Poker players must pay taxes on their winnings in Germany

By: Rechtsanwalt (Attorney) Carsten Lexa, LL.M. The German finance court of Cologne has ruledthat poker is a game of skill.  The ruling is in response to poker player Eduard Scharf´s claims that his poker winnings shouldn’t be taxed because poker is a game of chance, and “anyone can win a game of poker.”  The court disagreed, ruling that “he had to pay

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Value In Use Or Value In Exchange, A Serious Tax Issue To Consider Before Bartering

By: Ainsley Brown In a previous post, As companies battle the recession, bartering comes in handy, Carsten Lexa a contributor here at Commercial Law International, gave us an introduction to bartering schemes and their advantages for cash strapped businesses battling the global recession.  This piece is an attempt to build on his fine work by expanding the discussion into the

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Japanese Gov’t Mulls Over Radical Change To Inheritance Tax Policy

By: Ainsley Brown In a move to boost its faltering economy, the Japanese government is considering a radical alteration of its inheritance tax regime. The policy, if implemented and if it has the desired effect, could see trillions of yen being transferred from elderly savings conscious Japanese to their more free-spending children or grandchildren. The policy basically boils down to

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Australia To Review Tax Laws On Islamic Finance

By: Ainsley Brown When an industry approaches being worth close to a trillion dollars it can no longer be considered a passing fancy or fad – Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is real and is as much a part of the global financial system as “conventional” finance. It is this realization that has prompted Australia to conduct a review of

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Liechtenstein And The UK Enter Tax Info Sharing Agreement

By: Ainsley Brown It has been reported in the Times that ¨up to 5, 000 British investors have an estimated £3 billion stashed away in secret accounts in Liechtenstein. It is a good thing then, well good from the perspective of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), that Liechtenstein and the UK Government have reached an agreement on the sharing of

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