition of tax privileges for certain types of companies (status companies) and the implementation of internationally accepted replacement measures such as a patent box or the ability to super-deduct R&D costs (up to 150% of actual costs). The reform also contains tax measures at the shareholder level. The majority of the measures will be in force as of January 1 2020.

Chinese investment into France grew in 2018 even as it dropped across the rest of Europe, and investor-friendly changes may give it a further boost. Raphaël Chantelot, Fanny Nguyen, Hubert Bazin and Nicolas Vanderchmitt of LPA – CGR Avocats take a look at the environment

Subject to a vote this month at the Macau Legislative Council (LegCo) is the Cybersecurity Bill. This Bill aims to bring Macau up to speed as regards the protection of the institutions and citizens of Macau against the malfunctioning of the computer systems of the public and private entities that operate critical infrastructures, in particular against unauthorised actions such as hacking.

Switzerland has delivered some of the largest outbound Chinese acquisitions over recent years and, unlike the EU, has not imposed any formal investment restrictions. Manuel Werder, Philippe Weber, Daniel Eisele and Elga Reana Tozzi of Niederer Kraft Frey examine the market’s rules of entry

For the first time in Vietnam, a unified governmental regulation on internal audit has been promulgated through Decree 05/2019/ND-CP dated January 22 2019 (Decree 05) which came into effect on April 1 2019. Previously, only a few entities, such as credit institutions and the State Bank of Vietnam, were required to conduct an internal audit under different legal regulations. Decree 05 has added new types of entities which are required to conduct an internal audit by April 1 2021 at the latest.