Insight type: Legal Alert

The United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) did not previously have any formal statutory rules to determine the tax residency of an individual. However, the UAE Ministry of Finance and the UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA) required an individual to have resided in the UAE for a minimum of one hundred eighty-three days (183) in a 12 calendar month period in order to be eligible for obtaining a tax residency certificate.

In a ruling that has understandably sent shock waves across the banking sector in Kenya, the High Court has declared that a lender cannot pursue a guarantor for any outstanding amounts on a loan facility if having been unsuccessful in selling the charged property after exercising its statutory right to do so under section 97 of the Land Act, it purchases the property itself.

In order to develop and enhance Zambia’s economic relationship with the United Arab Emirates (the UAE), Zambia and the UAE have negotiated and concluded a double taxation agreement (DTA) which was published in Zambia’s Government Gazette on Wednesday, 11 January 2023. The DTA is therefore in force in Zambia and applies to persons that are residents of Zambia and/ or the UAE (collectively, the “Contracting States”). We accordingly highlight the salient provisions of the DTA from a Zambian law perspective.

Affirming existing jurisprudence, the High Court of Kenya ruled that complaints under the Data Protection Act, 2019 (DPA) ought to be first handled by the Data Commissioner. In a recent alert, we detailed how the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) had begun exercising its wide-ranging powers to enforce the DPA provisions. Long before this, data subjects had made attempts to seek compensation from courts in relation to perceived violations of their rights under the DPA. In several decisions, Kenyan courts have generally affirmed that data subjects ought to exhaust the complaints mechanisms available to them under the DPA before approaching the court. The most recent of these decisions is the High Court at Naivasha’s ruling in Mwangi & another v Naivasha County Hotel t/a Sawela Lodges (Petition E003 of 2021) (the Petition).

The Mines and Minerals Development Act No. 11 of 2015 (the Mines Act) is an Act that provides the law relating to the exploration, mining and processing of minerals, payment of mineral royalties and matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing. On 27 December 2022, Parliament enacted the Mines and Minerals (Amendment) Act No.29 of 2022 (the Amendment Act) which amended the Mines Act with effect on 1 January 2023.

The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury & Planning recently published the Common Reporting Standards Regulations (the Regulations). Common Reporting Standards (CRS) refer to reporting and due diligence international standards for the automatic exchange of financial account information prescribed by the OECD and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum).

An amendment to the National Payment System Proclamation No. 718/2011 was recently published on the Negarit Gazette. The changes under Amendment Proclamation No. 1282/2022 (Amendment NPS Proclamation) were necessitated to enhance the regulatory framework for new developments, changes, and innovations in the National Payment System. It is to be recalled that Ethiopia has introduced several financial sector reforms, to amend its financial sector policies and open up its financial market to foreign investment.

The Employment (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (2022 Bill) which is sponsored by the Senator of Nandi County, Samson Cherarkey, was gazetted by a Gazette Notice dated 9 December 2022 but has not yet been tabled to the Senate.

The Property Transfer Tax Act Chapter 340 of the Laws of Zambia (the PTT Act) is an Act that provides for, among others, the levying of property transfer tax (PTT) in Zambia. On 27 December 2022, Parliament enacted the Property Transfer Tax (Amendment) Act No. 27 of 2022 (the Amendment Act), which amended the PTT Act with effect on 1 January 2023. This legal alert highlights the amendments to the PTT Act brought about by the Amendment Act.

The National Bank of Ethiopia has issued a public notice to gather public opinion on the draft Motor Insurance Own Damage Minimum Premium Rate Directive (Draft Directive) which is expected to become effective within a few months. The Draft Directive sets the minimum rate for the amount of insurance premium that companies charge customers with the objective of aligning the insurance premium proposed for the insurance with the risk to be insured. The Directive also envisages culminating unwarranted premiums, undercutting, and protecting the interest of policyholders.