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11.06.2020 4 COMMERCIAL PAUL COCKS NOTARIES in Malta have been left perplexed by a government decision to withdraw a directive on fiscal in- centives for property transfers, mere hours after they were published on Tuesday. In fact, around noon on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Revenue pub- lished the new guidelines, whereby government reduced property sales tax from 5% to 1.5% on the transfer of property valued up to €400,000. e Commissioner immediately disseminated the guidelines to all notaries. But less than two hours later, the guidelines were withdrawn and re- moved from the CFR's website, amid widespread confusion and frustra- tion among notaries. Notary Clinton Bellizi, president of the Notarial Council of Malta, told BusinessToday that when the CFR withdrew the directive, it said it was seeking further clarification and di- rection. "In the interest of legal certainty for both notaries and the contracting parties, and in light of the decision to withdraw the directive, the No- tarial Council has directed notaries to continue applying the usual rates of duty and transfer tax until the of- ficial legal notices are published with clear indications as to applicability and eligibility," he said. And in an email sent to all nota- ries, Bellizzi advised them to ignore Tuesday's short-lived directive, "in view of this unprecedented misguid- ance". Bellizzi told BusinessToday he was informed legal notices were current- ly being drafted and should be pub- lished in the coming days. "Contracting parties will then be able to apply for refunds as applica- ble," he said. Government u-turn on property sales tax FOLLOWING the recent roll- out of a new contactless limit of up to €50, local credit card ac- quirer Global Payments Ltd. has announced a new feature where- by consumers are being given the option not to have a printed receipt from the EPOS terminal after their purchase. is new feature means that there is less waiting time at the cash point, less contact between cashier and the shopper, whilst reducing paper waste. John Borg, Product and Sup- port Manager at Global Pay- ments, said: "Given the 'contact- less payments' awareness raised during the COVID19 pandemic, we are confident that this new feature will be well received by outlets and shoppers alike. Consumers who still wish to have the receipt, can ask the cashier for it whilst the latter is still processing the same sales transaction." To find out more about this feature or if interested in start- ing to accept credit card pay- ments, one can call Global Pay- ments on 2226 5656. Global Payments offering option not to print EPOS terminal receipt BOV to host its second COVID-19 webinar in June Consumers are being given the option not to have a printed receipt from Global Payments terminals after their purchase BANK of Valletta will be hosting its second Invest- ment Webinar 'The New Norm: Economies in the COVID Pandemic – an In- ternational Outlook' on Fri- day 19 June 2020 at 3pm. The webinar will focus on the international market environment, how differ- ent economic sectors have been impacted, the current outlook market and what should be expected within this environment. Interna- tional speakers Christopher Dembik, Head of Macro Research from Saxo Bank and Edward Markus, Chief Economist from ECR Re- search will be joining Bank of Valletta's investment and market experts Mark Vella and Matthew Farrugia. The first BOV Investment webi- nar held in May, was high- ly oversubscribed and had dealt with the local market. The BOV Investment Webinar is one of a series of free webinars that BOV has been organising and co-hosting during these past two months, with the aim of bringing expert in- formation, insights and best practices to local busi- nesses and consumers. During June Bank of Val- letta is also teaming up with The Gozo Business Cham- ber, the Malta Chamber and the Chamber of Engi- neers and will be co-hosting other webinars exploring Trade Finance and Con- tactless Payment Solutions for businesses. All webinars are free of charge and open to anyone interested in gaining more knowledge on the featured topic. Participants can also put forward questions, concerns or simply share their views. Most webinars are made available to the general public through the Bank's social media pages. To stay connected and up-to-date, check out the schedule for upcoming webinars on https://www. b o v. c o m / P j a z z a / u p c o m - ing-bov-webinars and reg- ister for the ones that inter- est you. If you did not manage to join the May webinars, you can catch up by viewing past editions through the same webpage.

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