On January 15, 2024, there will be held the event KRAKÓW: City – space for business. Synergy for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The event is organized by the Polis-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce within the framework of the social campaign “Partnership and Employment” and the project “Work for Reconstruction of Entrepreneurship in Ukraine.” The event will provide a unique platform for diverse professionals, thought leaders, and stakeholders to come together and discuss critical issues surrounding urban development, business opportunities, and collaborative efforts for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The conference will cover a wide range of topics such as urban planning, sustainable development, and the role of businesses in contributing to the reconstruction efforts in Ukraine. Renowned experts and speakers will share valuable insights, best practices, and innovative ideas, fostering a rich exchange of knowledge and experience. Participation in the Conference will be an enriching experience. The insights we will gain and connections made will undoubtedly contribute to our professional growth. The event will be participated by Weronika Mazurek on behalf of KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG LEGAL.
The Wall Street Journal recently described quirks in the U.S. Tax Treaty with Malta that became a popular topic in the legal advice sector.[1] In the said article, WSJ describes an offshore tax shelter (a tax regulation in Malta) which promises rich Americans they can avoid lots of capital-gains taxes by setting up pensions in Malta. This issue is not only American struggle with tax abuse. For instance, Poland has also signed an international tax treaty with Malta (Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of Malta for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income signed in La Valetta on 7 January 1994)[2] and in 2020 the Treaty was amended due to the necessity of closing loopholes in the international (bilateral) tax system[3]. Moreover as a restoration of the Polish industry after COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish Government and the Ministry of Finance prepared the new Tax Act which shall prevent the change of the entity’s tax residence to the offshore tax shelter [4].
Before
we move to the tax abuse based on the U.S. bilateral tax treaty with Malta it
is advisable to start with Treaty’s provisions treatment.
U.S.
– MALTA TAX TREATY
The Treaty was done in 8 August 2008 and came into force in late 2010. As Jeffrey L. Rubinger wrote The Treaty contains very favorable provisions that can result in significant tax benefits to U.S. members of a Maltese pension. In order for such U.S. members to take advantage of these benefits, the pension must qualify as a resident of Malta under the Treaty and also satisfy the limitation on benefits (LOB) article of the Treaty. [5]In his article Rubinger enumerates the Treaty’s provisions that could become a victim of the interpretation tax abuse.
On 7 September 2021 KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI will take part in the Webinar Analysing the Role of Telemedicine in Post-Pandemic Careorganised by Reuters Events in conjunction with the Digital Health division of the World Health Organisation which provides opportunities to accelerate progress in attaining health and well-being related Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), especially SDG 3, and achieving triple billion targets for 2023 as articulated in its Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13).
The webinar will focus on the growing
importance of remote telemedicine, its aspects and opportunities. The speakers
will include:
– Peter Thomas, CCIO and Director of
Digital Medicine at Moorfields Eye Hospital
– Toralf Schnell, Chief Digital Officer and
Head of the Digitization Unit at University Medicine Greifswald
– Dr. Evgeny Zheleznyakov, Technical
Officer, WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care.
Telemedicine and digital health remains in
the core specialisation of lifescience and healthcare expertise of KIELTYKA
GLADKOWSKI, having vast experience in handling projects at the intersection of
new technologies and healthcare, including data protection, regulatory and
transactional aspects.
On 2 to 4 November 2021 KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG LEGAL will take part in the virtual SPG 2021 Forum organised by R3 (Association of Business Recovery Professionals) SPG Forum (link) is a conference for trustees, restructuring experts and their employees.
During this 3-day event, our lawyers will have the opportunity to discuss the
practical issues, participate in workshops and network with peers.
Some of the topics discussed will be the current regulatory framework for
insolvency practitioners, key legal changes affecting the insolvency and
restructuring of people and companies, and the exclusion of directors, the FCA’s
guidelines for managers appointed or intended to be appointed by regulated
firms; panel sessions with representatives of the financial industry discussing
their experiences with the pandemic, recovery and new market trends; workshops,
during which it will be possible to look at issues related to the insolvency of
a real estate enterprise; workshop sessions during which the investigation and
prosecution of claims in insolvent real estate will be discussed in-depth; interactive
workshops, entirely devoted to the possibilities of the hotel business dealing
with the challenges of the pandemic.
Identification of the hacking problem – study on the example of law firm clients providing cyber security solutions
Identification of the hacking problem
Based on the US Cybersecurity Trends Report (link to an
online source at the end of the article), the hacking phenomenon records an
increase in cyber-attacks in 2019 and 2020. From the legal perspective, what is
particularly interesting is a significant increase in the recorded data loss
events as a result of hacking activities in relation to the number of cases in
individual years in the 2015-2020 prediction. One of the studies in the
indicated report shows two specific moments over the years. The first one took
place in 2016-2017, where we see an increase in hacker attacks by nearly 2,000
violations, but this is not related to a proportional increase in lost data,
which differs from those from 2016 by about 1.5 million. In 2017, there was a
slight increase in infringements, but more importantly, less data was lost. The
second of these important moments indicated by the experts took place in
2018-2019, when there was a drastic increase in lost data with a slight
increase in violations compared to 2018. We are seeing a drastic decrease in
the number of breaches with a simultaneous huge increase in lost data.
From the analysis of the report, a surprising conclusion
can be drawn that currently data breaches by hackers are less and less frequent
compared to previous years, but much more effective.
The report also shows annual global cybersecurity
transactions and equity financing in 2016-2021. In this respect there can be
observed the huge projected increase in cash outlays for the cybersecurity
target compared to 2020. The projected increase is over $ 10 billion. Despite
the increase in spending, there has been a decline in the number of
cybersecurity contracts.
The report presents the share of global cybersecurity
transactions in 2020 by country. The first thing that throws up is that the US
has over a half of shares in global market and is thus becoming a sort of
hegemon in the fight against hackers. China ranks second with 12%. On the other
hand, Israel ranks third with a 10% share, also showing a 4% increase compared
to 2019. With the same trend, it has a good chance of overtaking China in this
respect. The report shows the number of annual departures from the
cybersecurity sector through mergers and acquisitions and stock market debuts.
In the years 2016-2019, an upward trend can be noticed. From year to year, the
number of departures increased by 100.
The report also shows the ratio of the increase in the
number of the so-called megarounds (contracts worth over $100 million), which
results in an increase in the volume of transactions.
All these increases in value did not go unnoticed. The
consequence of the development of this type of industry, which is
cybersecurity, is the creation and development of private companies. There are
already over 30 companies in the world involved in the development of
cybersecurity technologies, the value of which exceeds $ 1 billion. In Europe,
for example, Acronis is such a company.
Almost 75% of cyber defenders are based in the United
States, most of them in California. Second place, with almost 20% concentration
of cyber defenders, is Israel. Canada and Ireland boast one “cyber
defender” within their borders. In Canada it is the company
“Isara”, and in Ireland “Tines”.
Methods of counteracting cyber attacks
There can be differentiated various methods of counteracting cyber-attacks. Most innovative ones are presented below:
