Реферат: Economic International Legal Considerations Essay Research Paper
When a part or parts of the building are to be used as a warehouse, a detailed description of the materials and construction of all partitions shall be included.
Bonds Required
Bonds for each class of warehouse shall be executed on Customs Form 301.
Duty-free shops (class 9) have specific requirements governing their establishment. These requirements include location, exit ports, record-keeping systems, and the approval of local governments.
Where are Customs Offices Located?
The U.S. Customs Service has more than 300 ports of entry in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Please consult your local telephone directory under “U.S. Treasury Department, Customs Service.”
Foreign Sales Corporations
One of the most important steps a U.S. exporter can take to reduce federal income tax on export-related income is to set up a foreign sales corporation (FSC). This tax incentive for U.S. exporters replaced the domestic international sales corporation (DISC), except the interest charge DISC. While the interest charge DISC allows exporters to defer paying taxes on export sales, the tax incentive provided by the FSC legislation is in the form of a permanent exemption from federal income tax for a portion of the export income attributable to the offshore activities of FSCs (26 U.S.C., sections 921-927). The tax exemption can be as great as 15 to 30 percent on gross income from exporting, and the expenses can be kept low through the use of intermediaries who are familiar with and able to carry out the formal requirements. A firm that is exporting or thinking of exporting can optimize available tax benefits with proper planning, evaluation, and assistance from an accountant or lawyer.
An FSC is a corporation set up in certain foreign countries or in U.S. possessions (other than Puerto Rico) to obtain a corporate tax exemption on a portion of its earnings generated by the sale or lease of export property and the performance of some services. A corporation initially qualifies as an FSC by meeting certain basic formation tests. An FSC (unless it is a small FSC) must also meet several foreign management tests throughout the year. If it complies with those requirements, the FSC is entitled to an exemption on qualified export transactions in which it performs the required foreign economic processes.
FSCs can be formed by manufacturers, nonmanufacturers, or groups of exporters, such as export trading companies. An FSC can function as a principal, buying and selling for its own account, or as a commission agent. It can be related to a manufacturing parent or it can be an independent merchant or broker.
An FSC must be incorporated and have its main office (a shared office is acceptable) in the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or a qualified foreign country. In general, a firm must file for incorporation by following the normal procedures of the host nation or U.S. possession. Some nations, offer tax incentives to attract FSCs. To qualify, a company must identify itself as an FSC to the host government. Consult the government tax authorities in the country or U.S. possession of interest for specific information.
A country qualifies as an FSC host if it has an exchange of information agreement with the United States approved by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As of September 17, 1996, the qualified countries were Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Grenada, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, the Marshall Islands, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, St. Lucia, Sweden, and Trinidad and Tobago. Since the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not allow foreign tax credits for foreign taxes imposed on the FSC’s qualified income, it is generally advantageous to locate an FSC only in a country where local income taxes and withholding taxes are minimized. Most FSCs are incorporated in the U.S. Virgin Islands or Guam.
The FSC (unless it is a small FSC) must have at least one director who is not a U.S. resident, must keep one set of its books of account (including copies or summaries of invoices) at its main offshore office, cannot have more than 25 shareholders, cannot have any preferred stock, and must file an election to become an FSC with the IRS. Also, a group may not own both an FSC and an interest charge DISC.
The portion of the FSC gross income from exporting that is exempt from U.S. corporate taxation is 30 percent for a corporate-held FSC if it buys from independent suppliers or contracts with related suppliers at an “arm’s-length” price – a price equivalent to that which would have been paid by an unrelated purchaser to an unrelated seller. An FSC supplied by a related entity may also qualify to use the special administrative pricing rules to compute its tax exemption. Although an FSC does not have to use the two special administrative pricing rules, these rules may provide additional tax savings for certain FSCs.
Small FSCs and interest charge DISCs are designed to give export incentives to smaller businesses. The tax benefits of a small FSC or an interest charge DISC are limited by ceilings on the amount of gross income that is elegible for the benefits.
The small FSC is generally the same as an FSC, except that a small FSC must file an election with the IRS designating itself as a small FSC – which means it does not have to meet foreign management or foreign economic process requirements. A small FSC tax exemption is limited to the income generated by $5 million or less in gross export revenues.
An exporter can still set up a DISC in the form of an interest charge DISC to defer the imposition of taxes for up to $10 million in export sales. A corporate shareholder of an interest charge DISC may defer the imposition of taxes on approximately 94 percent of its income up to the $10 million ceiling if the income is reinvested by the DISC in qualified export assets. An individual who is the sole shareholder of an interest charge DISC can defer 100 percent of the DISC income up to the $10 million ceiling. An interest charge DISC must meet the following requirements: the taxpayer must make a new election; the tax year of the new DISC must match the tax year of its majority stockholder; and the DISC shareholders must pay interest annually at U.S. Treasury bill rates on their proportionate share of the accumulated taxes deferred.
A shared FSC is an FSC that is shared by 25 or fewer unrelated exporter-shareholders to reduce the costs while obtaining the full tax benefit of an FSC. Each exporter-shareholder owns a separate class of stock and each runs its own business as usual. Typically, exporters pay a commission on export sales to the FSC, which distributes the commission back to the exporter.
States, regional authorities, trade associations, or private businesses can sponsor a shared FSC for their state’s companies, their association’s members, or their business clients or customers, or for U.S. companies in general. A shared FSC is a means of sharing the cost of the FSC. However, the benefits and proprietary information are not shared. The sponsor and the other exporter-shareholders do not participate in the exporter’s profits, do not participate in the exporter’s tax benefits, and are not a risk for another exporter’s debts.
For more information about FSCs, U.S. companies may contact the the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel for International Commerce, U.S. Internal Revenue Service 202-622-3810; the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce 202-482-0937; or a local office of the IRS.
Intellectual Property Considerations
Intellectual property refers to a broad collection of rights relating to such matters as works of authorship, which are protected under copyright law; inventions, which are protected under patent law; marks, which are protected by trademark law; as well as designs and trade secrets. No international treaty completely defines these types of intellectual property, and the laws of the various countries differ from each other in significant respects. National intellectual property laws create, confirm, or regulate a property right without which others could use or copy a trade secret, an expression, a design, or a product or its mark and packaging.
The rights granted by a U.S. patent, trademark registration, copyright, or mask work (semiconductor chip) registration extend only through the United States and its territories and possessions. They confer no protection in a foreign country. There is no such thing as an international patent, trademark, or copyright. To secure rights in any country, you must apply for a patent or register a mask work or trademark in that country. Copyright protection depends on national laws, but registration is typically not required. There is no real “short cut” to worldwide protection of intellectual property. However, some advantages and minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property exist under treaties or other international agreements.
International Agreements: The oldest treaty relating to patents, trademarks, and unfair competition is the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. The United States and over 130 other countries are parties of this treaty. The Paris Convention sets minimum standards of protection and provides two important benefits: the right of national treatment and the right of priority.
Overgeneralizing, “national treatment” means that a Paris Convention country will not discriminate against foreigners in granting patent or trademark protection. Rights may be greater or less than those provided under U.S. law but the rights given will be the same as that country provides to its own citizens.
An invention may become public and therefore unpatentable in many countries, when a patent is issued or an application is laid open to inspection in any country. In addition, a delay in filing a patent or trademark application leaves open the possibility that those rights will be lost because of intervening acts such as sale of the invention or registration of the trademark by another. The Paris Convention’s “right of priority” provides a solution to this problem by giving an inventor an alternative to filing applications in many countries simultaneously. It allows the applicant one year from the date of the first application filed in a Paris Convention country (six months for a design or trademark) in which to file in other countries. Publication or sale of an invention after first filing will therefore not jeopardize patentability in countries which grant a right of priority to U.S. applicants. Not all countries adhere to the Paris Convention but these benefits may be available under another treaty or bilateral agreement. These substantive obligations have been incorporated into the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs), by reference for adherence by WTO members.
The United States is also a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which provides procedures for filing patent applications in its member countries. The PCT allows an applicant to file one “international application” designating member countries in which a patent is sought, with the same effect as filing national applications in each of those countries. The applicant may then later proceed with the filing of separate “national” applications in those countries.
The United States’ international copyright regulations are governed principally by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (”Berne”), to which more than 120 other nations adhere. The United States is also a member of the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) and has special bilateral relations with a number of foreign countries. Under the Berne Convention, works created by a national of a Berne Union country, or works first or simultaneously published in a Berne country are automatically eligible for protection in every other country of the Berne Union, without registration or compliance with any other formality of law. This is true of works first published in the United States on or after March 1, 1989 the date on which the United States acceded to the Berne Convention. Works first published before March 1989 were protected in many countries by virtue of the United States’ membership in the UCC, if published with the formalities specified in that convention. Older works may also be protected as a consequence of simultaneous publication in a Berne country, or by virtue of bilateral obligations. In any event, the requirements and protection available vary from country to country, and should be investigated before first publication anywhere.
North American Free Trade Agreement and Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property: Both the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) and the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) (which is under the auspices of the World Trade Organization) establish minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property. Neither of these agreements bestow rights upon U.S. intellectual property owners. Rather, both agreements ensure that a member state that is party to one or both of these agreements provides a certain level of protection to those individuals or companies protected under that member state’s laws.