INTRODUCTION

Loyens & Loeff

Loyens & Loeff is a leading firm and a natural choice when selecting a legal and tax partner if you are doing business in or from our home markets of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Our expertise includes the tax and legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, IPOs, structured and project financing, real estate investments, leasing transactions, intellectual property rights and much more. With a hundred-year track record of international (corporate) tax advice, today our team consists of high-level specialists including 350 international tax lawyers and 500 corporate/regulatory lawyers working from our offices in all the major global financial centres.

Through this integrated office network, you have access to Loyens & Loeff's full-service legal expertise across multiple time zones, complemented by our many country desks, each of which boasts specialists experienced in structuring investments around the world. And our reach goes further still, leveraging strong, long-standing relationships with other leading independent law firms and tax consultants in Europe, the United States, Russia and beyond.

This makes Loyens & Loeff the logical choice for large and medium-size enterprises, as well as banks and other financial institutions that operate on the international stage. The evidence is clear, with Loyens & Loeff winning the Who's Who Global Corporate Tax Firm 2016 Award and coming out top for tax advice in the 2015 editions of Legal 500, Chambers Global, Chambers Europe and World Tax.

A team for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Since the accession of many new countries to the European Union, there has been an increase in the flow of inbound and outbound investments across these new member states. In order to establish a clearer picture of developments in the CEE region, Loyens & Loeff in 2002 created a dedicated team of expert attorneys and tax advisers, each with extensive experience in advising clients on transactions specifically relating to the CEE market.

The CEE team has since been involved in many investment structures taking place in the newer EU countries, in no small part due to the fact that the Netherlands and Luxembourg often provide an ideal location for (intermediary) holdings or financing companies.

A comparison of CEE countries

The CEE team has developed and maintained this concise and practical publication so tax practitioners can compare the main features of the tax regimes of our home markets and the most recent members of the European Union (listed below). It is intended as a tool for an initial comparison, with specific reference to holding companies that may also engage in financing and/or licensing activities, taking into account the impact of EU GAAR. This document should not be used as a substitute for obtaining local tax advice.

We hope that this publication will find its permanent place on the desks of practitioners involved in international tax planning in relation to these countries, and we gratefully acknowledge the contributions of each firm (listed below) who provided information on the various jurisdictions. Additional information regarding the regimes in the selected jurisdictions may be obtained by contacting the undersigned or the contributing firms via their websites shown below.

Belgium Loyens & Loeff loyensloeff.com
Bulgaria Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov dgkv.com
Croatia LeitnerLeitner leitnerleitner.hr
Cyprus Elias Neocleous & Co LLC neo.law
Czech Republic White & Case LLP whitecase.com
Estonia Sorainen sorainen.ee
Hungary Jalsovszky jalsovszky.com
Latvia Sorainen sorainen.lv
Lithuania Sorainen sorainen.lt
Luxembourg Loyens & Loeff loyensloeff.com
Malta Francis J. Vassallo & Associates Limited fjvassallo.com
Poland Dentons Europe Dabrowski i Wspólnicy sp. k. dentons.com
Romania Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen nndkp.com
Slovakia PRK Partners s.r.o. prkpartners.sk
Slovenia LeitnerLeitner leitnerleitner.com
Switzerland Loyens & Loeff loyensloeff.com
The Netherlands Loyens & Loeff loyensloeff.com

The information contained in this publication is based on the applicable laws in effect as per 1 January 2017.

Yours sincerely,

Bartjan Zoetmulder (partner & team leader), Robert Wintgens (senior associate & team member), Arthur Smeijer (associate & team member) and Lisanne Bergwerff (associate & team member)

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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.