18/08/2015 11:02
The parliamentary parties face a hot agenda in the coming period as they have to pass significant memorandum and other bills while preparing for the parliamentary elections of May.
The House Finance Committee will be at the first line of interest.
On August 27 the House Finance and Interior Committees will hold a joint session to complete the examination of the bill and the regulations for the trapped property owners by insolvent land developers.
The bill and the regulations, which are a memorandum obligation of Cyprus for the disbursement of the next tranche of €0.5 bn, will be led to the plenary, which will meet on September 3.
At the same time, the House Finance Committee will have until the end of September to pass the bill on the sale of loans, which was forwarded by the government to the parliament.
Moreover, the bill for the securitization of loans, which has not yet been approved by the cabinet, must be approved by the parliament by the end of the year.
The bill for the modernization and reform of the public sector and the bill for the conversion of Cyta into a private company to attract a strategic investor will be put before the House Finance Committee within 2015.
The above bills are memorandum prerequisites and should be approved by the cabinet at the end of the month.
The bill on the taxation of properties with the prices of 2013 with a single tax rate is still pending before the Finance and Interior Committees. With this bill, the property tax with the land tax levied by the municipal authorities is consolidated.
It is noted that for this year because of the tight schedule, the property tax will be imposed based on 1980 prices.
Provisions for tax incentives
With the opening of the parliament, the provisions of the bill relating to the granting of tax incentives will be presented again before the House Finance Committee.
With a letter sent a few days ago by the Finance Minister Haris Georgiades to the parliament, he urged the latter to examine and vote for the provisions of the pending bills.
According to the minister, the specific provisions are deemed essential for the holistic and proper implementation of reforms of the fiscal framework.
The pending government proposals concern the neutral tax treatment of the foreign exchange differences which do not emerge from the trade of foreign exchange, the expansion of trading authority with its implementation for the increase in expenses / losses and the extension of the exemption of 50% of the income from five to ten years in respect of income of persons exceeding €100 thousand from employment in the Republic.
The bill on the Income Tax Law - Definition of the term “democracy”, the tax regime for intellectual property, the expansion of accelerated tax depreciation for machinery and equipment and industrial and hotel buildings acquired by the end of 2016 and the offsetting of Group’s profits will be reviewed.
They will also discuss the provisions of the bills relating to the issue of advice on tax rulings and the Law on taxation of capital gains.
What the government wants
Meanwhile the Finance Minister, with another letter sent to the parliament in July, requested the quick promotion of a number of other bills pending in parliament, to the plenary.
It is about the bill for DOKE, which regulates the legal framework of action of the public bodies and state-owned enterprises and the adoption of such a procedure and criteria for the creation of new public bodies and state enterprises.
The relevant bill is a memorandum obligation of Cyprus.
The government wants the bill, which will modify the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law of 1978 (No. 2) of 2014, to be passed before the end of September in order to establish a regulation for the implementation of the agreement regarding the automatic exchange of information between the Republic and another Member-State or third country.
As the finance minister said, if the bill is not approved on schedule, the validation of the agreement signed by the Republic for the improvement of the international tax compliance and the implementation of FACTA will cease.
At the same time, the ministry seeks to lead to the plenary three bills related to the new framework on leasing for which a new bill has been submitted to replace the existing one submitted to parliament in December 2011.
The financing of the parties
The bill for the funding and financial management of the parties is pending before the House Institutions Committee. The Attorney General, in a letter to the parliament, asked to be voted before September 30 which is the deadline for the Republic to submit the Compliance Report on the recommendations of the Greco while the bill on the electoral expenses of candidate MPs is pending before the House Interior Committee.
The bill on cohabitation is still pending before the Interior and Legal Committees while the Health Committee will discuss in the new legislature the bill on the autonomization of hospitals.
The members of the Internal Committee will discuss the bill on the reform of local government as well.
The House Finance Committee will be at the first line of interest.
On August 27 the House Finance and Interior Committees will hold a joint session to complete the examination of the bill and the regulations for the trapped property owners by insolvent land developers.
The bill and the regulations, which are a memorandum obligation of Cyprus for the disbursement of the next tranche of €0.5 bn, will be led to the plenary, which will meet on September 3.
At the same time, the House Finance Committee will have until the end of September to pass the bill on the sale of loans, which was forwarded by the government to the parliament.
Moreover, the bill for the securitization of loans, which has not yet been approved by the cabinet, must be approved by the parliament by the end of the year.
The bill for the modernization and reform of the public sector and the bill for the conversion of Cyta into a private company to attract a strategic investor will be put before the House Finance Committee within 2015.
The above bills are memorandum prerequisites and should be approved by the cabinet at the end of the month.
The bill on the taxation of properties with the prices of 2013 with a single tax rate is still pending before the Finance and Interior Committees. With this bill, the property tax with the land tax levied by the municipal authorities is consolidated.
It is noted that for this year because of the tight schedule, the property tax will be imposed based on 1980 prices.
Provisions for tax incentives
With the opening of the parliament, the provisions of the bill relating to the granting of tax incentives will be presented again before the House Finance Committee.
With a letter sent a few days ago by the Finance Minister Haris Georgiades to the parliament, he urged the latter to examine and vote for the provisions of the pending bills.
According to the minister, the specific provisions are deemed essential for the holistic and proper implementation of reforms of the fiscal framework.
The pending government proposals concern the neutral tax treatment of the foreign exchange differences which do not emerge from the trade of foreign exchange, the expansion of trading authority with its implementation for the increase in expenses / losses and the extension of the exemption of 50% of the income from five to ten years in respect of income of persons exceeding €100 thousand from employment in the Republic.
The bill on the Income Tax Law - Definition of the term “democracy”, the tax regime for intellectual property, the expansion of accelerated tax depreciation for machinery and equipment and industrial and hotel buildings acquired by the end of 2016 and the offsetting of Group’s profits will be reviewed.
They will also discuss the provisions of the bills relating to the issue of advice on tax rulings and the Law on taxation of capital gains.
What the government wants
Meanwhile the Finance Minister, with another letter sent to the parliament in July, requested the quick promotion of a number of other bills pending in parliament, to the plenary.
It is about the bill for DOKE, which regulates the legal framework of action of the public bodies and state-owned enterprises and the adoption of such a procedure and criteria for the creation of new public bodies and state enterprises.
The relevant bill is a memorandum obligation of Cyprus.
The government wants the bill, which will modify the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law of 1978 (No. 2) of 2014, to be passed before the end of September in order to establish a regulation for the implementation of the agreement regarding the automatic exchange of information between the Republic and another Member-State or third country.
As the finance minister said, if the bill is not approved on schedule, the validation of the agreement signed by the Republic for the improvement of the international tax compliance and the implementation of FACTA will cease.
At the same time, the ministry seeks to lead to the plenary three bills related to the new framework on leasing for which a new bill has been submitted to replace the existing one submitted to parliament in December 2011.
The financing of the parties
The bill for the funding and financial management of the parties is pending before the House Institutions Committee. The Attorney General, in a letter to the parliament, asked to be voted before September 30 which is the deadline for the Republic to submit the Compliance Report on the recommendations of the Greco while the bill on the electoral expenses of candidate MPs is pending before the House Interior Committee.
The bill on cohabitation is still pending before the Interior and Legal Committees while the Health Committee will discuss in the new legislature the bill on the autonomization of hospitals.
The members of the Internal Committee will discuss the bill on the reform of local government as well.