Total value of the portfolio: EUR 481,957,657

For more information, please contact Ms. Tarja Wist or Mr. Moritz Oker-Blom.

The primary purpose of the bill is to limit the deductibility of interest payments between related parties both in domestic and cross-border scenarios. In addition, the restrictions would also apply to interest expenses on loans granted by third party lenders in certain back-to-back lending scenarios and/or in circumstances where an affiliated company has granted a guarantee or security for the loan.

The actual restrictions on interest deductibility would be based on an EBITDA-To-Interest-Ratio. According to the bill, interest expenses exceeding the amount of accrued interest income (i.e. net interest expenses), would only be deductible up to an amount that corresponds to 30 % of EBITDA. Net interest expenses exceeding 30 % of EBITDA (i.e. non-deductible interest expenses) could, however, be carried forward indefinitely.

Under a specific safe haven provision, the restrictions on interest deductibility would, nonetheless, only kick in with respect to net interest expenses exceeding € 500,000 per tax year.

The proposed restrictions on interest deductibility are planned to come into force on 1 January 2013 and they will obviously have an impact on, inter alia, private equity structures and other financing structures that have taken advantage of debt push down. We will keep you updated on any further developments.

For further information, please contact Mr. Niklas Thibblinat .

For more information, please contact Ms. Tarja Wist.

Authors: Ms. Tarja Wist and Ms. Riikka Kuha

 For more information, please contact Mr. Niklas Thibblin.

Value: in excess of EUR 1 billion

For more information, please contact Mr. Jan Waselius or Ms. Lotta Pohjanpalo.

For more information, please contact Ms. Tarja Wist.

The Supreme Administrative Court has, however, very recently rendered a decision (KHO 10.1.2012/6), according to which credit losses that relate to loans/facilities given to a company prior to the financer (a bank) acquiring 10% (or more) of the equity/shares in the debtor company remain tax-deductible. The Court reasoned that such loans/facilities do not differ from financing given by the bank to companies where the bank has no ownership and a forced takeover scenario should generally not lead to the bank ending up in a worse off position from a tax point of view. Accordingly, it is expected that this decision will facilitate future enforcement of security interests.

For further information, please contact Mr. Niklas Thibblin.

At the same time, the tax rate for capital income (including capital gains) was increased from 28% to 30%. In addition, for capital income exceeding 50,000 EUR, the applicable tax rate is 32%.

Further, the maximum amount of dividends that can be distributed tax-exempt to a private individual from a non-listed company was reduced from 90,000 EUR to 60,000 EUR.

For further information, please contact Mr. Niklas Thibblin.

Mikko joined Waselius & Wist in 1998 and was appointed partner in 2004. Mikko’s main areas of practice are M&A and EU and competition, in which areas he is ranked among the leading practitioners in Finland.

Mikko will continue to develop the firm as a client-focused, high-quality Finnish business law firm that attracts the best legal talents and takes pride in assisting the most demanding clients.

“I very much look forward to taking up my new role. I am sure that with the help of all of us we continue to develop the firm in what we believe constitutes a key in successfully providing legal services in the years ahead: focusing on quality, professionalism and commitment in whatever we do”, Mikko comments on his appointment. 

Jan Waselius, the senior partner and co-founder of Waselius & Wist is confident: “Mikko has been with our firm nearly from the beginning of its establishment. He has shown strong entrepreneurial skills and is well regarded by clients and his peers. We are all very grateful that he has accepted the role as the firm’s new managing partner and are confident that he will lead the firm in the right direction and that the firm will continue to develop and prosper under his regime. I feel that the management of the firm has been transferred into good and capable new hands”. 

Jan Waselius continues: “I would like to express the firm’s special thanks to Tarja and her tireless and valuable work not only in holding the position of the firm’s managing partner for an exceptionally long time but also in developing and building up the firm’s administrative, management and reporting systems from virtually scratch. The significance of Tarja’s work will benefit the firm for a long time to come and will form an excellent basis for Mikko to take over and to start implementing his views on taking the firm further”.

Authors: Mr. Lauri Peltola and Mr. Timo Lehtimäki

Value: EUR 1,500,000,000

For more information, please contact Mr. Lauri Peltola or Mr. Timo Lehtimäki.

For more information, please contact Mr. Mikko Eerola.

For more information, please contact Mr. Mikko Eerola.

For more information, please contact Mr. Mikko Eerola.

Tanja Jussila has been a member of AIJA since 2000. In 2003-2006, Tanja was the National Representative of Finland. During 2005-2008 Tanja was Vice-president of the Litigation Commission and 2008-2010 President of the Litigation Commission, after which she was elected Vice-president of AIJA in 2010 continuing as President during 2011-2012.

AIJA, founded in 1962, is a global association devoted to lawyers and in-house counsels aged 45 and younger. The aim of the association is to promote professional cooperation and friendship among career building legal professionals around the world through a wide range of meetings and seminars.

www.aija.org

published by Law Business Research

Authors: Mr. Lauri Peltola and Mr. Tomi Teinilä

For more information please contact Mr. Lauri Peltola or Mr. Timo Lehtimäki.

For more information, please contact Mr. Mikko Eerola.