El protocolo de Irlanda del Norte (IN) fue firmado por Reino Unido (RU) y la Unión Europea (UE) como parte del Acuerdo de Retirada (Brexit), para impedir crear una frontera entre las dos Irlandas y salvaguardar así, el acuerdo de paz (Acuerdo de Viernes Santo), que puso fin a décadas de violencia.
Atendiendo a lo establecido en dicho protocolo, IN debe cumplir con las normas del mercado de la UE y ello, a su vez, implica establecer controles sobre los bienes procedentes de Inglaterra, Escocia y Gales.
Es decir, a las exportaciones a IN, se aplica el Protocolo de Irlanda del Norte, que mantiene a este territorio dentro del mercado único de la Unión Europea (UE) para el comercio de bienes. Así, hasta el momento, se mantiene la consideración de intercambio intracomunitario para los bienes exportados desde España a IN (siempre y cuando dichos bienes no se comercialicen después en Gran Bretaña).
Sin embargo, el pasado lunes 13 de junio, el ejecutivo británico presentó un proyecto de ley que, de ser aprobado, modificará el marco legal actual.
¿CUÁLES SON LOS CAMBIOS QUE PROPONE EL PROYECTO DEL LEY SOBRE EL PROTOCOLO DE IRLANDA?
CONTROLES ADUANEROS
RU propone crear un “carril verde” que exoneraría de controles sanitarios, aduaneros y fitosanitarios a los bienes procedentes de Gran Bretaña para su consumo final en IN.
Las empresas que deseen hacer uso de ese “carril verde” para la exportación de sus bienes, deberán inscribirse en un nuevo registro como “comerciantes de confianza”.
En cambio, los bienes de Gran Bretaña con destino final en la República de Irlanda, circularían por un “carril rojo” en el que se aplicarían todos los controles de mercancías requeridos por la normativa europea.
REGULACIONES OPTATIVAS
En aras de reducir costes y burocracia, el gobierno británico propone que las empresas que comercien con IN, puedan elegir el régimen de regulación de sus exportaciones, pudiendo optar entre los estándares comunitarios (UE) o los británicos (UKCA).
MECANISMO DE SOLUCIÓN DE CONFLICTOS
El proyecto de ley pretende prescindir de la intervención del Tribunal de Justicia de la UE (TJUE) en la resolución de disputas entre el RU y la UE, sobre la interpretación del protocolo de Irlanda del Norte.
El ejecutivo británico propone resolver los conflictos que puedan surgir, a través de un sistema de arbitraje independiente.
BRUSELAS RESPONDE AL REINO UNIDO
Para defender la legalidad de dicho proyecto de ley, RU ha invocado la denominada “doctrina de la necesidad”, según la cual se puede justificar el incumplimiento de obligaciones internacionales, bajo ciertas condiciones de excepcionalidad.
Sin embargo, Maros Sefcovic, comisario europeo para las Relaciones Interinstitucionales, manifestó en rueda de prensa, el pasado miércoles 15 de junio, que no existe ninguna justificación legal o política para cambiar de forma unilateral un acuerdo internacional, y subrayó que lo que ha hecho Londres es ilegal. En consecuencia, la UE procederá a abrir procedimientos de infracción contra RU.
Infórmate sobre las novedades del Brexit, conoce los últimos cambios normativos y organiza tu calendario con las fechas más relevantes para ti en www.thebrexitlaw.com
Laura Gallego Herráez
Laura currently holds the position of Associate Spanish Lawyer and business developer at Scornik Gerstein LLP.
Since 1886, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK has endeavoured to assist and support SMEs, helping them expand their commercial activities in both the UK and Spain through connections with potential clients and providers, and offering visibility.
To celebrate SME Day 2022, we have put together a summary of the internationalisation services that our Foreign Trade Department offers to ensure that SMEs, both Members and non-Members of the Chamber, land smoothly in the British market.
The services include:
Market Research Reports: This service delves into the British market, thereby helping the contracting company understand the main characteristics of their sector as well as channels, barriers and even potential customers and competitors. This service serves as a starting point to assess the suitability of carrying out a commercial agenda, or other commercial actions.
Commercial Agendas: With the objective of establishing face-to-face meetings with British companies related to the sector that interests the contracting company. Followed by a detailed report explaining our process, contacted companies, market reports, and recommendations for the future.
Lists of Companies: We provide a personalised database of companies in a certain sector and with a specific profile detailed by the contracting company.
Commercial Presentations: Here we make first contact in the British market by presenting the products of the Spanish company via email to the appropriate contacts, as well as establishing a first contact with potential customers or business partners.
These services are especially designed for SMEs and have continued to grow from strength to strength.
In addition to the above, the Chamber also supports SMEs by offering a range of informative webinars, promotion on social channels, face-to-face networking events, and much more.
This coming Saturday 23 April we celebrate both English Language Day and Spanish Language Day.
A relatively unknown initiative, the UN established Language Days in 2010, to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of the organisation’s six official languages.
The date 23 April was chosen as it marks the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, in Spain and coincidentally, the birth and death of William Shakespeare, in England.
These two giants of literature are apt symbols not just because of their traditional place in the canon but because of how they demonstrate the power of language in culture, politics and business. Their works continue to influence far beyond their lifetimes.
Since the golden days of the 1600s, Shakespeare’s works have been translated into more than 100 languages, including, of course, Spanish. His characters and phrases have become part of every-day culture and philosophy in multiple countries. Universities and even global corporations use Shakespeare’s dramas in their business courses and staff training sessions, to examine creativity, innovation, emotional intelligence, teamwork and ethics.
Cervantes’ infamous characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are equally entrenched the western world’s understanding of culture and humanity, and the novel itself is said to have given rise to the modern Spanish language. Adaptations of Don Quixote feature in films, ballets, even manga comics, and the lessons he learned (or failed to learn) still help us understand the world around us, whether that’s tilting at windmills or questioning the rights and wrongs of chivalry.
Today, of course, the world is much changed from when Old Castilian was still spoken and modern English was emerging. The average lifespan then was only around thirty years and illiteracy is estimated to have been over 70% in men and 90% in women.
Spanish and English are now arguably the most influential languages in the world (with Chinese close behind). Although English is the most widely spoken language globally, Spanish has the most native-speakers, at 493 million.
One of the most influential tools for enabling multilingualism and cultural diversity is the internet. Spanish is now the third-most used language online, after English and Chinese. And one of the newest languages – emoji – now has over 260 Latino emojis, inspired by Spanish-speakers in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, with more apparently being developed from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
Language and identity go hand in hand, and it is well established that people feel more comfortable communicating in their native language. Cross-border communication and understanding therefore requires multilingualism and translations between languages and cultures. Why not take some time to learn something new about the English or Spanish language this Sat 23 April? Maybe start with a little Shakespeare, or perhaps a new emoji.
Quality Spanish Translations is a translation and language services company based in the UK. Click here to learn more about their services.
We are delighted to announce that FCC has recently become a Patron of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom!
With cumulative experience of 120 years, the Infrastructure area of the FCC Group is present in 24 countries and its activities cover all areas of engineering and construction.
It is a leader in implementing transport infrastructure, as well as residential and non-residential construction. FCC Construcción is currently the fourth largest construction company in Spain, in terms of contract volume, and in the top 40 in the world according to the ranking by the international magazine, ENR (Engineering News-Record). It has a proven track-record in implementing projects under the concession regime, and has a group of companies dedicated to the industrial sector, grouped together under the FCC Industrial brand, as well as other activities related to the construction sector.
FCC Construcción has been present in the United Kingdom for more than 20 years and has become one of the leading companies in the country. The company has materialized its experience through major projects such as the N-6 and M-50 motorways in Ireland, Grangegorman University in Dublin (Ireland), the Mersey Bridge in Liverpool (United Kingdom) and the extension of the North Runway at Dublin International Airport (Ireland), among other projects. It was the first and only Spanish construction company to participate in the development of the infrastructures for the London 2012 Olympics.
It is currently executing the design of the new hospital in Jersey (United Kingdom). This contract is worth 40 million euros and has a term of one and a half years, until the design of the new hospital is completed.
It is also part of the consortium executing the A465 sections 5 and 6 highway extension project in Wales (United Kingdom). The project amounts to 653 million euros and is scheduled to last until May 2025.
The project, developed under the PPP model, consists of the widening of the A465 dual carriageway in sections 5 and 6, which are 17.3 kilometers long and are located between the towns of Dowlais Top, Merthyr Tydfil and Hirwaun. At present, these sections of the highway have a single carriageway and heavy traffic.
The completion of the project, which will widen the A465 dual carriageway, is important for the improvement of mobility and connectivity in Wales, as well as for the reactivation of the local economy. The widening of the A465 is a major investment that will generate a number of benefits for the local companies involved in the development of the project.
American gymnast Simone Biles shocked the world when she dropped out of the women’s team final at the recent Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to drop out of several other events as well. Originally citing a medical condition, Biles eventually revealed that she was struggling with her mental health.
Despite significant backlash, Biles’ supporters insisted that she did the right thing. Even her coach supported her decision. In the weeks since, her Olympic-altering move has sparked a renewed conversation about the link between mental health and athletic performance. As a trained psychoanalyst, I can tell you that the link is very real.
As a trained psychoanalyst, I think it is very sad for Simon Biles (and her team) she had to drop out of the Olympics final. Athletes take very good care of their bodies. Mental health issues should be addressed as issues with any other muscle or bone in the body. If athletes are not mentally healthy… they can’t perform. Exactly the same as if they had an injury in their leg.
Good news is that it seems that the stigma around mental health is breaking down: In the weeks since, her Olympic-altering move has sparked a renewed conversation about the link between mental health and athletic performance. As a trained psychoanalyst, I can tell you that the link is very real.
Athletes Are People Too
Modern culture has a bad habit of idolising athletes – especially those who compete at the highest levels. We think of Olympic athletes as superheroes whose sole mission in life is to represent their countries well. We think of our athletes as the toughest people in the world. In reality, they are normal people.
Professional athletes are exposed to just as much stress as anyone else. You could make the case that it’s worse for them, given that they live in the public eye and under tremendous scrutiny. Add to that the stress of competition and you have a recipe for mental health issues.
A 2016 study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine revealed that student athletes experience levels of stress similar to non-athlete students. Other studies have revealed similar data at both the amateur and professional levels. Simply put, athletes are not exempt from the kind of stress that leads to mental health challenges.
However, with the right support they could perform at their best and make the most of their “Alfa personality”. As an example, twins Gadirova team GB managed to get bronze medal at gymnastics and got distinction in their GCSE levels. They plan to study management and sport!
The Pressure of Competition
A leading cause of mental health issues in sports is the pressure of competition itself. Individual athletes are expected to be the best of the best. When it comes to team sports, the primary goal is winning trophies. Only the best teams win, and the best teams are made up of the best players and … good dynamics. Most of times psychic factors in team dynamics are ignored.
On top of that, the stress of competition can be overwhelming to athletes at any level. Unfortunately, athletes are often reluctant to seek out professional help. Their fans see them as tough and resilient, unwavering even under the most challenging circumstances. Athletes do not want to destroy that image. So instead of getting help, they keep everything inside. As a result, they sometimes end up having to drop out of the competítion as it happened to Simon Biles.
Signs of Stress in Athletes
As a psychotherapist in London, I have had the opportunity to observe how stress affects athletes first-hand. I have observed some of the same thing my colleagues around the world have observed, in terms of how stress manifests itself in athletes.
For example, one of the key signs that an athlete’s mental health is suffering is insomnia. Stressed athletes do not tend to sleep well. That’s odd, giving the amount of physical exertion they experience. One would think that a full day of training and workouts would leave an athlete so exhausted that sleep was unavoidable. But that is not the case when stress is involved.
Other signs of mental health problems in athletes include:
changes in eating habits
a lack of energy
increased self-criticism
increased irritability and frustration.
Unfortunately, an athlete whose mental health is suffering is at higher risk of physical injury. An unfocused mind is more apt to make mistakes. Making matters worse is the lack of sleep and poor nutrition. Chronic stress and unconscious guilt can lead to disease and physical injury. They all add up to an unacceptable level of risk.
The link between athletic performance and mental health is very real. If you are a struggling athlete and live in the London area, I am here to help. I offer psychotherapy as well as treatments for depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic disorders.
Con el acuerdo del Brexit, el 24 de diciembre de 2021 se comenzó a delinear el nuevo panorama legal que regula las relaciones entre Reino Unido (RU) y la Unión Europea (UE). Tras más de seis meses transcurridos desde la histórica fecha, podemos afirmar que la city sigue siendo business friendly, y ello con independencia de que la empresa matriz esté en Canadá o en Madrid, ya que, como veremos a continuación, la normativa de RU continúa brindando pragmatismo, celeridad y certidumbre a las empresas, incluso para aquellas cuya lex societatis [1]esté regulada por un país europeo.
¿Qué es un Establecimiento Permanente (EP)?
Como se indica en el artículo 5 [2] del Convenio firmado entre España (SP) y RU para evitar la doble imposición, un EP es un lugar fijo de negocios mediante el cual una empresa no residente, realiza parte de su actividad.
Por lo tanto, el concepto de EP comprende en particular:
Sedes de dirección;
Sucursales;
Oficinas;
Fábricas;
Talleres;
Minas, pozos de petróleo o de gas, las canteras o cualquier otro lugar de extracción de recursos naturales.
Una obra o un proyecto de construcción o instalación, sólo constituyen EP cuando su duración excede de doce meses.
También, existe un EP cuando un agente dependiente ejecuta contratos en nombre de la empresa española (principal). Es importante tener en cuenta que, si el agente trabaja independientemente del principal, por ejemplo, como autónomo, no existirá EP.
Se debe tener en cuenta que en el concepto de EP no se incluyen:
La utilización de instalaciones con el único fin de almacenar o entregar bienes o mercancías pertenecientes a la empresa.
El mantenimiento de un depósito de bienes o mercancías pertenecientes a la empresa con el único fin de que sean transformadas por otra empresa.
¿Qué requisitos debe cumplir una empresa española para operar en RU a través de un EP?
EPs que comenzaron a operar en RU antes del 1 de octubre de 2019.
Los EPs que hayan comenzado a operar en RU antes del 1 de octubre de 2019, únicamente necesitan cumplimentar el formulario (OS TN01)[3] para continuar operando legalmente en RU, después del Brexit. Una vez que dicho formulario ha sido cumplimentado y enviado a Companies House (registro mercantil) se le añadirá el prefijo “BR” al número de registro del EP.
EPs que comienzan a operar en RU después del 1 de octubre de 2019.
En este caso, dentro del primer mes en que la empresa española haya comenzado a operar en RU a través de un EP, debe proceder al registro del mismo cumplimentando el formulario OS IN01[4] y enviándolo a Companies House.
La información requerida para la cumplimentación del formulario IN01[5] es la siguiente:
Denominación y tipo social de la sociedad española;
Órgano y forma de administración de la empresa;
Copia de la escritura de constitución de la empresa española y de las últimas cuentas anuales depositadas en el registro mercantil.
Datos del EP en RU: nombre, dirección, naturaleza de la empresa, datos de los representantes permanentes autorizados y alcance de su autoridad, así como nombres y direcciones de toda persona residente en RU autorizada a aceptar la notificación o traslado de documentos en nombre de la empresa española.
Una vez registrado el EP, la empresa española debe actualizar la información facilitada a Companies House, en caso de que se produzca alguna modificación en la misma.
Empresa española con EP en RU que se encuentre en concurso de acreedores o en liquidación.
Si una empresa española con EP en RU entra en concurso de acreedores o en liquidación, debe comunicar esta situación a Companies House, facilitando información referente a tipo de procedimiento y a la fecha de inicio y finalización del mismo.
Presentación de cuentas anuales de la empresa española con EP en RU.
Las empresas españolas con EP en RU, deben presentar en Companies House, los mismos documentos que, en aplicación de la legislación española, estén obligadas a presentar en el registro mercantil español respecto al depósito de sus cuentas anuales. [6]
El plazo de presentación de dichos documentos en Companies House, será de tres meses a partir de la fecha en la que la documentación deba ser presentada por la empresa española en el registro mercantil español.
Infórmate sobre las novedades del Brexit, conoce los últimos cambios normativos y organiza tu calendario con las fechas más relevantes para ti enwww.thebrexitlaw.com
[1] Podemos definir la lex societatis como la ley estatal (ordenamiento jurídico) que determina la ley aplicable a las sociedades desde su constitución hasta su disolución, extinción o liquidación.
For this new trade tip, we at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom have decided to focus on the benefits of adapting to e-commerce in modern businesses.
E-commerce can bring lots of benefits and advantages to your business, with really easy and useful tools at very low costs. Of course, to use online platforms efficiently, it is necessary to have a well-developed infrastructure and logistics system, in order to be capable of meeting demands and deliver the products in a safe and fast way.
For more information, please, do not hesitate to contact our team by sending an email to info@spanishchamber.co.uk and mentioning TradeTip August 2021 as a reference.
There is a tendency to believe that people cannot benefit from psychotherapy unless they are clinically ill. Nothing could be further from the truth. You don’t have to be sick to benefit from therapy. You do not have to be clinically depressed to reap benefits from spending time with a psychotherapist.
At my psychotherapy practice in London, I work with patients who would not be classified by psychiatrists or psychologists as mentally ill. Rather, they are just having trouble navigating significant life changes. I help them work through their difficulties by exploring different ways of thinking.
Though this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are five life changes psychoanalysis could help you navigate:
1. The Death of a Loved One
All of us lose loved ones. Death is a normal part of life. But for some people, navigating the death of a loved one proves extremely challenging. An overwhelming sense of loss can lead to feelings of hopelessness and despair. In some cases, people can begin to wonder how they will manage to go on without the lost person still in their lives.
Psychoanalysis approaches death from a different perspective. It seeks to embrace the natural event that is death and help those affected by it to build something new. It is not a matter of forgetting the one who was lost, but a matter of building something new in that person’s absence.
2. Relationship Breakups
These days, psychoanalysis is being used more often to help people struggling with relationship breakups. Divorces and separations are at the top of the list. Likewise, psychoanalysis is helpful for navigating marriage problems, parenting problems, etc. – before they lead to breakup.
Difficult relationships almost always require a new way of thinking. Otherwise, already established thought patterns only exacerbate the problems.
Online dating brings with it new challenges. Searching for love and finding a healthy relationship can be a long process. Psychoanalysis helps you live love relationships with joy and without anxiety.
3. Work and Career Changes
I sometimes see patients in my London clinic who are having a challenging time with work and career anxiety. One patient may be fresh out of university and feeling anxious about launching his career. Feeling he is already late. Another might be in the second decade of employment in the same job, but frustrated in the company and thinking about doing something else.
Anxiety related to work and careers is very real. It is even more prevalent today: society, social media, preset ideas … demand more from us than ever before. Thankfully, psychotherapy can help patients develop a new perspective on work and career, a perspective that reduces anxiety and increases joy as we could have never thought before.
4. Pending Retirement
A natural extension of work and career changes is pending retirement. It is not uncommon for soon-to-be pensioners to wonder how they are going to make it financially. Fear of not being able to pay one’s bills can be stifling. Likewise, not being able to continue enjoying one’s current lifestyle can leave a pensioner wondering what the future holds. Society underestimates old people and hence old people, underestimates themselves.
Our life might have been amazing but… that life might not work for old age. That is why when we grow older, transforming ourselves is key to continue being alive. Psychoanalysis helps you in that transformation: “To reach very old age, you need a bit of money, a lot of love, continue working and… in order not to die, old people need to be desire”.
5. Long-Distance Moves
Moving house is fairly routine when it doesn’t involve a long-distance relocation. On the other hand, long-distance moves can be terribly frightening. Moving to the other side of the country can be difficult enough, but moving to a new country can be even more daunting.
Once again, psychotherapy encourages a new way of thinking. It encourages a person to embrace their new life elsewhere rather than holding onto the life being left behind. Being able to substitute is a Key mental health indicator.
I am continually fascinated by how people who are not clinically ill can benefit from psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. What I do can help you navigate the life changes you will inevitably experience. Indeed, that’s why I do what I do. Through my training and personal experience, I help patients navigate tough times and emerge from them better off for it.Contact me today to see how I can help you.
The global pandemic of COVID-19, the new social dimension, and the continuous obligation to stay at home has boosted consumers to increase their interest in online shopping. This situation has consequently affected the demand and uncertain supply chain issues for the e-commerce industry. Indeed, as the World Trade Organization (WTO) declared, it has been the most important period of time for e-commerce to save the world economy intervening with vigor and vitality to prove the importance and effectiveness of e-commerce in the field of trade and online shopping.
As observed, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, shares of traditional trade have become increasingly volatile and in marked decline, a reason for which a major part of traders of traditional markets have decided to move towards online trade in order to keep up with the rest of their share, sustaining their commercial dimension and thus their success in local, national and international markets.
Although e-commerce has been affected by the pandemic of COVID-19 globally, certain regions of the world such as America, Europe and Asia have witnessed the major changes most particularly. Generally speaking, the pandemic has led to many people from OECD countries having to limit physical interactions due to the imposition of strict confinement measures. As an example, in the case of the United Kingdom, the shares on e-commerce in retail rose from 17.3% to 20.3% during the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2020, to then rise considerably to 31.3% between the first and second quarter of 2020. For other areas such as the People’s Republic of China, the shares of total online retail accumulated retail sales between January and August 2020, reaching a total of 24.6%.
Figure 1. The COVID-19 crisis has increased the share of e-commerce in total retail
Source: OECD Data 2021
In respect to the dimension of multinational companies, we would be ready to state that e-commerce has gained extensive popularity over recent months. Certain companies such as Amazon or Alibaba have become leaders of their spaces, changing dramatically the current business climate, as for those stores that have closed their doors, for the time being, there have still come about new methods of generating income, especially when having a reliable e-commerce platform that can promote the creation of stable revenue and saving the business of thousands of companies.
Nonetheless, we must recognize that consumer behavior has been the most affected realm. A recent study by the OECD has reported a 40% increase in e-commerce since the beginning of the sanitary crisis. Indeed, aside from being an efficient way of generating revenue, we can still find other benefits to supply companies’ products online, reason that explains why it is so crucial for any business to have an online shopping platform.
In the following paragraphs we will be able to see some of the benefits that e-commerce can provide to any business company.
1 – Boosting convenience though e-commerce. Selling products through an online platform offers a convenient shopping experience for customers. Convenience can now be achieved easily, clicking a button and from the comfort of customers’ couch. Undoubtedly, with so many people having to stay at home, convenience and e-commerce have never played such a fundamental role.
2 – Increasing market size. Another benefit is that having an e-commerce platform will increase the potential market size of hundreds of companies with minimal effort, especially in the context of COVID-19 and the current business climate.
3 – Insights on consumer behavior. What is more, online shopping is highly trackable, which means that all businesses, particularly the smallest, can benefit from a better understanding of their consumers. Nonetheless, when it comes to understanding consumer behavior, companies should focus on:
a. Key factors that can help the segmentation of customers.
b. How customers interact with companies’ sites.
c. How customers reach or have reached the companies’ sites.
d. Preferences of customers and where they are visiting the most.
e. What devices customers are using to access companies’ sites (mobile phone, desktop…)
With COVID-19 having dramatically changed normal consumer behavior, it is an important time to understand and to adapt to the new preferences of customers, creating new marketing strategies in order to target customers more appropriately.
4 – Programs to impulse gaining insights. Many useful programs can help companies to gain insights for their e-commerce platforms. Some examples of these type of analytics tools include Microsoft’s Power BI & Dynamics365. Using these programs will help companies to stay informed and up-to-date on how consumers interact with websites.
5 – Lower variable expenses through e-commerce. As mentioned previously, with the current business environment, many businesses are no longer generating the same income as before, what means that necessary operating expenses become much harder to be paid. Unquestionably, using online platforms can help lower variable operating costs as well as helping companies to decrease in advertising expenses by focusing on their ad budgets and on more cost-effective options like pay-per-click or social media.
6 – Survive with E-commerce. The ongoing environment is making it more than challenging for companies to survive. Indeed, it has never been so critical for small business to be available online. Without any single doubt, utilising e-commerce can help your business to survive through these times full of uncertainty.
To conclude with and as has been detailed above, the global crisis of COVID-19 has accelerated the expansion of e-commerce towards new firms, customers, and different type of products. Although in the past for many consumer groups e-commerce was focused on high tech goods, toys or books, it now increasingly involves goods for which availability is critical to a larger share of the population, including groceries, medicine and other necessities. For most of the firms, e-commerce is now a vital alternative and a differentiated sales strategy which allows continued operations despite of contact restrictions and other confinement measures.
Nevertheless, it is absolutely true that in order to ensure an efficient e-commerce landscape that adapts to everyone, policy makers should further foster the enabling environment for online transactions in specific areas such as digital connectivity, logistics and international trade, included in all kinds of digital goods and services. Supporting the creation of innovative e-commerce business models, ensuring that regulatory frameworks remain flexible enough to shelter different combinations of online and offline business functions as well as reducing regulatory uncertainty and promoting transparency through information sharing have turned out to be vital in the fundamental role that e-commerce has played during the global crisis of Covid-19.
Source: Tekshapers Blog “Shaping Intelligence”
As experts have recently predicted, in terms of future of e-commerce in the 21st century, it will be confirmed as the major tool of sales for goods and services.
Are you aware of the fundamental role that e-commerce has played during the global crisis of Covid-19?
The concept of PE will depend on whether the country of residence of the taxpayer, has a double tax agreement (DTA) entered with Spain (SP), as we explain below:
If the country of residence of the taxpayer has no DTA in place with SP, the definition of PE under Spanish legislation [1] will apply.
If there is a DTA between the country of residence of the taxpayer and SP, the definition contained in the said DTA will apply.
SP and United Kingdom (UK) have entered into a DTA, therefore the definition therein provided will apply. Accordingly, pursuant to Article 5 [2] of the said DTA, a British company has a PE in SP, when it has, within the Spanish´s territory, a fixed place of business or an operational site through which habitually performs a business activity.
Also, a PE exists when a dependant agent executes a contract on behalf of the British company (principal). It is important to bear in mind that if the agent works independently from the principal, for example, with a self-employed status, a PE will not exist [3].
Accordingly, a PE includes, but is not limited to:
Places of management;
Offices and workshops;
Natural resources exploitation: petroleum or gas wells mines or quarries;
Factories;
Construction or installation sites;
Branches.
Let´s see some examples:
Example 1:
Debbie is running a shoe company in the UK and she has rented a factory in SP from which she will employ workers and apply for the necessary licences to manufacture shoes. Also, Debbie will export shoes directly from the factory to the UK and EU countries. Has Debbie a PE in SP?
Yes, Debbie has an EP in SP because it meets the requirements set out at Article 5 of the DTA.
Example 2:
Lucy, British resident, owns a property [4] in Mallorca (SP) and she is receiving income from renting it out . Has Lucy a PE in SP?
No. However, if Lucy had a British company that owns properties in Spain for the purposes of renting them out, Lucy will have a PE in SP.
What are the differences between a branch and a PE?
PE is a concept which does not appear in the commercial law field, it has been created by the tax authorities to tax income obtained in SP by certain non-resident companies.
Since PE is only identified by its physical nature, as an installation or a place in which a non-Spanish resident company, carries out business operations, we can say that the concept of a branch will always include the one of PE, but not the other way around.
Moreover, while the incorporation of a branch requires a series of legal formalities[5] which end with its registration at the Spanish Mercantile Register (registro mercantil), to set up a PE is simpler, being necessary, among other requirements, applying for a Tax Identification Number (NIF), but since it does not possess legal personality, it is not required for the PE to gain registration at the Spanish Mercantile Register (registro mercantil).
Which activities can perform a British company through a PE in SP?
The business activities performed by a British company, in SP through a PE must be stick to those set out in its statutes. For example, a British company that runs an English course business, cannot set up an EP in SP to produce shoes.
Will British companies operating in SP through a PE pay more taxes due to Brexit?
No, as we mentioned before SP and UK has a DTA in place which prevents paying tax in both countries on the same income and it still applies after Brexit.
Once my British company has a PE in SP which profits will be taxed?
Non Spanish residents that obtain income through a permanent PE within SP will be taxed on the total income attributable to said establishment, which are the following:
Income from economic activities or operations carried out by the PE.
Income, profits or capital gains derived from the assets of the PE.
Generally speaking, the income attributed to an EP will be taxed following the Spanish corporate income tax rules, [6] being the general corporate income tax rate currently at 25%. [7] .
How the income is taxed when the non-resident company has more than one PE within Spain?
When a taxpayer has more than one PE within the Spanish territory, whose activities and management are clearly differentiated, they will be taxed separately.
Accordingly, each PE must keep its own accountancy records separately from the other PEs.
If you wish to keep updated about the new rules and new opportunities generated by Brexit, please register your interest at www.thebrexitlaw.com
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