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Pravin Gordhan, South Africa's finance minister, announced the South African Revenue Service (SARS)'s intention to launch a voluntary disclosure programme (VDP) in his budget speech earlier this year. The VDP will be instituted, as part of the Taxation Laws Second Amendment Bill, 2010 (Bill), from November 1 2010 to October 31 2011.

Slobodan Mihajlovic The long-awaited double taxation treaty between Serbia and Austria was signed on May 7 2010. The treaty has been ratified by Serbia and published in the official Gazette on July 28 2010 will enter into force upon ratification of Austria and shall be effective as of January 1 of the calendar year following the year of entry into force of the agreement. The treaty is very important as Austria is one of the biggest investors in Serbia.

The new provisions in the Corporate Income Tax Act will introduce restrictions for increasing the tax value of fixed assets to their market level (step-up).

Ingrid Anne Kinden During the last year Norwegian tax authorities have started negotiations with Singapore for a tax treaty between the two countries.

Sead Dado Salkovic Many companies strive to merge themselves in one powerful company that should create a strong competitor within the business market and gain increased market share. The desire for the merger of two legal institutions could be directly correlated with the economic crisis as it eliminates the actual problems of insolvency and minimises the operational risks.

David Cuéllar Rachel Costello The UK tax authority, HM Revenue & Customs, recently issued a draft order on the protocol which amends the 1994 tax treaty with Mexico, as well as a memorandum that explains the draft statutory instrument for the protocol.

Elena Kostovska On July 6 2010, FYR Macedonia and Belgium signed an income and capital tax treaty which replaces the 1980 treaty between former Yugoslavia and Belgium. With this new treaty, provisions of the agreement signed between FYR Macedonia and the Belgium/Luxembourg Economic Union in 1999 will cease to be applicable to taxes covered by the new treaty, namely taxes on income and capital. The convention covers personal income, profit and property tax in FYR Macedonia as well as individual income, corporate income, legal entities income, and non-resident income tax in Belgium.

Takeo Mizutani Michael Shikuma On June 11 2010, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) released a copy of an informal ruling request dated November 5 2009 which it submitted to the Japanese tax authorities (NTA) requesting confirmation of the tax treatment of foreign investors trading on the TSE through a co-location arrangement. Co-location is a service that minimises the latency between a trading participant's devices, such as automated order placement servers, by allowing trading participants to install their devices at the data centre where TSE places its trading engines and market information systems.

Keith O'Donnell Samantha Nonnenkamp The fund tax regime has been improved for master feeder funds and foreign funds managed in Luxembourg. Both fund types are expected to grow after UCITS IV.

Eva Sorgato According to Legislative Decree no. 40 from March 25 2010, Italian VAT-taxable persons are required to file an electronic communication on supply of goods or services carried out from July 1 2010 onwards with economic operators which are resident in black-list countries. On March 30 2010 decree no. 30 also defined timing, content and penalty aspects of the disclosure process.