Last June 14^th, the Chamber organized, in collaboration with its member DS Avocats and the firm Invertir, a conference about “strategic and legal mechanisms for promoting private investment in Peru”. The event was attended by Mr. Gonzalo Gutiérrez, Ambassador of Peru before the European Union, the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, representatives of European Institutions and several Spanish, Peruvian and Belgian companies, as well as some of the Chamber’s members.

To begin with, Gonzalo Gutiérrez, Ambassador of Perú before the EU, started his intervention by thanking the attendees’ participation and the Chamber’s efforts to organize such an event. To continue, a brief introduction on the close ties between his country and Europe was made, as a factor to explain how Peru has multiplied its trade by 10 during the last few years, the country’s GDP has increased by a rate close to 6%, poverty has been reduced from 58% to 22% and the middle class has grown an 18%.

The Ambassador also highlighted Spain as an example on telecom, mining and financial investments. To conclude, trade and investment were remarked as the fuel for development and growth in Peru during the next 20 years.

Afterwards, Daniel Córdova, CEO of Invertir, gave a speech on “the mechanisms of Public Works Tax Deduction and others to promote private investment”. Among the many business opportunities in the country, he emphasized those found at the transport, energy, health and telecom sectors. He also underlined, however, the water and mining sectors, since a third of the population does not have access to drinking water or education. As advantageous assets for investments made in Peru, he mentioned stable prices, a remarkable reduction on inflation and the fact that for the last two decades the country has experienced the highest GDP growth in Latin America.

Moreover, he explained the reasoning behind Public Works Tax Deductions for which the private sector invests on public works of their choice to promote the country’s development. To conclude, Mr. Córdova emphasized the healthy performance of the Peruvian economy and the many opportunities provided for companies.

Finally, Patricia Cuba-Sichler, Lawyer Counsel at DS Avocats, manager of the Desk for Latin America and Managing Partner at DS Lima, spoke about general concepts on corporate and tax law for firms to invest or create a subsidiary in Peru. According to Cuba-Sichler, Peru offers a series of advantages; such as its economic openness and its dividend repatriation, among many others. In addition, the Peruvian Constitution establishes the equality of enterprise -be it foreign or local companies- when it comes to investing in the country and there is a serious political commitment to extinguish the many infrastructural deficiencies.

The conference was held in a participative atmosphere, thanks to which all the attendees had the opportunity to pose several questions to the lecturers and interact with them.

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Last April 24th, the ambassadors of Spain and ten Latin American countries in Belgium read pieces of the book One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It took place in the Instituto Cervantes in Brussels, in a celebration of the Spanish Day of the Book. The Secretary General of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, María Catalán, participated in the event.

The event was organized by the embassies of Spain and Colombia, and all the attendees were given books and roses, like in the Catalan tradition of Sant Jordi.

Besides the Spanish Ambassador, Cecilia Yuste, and the one in Colombia, Rodrigo Rivera, the Ambassadors from Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia, between others, read different parts of the book.

Yuste remarked the excelent collaboration of Latin American embassies on the promotion of Spanish language. “Spanish is something in common we have to celebrate with all Latin American embassies and we always find a kind welcome in them”, she underlined.

Source: Agencia EFE

On  February 16^th, the Chamber, in collaboration with its member Spanish VAT Services, organized a conference on the “VAT on intra-community and e-commerce operations”. The event gathered representatives of different Spanish and Belgian companies, members of the Chamber, representatives of European institutions and Spanish regional delegations.

The speaker of the conference Fernando Matesanz, Managing Director of Spanish VAT Services, who began his speech thanking the participation of the attendees and the Chamber for the organization of the event.

To begin with, Matesanz gave a brief introduction on intra EU supplies of goods. To do this, he provided examples of possible transactions between European countries (such as Belgium and Spain), specifying in which cases it would be necessary to include the Value Added Tax (VAT), and where it should be charged.

Regarding EU supply of goods, the speaker underlined the importance of Article 44 of the European VAT Directive. As a synthesis, he proposed three keys that every service provider should consider: if the recipient of the service is a taxable person, if the taxable person acts as such and where the recipient is established. For each case, there are different conditions and standards, for which Matesanz addressed the possible situations to which the companies are exposed and how to manage them.

Subsequently, Matesanz briefly mentioned the characteristics of non-EU trade between EU countries and countries that are not part of the European Union, which are exempted from this type of tax.

To conclude, the speaker remarked the importance of e-commerce nowadays, given the high number of transactions that are carried out through the Internet daily. For this reason, he dedicated a section of the speech to differentiate between B2B e-commerce goods transactions (which work in the same way as EU supply of goods) and B2C goods transactions, more typical of Internet sales, in which companies must take the VAT into account in all countries including the transaction.

The future of e-commerce services transactions generated a space for debate on two issues raised by the speaker: the introduction of the MOSS system as a new tax regime for electronic commerce and the management of transactions with the UK after the Brexit, as it will be out of the EU’s transactional framework.

Matesanz encouraged the intervention of the participants, who raised specific doubts regarding the scope of the VAT Directive, changes in the interpretation of legislation and specific cases of transactions between countries inside and outside the European Union. The Managing Director of Spanish VAT Services answered each of the issues and concluded by emphasizing the importance of the correct application of VAT rates in each case, exemplifying it with three cases in which the price was exactly the same, varying the percentage corresponding to the supplier.