The law of contract in South African affords parties the freedom to enter into a contract and who they wish to enter with. The general requirements for a legally enforceable contract are consent, good faith, and the sanctity of contract. The contractual freedom of parties also offers them freedom to choose the terms of their contract. Part of these terms is the freedom to incorporate exemption clauses in contracts. An exemption clause is a waiver of liability or the apportionment of risk in the event of an occurrence materialising as defined in the contract. Exemption clauses have become the norm rather than the exception and parties must therefore expect a contract to contain an exemption clause, albeit unfair. Until recently, there was no legislation that declared exemption clauses as unfair. The Consumer Protection Act is South Africa's first legislative regulation on unfair contract terms and the waiver of liability. The Act does not address the contractual freedom of parties to incorporate exemption clauses and whether they will be unenforceable in the light of section 48. The Act cannot be implemented without considering the freedom of contract to rely on exemption clauses. A literature study will be undertaken in order to establish the influence of section 48 of the Consumer Protection Act on South African law of contract and exemption clauses. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Canadian courts, despite recognition in the Canadian Constitution, 1982 that treaties are to govern the Crown-Aboriginal relationship, continue to develop principles of interpretation that narrow Aboriginal and treaty rights, including the taxation provisions of the Indian Act. In Robertson, the Federal Court of Appeal, building on Mitchell v Peguis, articulated a “historic and purposive” analysis, by reliance on a distinctive culture test and an ascribed protection rationale, thereby abrogating the fundamental treaty relationship. As a means to fuller implementation of the spirit and intent of Treaties, taxation provisions must be interpreted in a treaty-compliant manner. The potential for economic participation through a proposed “urban reserve” on the Kapyong Barracks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as part of a Treaty 1 settlement, is discussed as a case study, and compared with similar developments in New Zealand, under a Waitangi Tribunal settlement, as an example of treaty compliance in economic development. / May 2017

L'objectif poursuivi par la Commission européenne à travers la réglementation de la concurrence consiste en l'intégration des marchés nationaux en un marché communautaire unique. À cet effet, l'exécutif européen a très tôt érigé le secteur automobile en vecteur privilégié de cette unification, établissant un régime concurrentiel des restrictions verticales insérées dans les accords de production et de distribution automobile plus efficient que ne l'est le régime général des restrictions verticales. Désireuse, dans un premier temps, d'appréhender toujours plus finement les réalités économiques du secteur, la Commission a par la suite pris conscience de l'importance des services après-vente dans le processus concurrentiel. Il y a alors là les deux pans du régime automobile. D'une part, une appréhension de la conjoncture économique du secteur, d'autre part une prise en compte de la nature complexe du bien automobile. Cette dernière, commune à tous les biens intégrant des droits intellectuels et auxquels sont intrinsèquement liés des services après-vente, justifie donc des règles de concurrence particulières ne bénéficiant pourtant qu'au seul bien automobile. L'objectif de ce travail de recherche s'est alors axé sur la distinction des deux pans du régime automobile afin d'identifier les dispositions commandées par la nature complexe, pour ensuite proposer leur application à l'ensemble des biens complexes. / The European Commission's object through the regulations of the competition consists of the integration of the national markets within a unique community market. For that purpose, the European executive did present as soon as possible the car industry as a privileged vector of this unification, setting up a competitive system of the vertical limitations within the agreements of production and distribution more efficient than is the overall system. Willing, at first, to arrest always shrewdly the economic realities of the sector, the Commission came around the importance of after-sales services in the competitive process afterward. Here are then both sections of the car industry system. On one hand, an apprehension of the economic situation of the sector, on the other hand a consideration of the complex nature of the car goods. This last one, as for all the goods including intellectual rights and to whom are intrinsically linked after-sales services, justifies therefore particular rules of competition and yet benefiting the car industry only. The goal of this research work was then focused on the distinction of both sections of the car industry system, to identify the rules commanded by the complex nature in order to propose their application to the whole of the complex goods thereafter.

Bakgrund: År 2010 avskaffades revisionsplikten för småbolag i Sverige. Detta medförde att mindre bolag frivilligt kunde välja att anlita revision eller inte. I dagsläget väljer 25 % av bolagen att anlita revisor. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka varför småföretag väljer att anlita en revisor trots avskaffandet av revisionsplikten. Studien kommer att undersöka faktorerna som bidrar till att revision efterfrågas. Metod: Primärdata har samlats in genom kvalitativa och kvantitativa forskningsmetoder. Den kvalitativa ansatsen består av intervjuer med småföretagare inom tjänstesektorn och handelsbranschen. För att få mer djupgående information om huvudämnet har intervjuer även skett med en auktoriserad revisor och en jurist som suttit med som representant för Företagarna i den statliga utredningen som föreslog avskaffandet av revisionsplikten. Den kvantitativa metoden utgörsav en enkätundersökning som besvarats av 130 småföretag. Slutsats: Vår slutsats är att efterfrågan på revision beror på flera faktorer och de faktorerna som har konstaterats ha en inverkan på att mindre bolag efterfrågar revision är intressenter, internnytta, rådgivning, företagsstorlek, outsourcing och branschtillhörighet. / Background: The abolishment of mandatory auditin Sweden was in 2010. This caused that smaller companies could voluntarly choose between to beaudited or not. Today,25 % of the smaller companies voluntarly choose to be audited. Purpose:The pupose with this study is to examine why smaller companies choose to hire an accountant although the abolishment of mandatory audit. The study will investigate which factors that causes demand of audit. Method: Primary data has been collected through a qualitative and a quantitative research method. The qualitative method has been collected through interviews with small companies in the service and tradesector. To get more detailed information about the main subject, interviewshasconductedwithacertifiedaccountantandwithalawyerwhoas adelegateon thebehalfofthe business association(Företagarna)in the stateinvestigation thatsuggested abolitionofmandatoryauditonsmallercompanies.The quantitative method consists of a survey answered by 130 small businesses. Conclusion: The conclusion is that the demand on auditing depends on several factors and the factors that have been identified as having an impact on smaller companies requesting the auditis stakeholders, internal benefits, consulting, companysize outsourcing and industryaffiliation.

The recent decades have seen a steady growth of international trade of goods. In order to harmonize the legal environment concerning this materia, attempts for unification of international sales law have been made. In the field of sales of goods, several international instruments have been adopted. These include the (unsuccessful) Convention relating to a Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods, the model laws, i.e. the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts and the Principles of European Contract Law, and, most notably, the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). This master's thesis aims to explore one type of remedies for non-performance under the CISG, namely provisions on damages. In a great detail, articles 74, 77, 79 and 80 will be analysed. First, a detailed commentary on two major prerequisites for liability for damages, i.e. causation and foreseeability, will be given. The various factual and legal causation theories will be described. Then it will be demonstrated why it is just and useful that the CISG contains a provision for limiting liability to foreseeable loss and how foreseeability is measured. We will then move to another method of limiting damages - mitigation rule. It will be shown why it is in the aggrieved party's best...

Criminal liability of legal persons Abstract The author of the thesis deals with the issue of criminal liability of legal persons, from the position of her advocate. The purpose of the study is to stress the need to introduce this institute into the legal systems of democratic states, but at the same time to deal with the problems brought by its Czech substantive law. In the first part of the thesis the author discusses the legal aspect of criminal liability of legal persons, summarizes opinions for and against the introduction of criminal liability of legal persons, and examines the criminological aspects of corporate crime. The second part of the thesis focuses on the differences, advantages and disadvantages of three basic models of criminal liability of legal persons - true, false and administrative. The author commends that the Czech Republic has proceeded to introduce true criminal liability of legal persons. The third part explains the term legal person itself. In the pivotal fourth part of the thesis, the author deals critically with the individual substantive provisions of the Czech law implementing the criminal liability of legal persons and proposes a solution de lege ferenda. The last part evaluates the whole issue using statistical data on the number of convicted legal persons in the Czech...

Tributos implícitos refletem a extensão pela qual ativos favorecidos tributariamente têm seu retorno pré-imposto reduzido em comparação com o retorno pré-imposto de ativos sem benefício fiscal e de risco similar. Em condição de equilíbrio de mercado, se dois ativos de riscos semelhantes possuírem o mesmo fluxo de caixa pré-imposto, mas um deles for favoravelmente tributado em relação ao outro, haverá maior demanda pelo ativo menos tributado, que terá, portanto, seu preço relativo aumentado. Conseqüentemente, dado que o retorno pós-imposto é o mesmo para ambos, o retorno pré-imposto do ativo favorecido será menor que o retorno pré-imposto do ativo não-beneficiado. A perda de retorno pré-imposto sofrida pelo ativo beneficiado decorre da tributação implícita. O aumento de preço do ativo beneficiado pressupõe que haja um detentor disposto a vendê-lo um tipo de investidor para o qual a alteração nos preços relativos acontece sem que o seu retorno pós-imposto se altere: o investidor marginal. Investidores que possuam alíquota marginal de imposto explícita diferente da suportada pelo investidor marginal formam a denominada clientela tributária, que se constitui por um investidor para o qual a mudança nos preços relativos alteraria também o seu retorno pós-imposto. Os objetivos da tese são apresentar a teoria econômica e os conceitos subjacentes à tributação implícita, assim como comprová-la empiricamente. Trata-se de tema importante, pois traz à luz um tipo de tributação ainda pouco visível para a maioria dos indivíduos e das empresas, mas que é tão material quanto a explícita (descrita nos códigos e regulamentos tributários e provisionada nas demonstrações financeiras). A MP nº 281/2006, que introduziu a isenção de imposto de renda para os rendimentos produzidos por títulos públicos federais adquiridos por estrangeiros, foi o evento ao redor do qual se examinou o efeito causado pela isenção sobre os retornos da NTN-B, título escolhido pelos não-residentes à época do ato. A hipótese testada foi de que a entrada maciça do investidor estrangeiro reduziria significativamente o retorno pré-imposto do título. Para os testes, empregou-se a análise de séries temporais: o mesmo título foi utilizado antes (sem benefício fiscal) e depois (beneficiado quando adquirido por estrangeiros) da MP. Assim, a diferença de percepção de risco que investidores possuem ao carregar ativos diferentes ficou mitigada, o que permitiu que se isolasse o efeito do benefício tributário sobre os retornos. Os resultados confirmaram que o investidor estrangeiro sofreu uma significativa tributação implícita: a depender da série da NTN-B, o investidor estrangeiro foi tributado implicitamente de 11% a 13%. A pesquisa contém também uma outra situação relacionada à MP nº 281/2006, mas que decorreu de falta de liquidez da NTN-B, quando o estrangeiro quis sair do mercado em momento posterior à entrada em vigor da MP. Nesse segundo instante, comprovou-se que o investidor estrangeiro recebeu um tributo implícito pago pelo governo brasileiro. Procurou-se demonstrar que o tributo implícito não é tipicamente pago para as autoridades tributárias. Na entrada do estrangeiro, houve pagamento de tributo implícito do não-residente para o investidor nacional. No momento seguinte, quando o investidor estrangeiro desejou sair do papel, o governo pagou o imposto implícito recebido pelo não-residente. Esses resultados contribuem para a pesquisa tributária no Brasil ao trazer novos conceitos correlatos à tributação implícita e demonstrar empiricamente que alterações tributárias podem resultar em alteração no retorno pré-imposto de ativos. Por exemplo, decisões de investidores podem ser afetadas quando uma empresa que tradicionalmente pagava dividendos passa a distribuir o seu lucro na forma de juros sobre capital próprio, conforme prediz a teoria da clientela tributária. Os resultados e conceitos também podem auxiliar na análise das conseqüências, sobre a economia como um todo, da implantação de políticas tributárias, assim como na implementação específica de determinado incentivo tributário sobre o retorno pré-imposto dos mais variados tipos de ativo. / Implicit taxes reflect the extent to which tax-favored assets bear lower pre-tax returns than do tax-disfavored assets of similar risk. In equilibrium, when two assets give rise to identical pre-tax cash flows, but the cash flows from one asset are taxed more favorably than those from the other asset, the tax-favored asset will increase relative to the price of the taxdisfavored asset. Consequently, given that the after-tax returns are the same to both assets, the pre-tax rate of return to the tax-favored asset will fall below that for the tax-disfavored asset. The loss of pre-tax return bore by the tax-favored asset is due to the implicit tax. The price rise of the tax-favored asset indicates that there is an investor willing to sell it a kind of investor to whom the prices of the assets change, with the result that the after-tax rates of return will remain the same to them (the marginal investor). Investors with explicit tax rates different from the explicit tax rate faced by marginal investors form a group of investors known as tax clientele. Those investors (clientele) are not indifferent to assets differently taxed. This research aims to present the economic theory and the main concepts related to implicit taxes, and still to test empirically its existence. Implicit taxes are an important issue because it sheds light upon a kind of taxation practically invisible to most people and businesses, but yet as real as the explicit taxes. The Provisional Measure n. 281/2006, which provided income tax exemption to non-resident investors who acquired federal government bonds, was the event chosen to empirically test for implicit tax effects, by examining NTN-B return changes surrounding the act. Indications suggested that foreign investors focused on a long-term Brazilian bond called NTN-B. The hypothesis to be tested was that the massive entrance of foreign investors would significantly reduce the NTN-B pre-tax return. Time series analysis was employed: the same bond was used before (without the tax exemption) and after (with the tax exemption) the act. Therefore, this study is less subject to confounding cross-sectional risk differences, helping to distinguish between the effects of taxes and risk. Results of empirical tests report a significant decrease of return suffered by the foreign investor, from 11% to 13%, depending on the bond invested. The study also investigates another event related to the tax exemption, but actually connected to the small liquidity of the NTN-B. Few months later, the same foreign investor who massively bought the NTN-B in response to the tax exemption decided to leave the Brazilian market. At this time, the Brazilian government paid him a significant implicit tax. The comparison between the first event (tax exemption) and the second one (liquidity) shows that implicit taxes are typically not paid directly to the taxing authority. When the foreign investor first entered the market, he paid implicit taxes to the Brazilian investor. Later on, when the foreign investor decided to sell the bond recently bought, the Brazilian government then paid him implicit taxes. These results contribute to tax research by demonstrating that changes in tax rates may result in changes in pre-tax returns. For instance, according to the theory of tax clienteles, the decisions of investors might be affected when a Brazilian company decides to change its dividend policy, by paying interest on own equity instead of dividends. The results and concepts also provide information to tax policy makers on the economy-wide effects of tax rate changes, as well as the effects of specific tax incentives on pre-tax returns.

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar aspectos relevantes da economia internacional. O primeiro ensaio desta tese visou avaliar pela primeira vez (até onde se tem conhecimento) se o recente desenvolvimento do mercado de Credit Default Swaps - CDS alterou os efeitos das mudanças de rating sobre o mercado financeiro.Como o CDS é um derivativo que tem como objetivo refletir a qualidade do crédito do ativo avaliado e esta mensuração é feita através do mercado e de forma contínua no tempo, este instrumento poderia reduzir a relevância dos ratings atribuídos pelas agências; uma vez que estes últimos também avaliam a qualidade do crédito, mas sua atuação é discreta no tempo. Foi empregada a metodologia de estudo de evento a uma base de dados diária de CDS, bolsa e taxas de câmbio para37 países. Em resumo,foram encontradas evidências de que o impacto das mudanças de ratings sobre os ativos financeiros sofreu moderação nos últimos dez anos e que o papel do CDS pode estar por trás desta redução. Além disso, foram encontrados resultados que mostram que o mercado de CDS é o que mais reage a reclassificações de risco. O principal objetivo dos ensaios seguintes é trazer luz ao debate das fontes de competitividade no comércio internacional. Neste sentido, o segundo ensaio trata do papel do custo fixo de entrada para a exportação sobre a competitividade internacional no nível da firma. Foi estimadoo custo médio de entrada para a exportação utilizando o banco de dados do World Bank Enterprise Survey do Banco Mundial que conta com informações de mais de 70 mil firmas de diversos setores de atividade distribuídas em mais de 120 países em desenvolvimento. A pesquisadora se apoiou no modelo e na metodologia desenvolvidos na publicação da Econometrica de Das, Roberts e Tybout (2007) e conclui que em média uma firma paga 3,2 milhões de dólares para começar a exportar. Além disso, encontrou que o custo fixo de entrada para exportação varia entre os países e isso ajuda a explicar porque firmas semelhantes com produtividade parecida instaladas em países diferentes têm probabilidades distintas de serem exportadoras. No terceiro ensaio desta tese, estudou-se o impacto da desoneração da folha de pagamento, implementada a partir de 2011, nas exportações e importações brasileiras. Através de um painel de efeito fixo para produto, relacionando as exportações e importações em função da variável desoneração e a da variável de intensidade de mão-de-obra na produção do bem. Os dados foram extraídos do MDIC, da PIA e a variável desoneração foi construída utilizando as diversas leis que, ao longo do tempo, foram ampliando o rol de bens desonerados. Grosso modo, controlando por intensidade de mão-de-obra, encontrou-se que as desonerações foram responsáveis por uma queda da quantidade importada dos bens cujos similares foram desonerados internamente, enquanto que o efeito nas exportações provocou uma queda nos preços dos bens desonerados que não foi compensada por uma elevação na quantidade exportada, o que conjuntamente resultou em uma queda das exportações em valor. / This thesis evaluated some relevant aspects of the international economy. The first chapter evaluatesfor the first time (as far as we know) if the recent development of the credit default swaps market, CDS, has changed the effects of rating reclassifications on the financial market. Given that the price of CDS is driven bythe entity\'s credit quality and it moves continuously over time, this instrument would reduce the significance of ratings assigned by the agencies, since these agencies act discretely over time. We apply the event study methodology to a daily database of CDS, stocks and exchange rates for 37 countries. Generally speaking, we find evidences that the impact of ratings changes on financial assets has moderated over the past decade and that the role of CDS may explain this reduction. Furthermore, we find results that show that the CDS market is more responsive to risk reclassification. The following chapters have the main objective to shed some light on the debate on the sources of competitiveness in international trade. In this sense, the second chapter studies the role of sunk entry cost to export in international competitiveness at firm level. We estimate the average export sunk entry cost using the World Bank Enterprise Survey database of the World Bank that has informations about more than 70 thousand firms spreaded over several activity\'s sectors and more than 120 developing countries. We followed the model and methodology developed by Das, Roberts and Tybout in a paper published in Econometrica in 2007 and we found that a firm, in average, pays 2.3million dollars in order to start exporting. Besides that, we found that the export entry cost varies between countries and this fact helps to explain why similar firms in different countries have different probabilities to become exporters. In the third chapter of this thesis, we present a study on the impact of the payroll tax exemption implemented since 2011 on Brazilian exports and imports. Using a panel of fixed effect for product, we will relate the exports and imports as function of the variable exemption and the variable of labor intensity in the production function of the good. The data were extracted from the MDIC, the PIA and the variable exemption was constructed using the many laws that, over time, were expanding the list of exempted goods. Generally speaking, controlling by labor intensity, we found that the payroll tax exemption was responsible for a drop in the quantity of goods imported from abroad, while the effect on exports led to a drop in the prices of the goods exported, which was not offset by a rise in the quantity exported, resulting in a fall in exports by FOB value.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:24:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Taisa Silva Reque.pdf: 1230823 bytes, checksum: bb5376deb136e1a8a9a2cb7f1542047c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The granting of ICMS tax incentives by States in order to attract investments is a recurrent and old practice: it was already practiced during the term of the former Tax on Sales and Consignment (IVC), collaborating to what we call "tax competition". Our goal with this study is to demonstrate the abuse of this practice, focusing on "reduction of the tax basis", demonstrating that, conceptually, it cannot be equated with exemption (partial), but still its use is done improperly encouraging yet plus the dispute between federal entities. With an overly complex and burdensome tax law, which ultimately stimulates this type of practice, the problem of the tax competition becomes increasingly more difficult to solve, affecting taxpayers who are subject to the power of States, who handle the legal concepts violating the law, the principles and the jurisprudence / A concessão de incentivos fiscais pelos Estados no âmbito do ICMS com o objetivo de atrair investimentos é prática recorrente e antiga: durante a vigência do extinto Imposto sobre Vendas e Consignações (IVC) já se praticava o que denominamos de "guerra fiscal". Nosso intuito com este trabalho é ressaltar o abuso dessa prática com foco no conceito "redução da base de cálculo", demonstrando que conceitualmente ela não pode ser equiparada a isenção (parcial), mas que ainda assim o seu uso é feito de forma abusiva com intuito de fomentar ainda mais o conflito entre os Estados. Com uma legislação tributária excessivamente complexa e onerosa, que acaba por estimular esse tipo de prática, o problema da guerra fiscal se torna cada vez difícil de resolver, prejudicando contribuintes que ficam submetidos ao poder dos Estados, que por sua vez manipulam os conceitos jurídicos procurando contornar legislações, princípios e jurisprudências

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:47:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SINARA DE FREITAS ELIAS CAMPOS.pdf: 11972926 bytes, checksum: 64f4f5e1f51083c634c4407d8c5747f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-17 / This work has the objective to demonstrate the uneven shape of public officials and legislating power treat persons with disabilities, within that same group of individuals when restrict the granting of tax exemption on motor vehicles to certain categories of disability over others, not fulfilling the role of promoting social inclusion. During the work will be studied: the categories of physical, visual, hearing, mental and intellectual disabilities and autism; the taxes applicable to the acquisition, financing and ownership of motor vehicles; and the exemption rules of these taxes for persons with disabilities. Indeed, the data collected on the amount requirements and exemptions of the aforementioned taxes have been granted by the Treasury will be analyzed, in the jurisdiction of the State of Goiás. Furthermore, will be addressing this unequal treatment on the aspect of constitutional norms and principles of human dignity, equality and tax equality, and present the position of the courts. / O presente trabalho tem como escopo demonstrar a forma desigual dos administradores públicos e do poder legiferante tratarem as pessoas com deficiência, dentro desse próprio grupo de indivíduos, quando restringem a concessão de isenção tributária sobre veículos automotores para certas categorias de deficiência em detrimento de outras, não cumprindo o papel de promover a inclusão social. Durante o trabalho serão estudadas: as categorias de deficiência física, visual, auditiva, mental, intelectual e com autismo; os impostos incidentes sobre a aquisição, financiamento e propriedade de veículos automotores; e, as normas de isenção dos referidos tributos para pessoas com deficiência. Com efeito, serão analisados os dados coletados em relação à quantidade de requerimentos e isenções dos citados impostos foram concedidos pelo Fisco, na jurisdição do Estado de Goiás. Ademais, será feita abordagem desse tratamento desigual sobre o aspecto das normas constitucionais e os princípios da dignidade da pessoa humana, da igualdade e da isonomia tributária, além de apresentar o posicionamento dos tribunais.