María de Lourdes Viso Aguilar's book “ La Formación del Contrato Electrónico: un nuevo impulso a la unificación del Derecho” (Formation of Electronic Contracts: a new impulse towards the unification of law) has just been published by the Venezuelan Supreme Court, Colección Nuevos Autores Nº 7 , Caracas, 2004. She wrote this work while pursuing her Doctorate Degree from Universidad de Barcelona , Spain .
The core subject of this work is a study of the uniform rules applying to the process of formation of e-contracts as a potential solution to the legal issues raised by electronic transfers of data in international trade. Likewise, this work intends to consider the feasibility of a greater unification that would also affect the respective national law of countries. The interest of the subject lies in the need to properly assess the impact that electronic means of communication has had on existing contractual law and the difficulty of adjusting the rules on conflicts of laws to this new situation. Furthermore, this research explores how the unifying principles of the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 1980 could be of help to find uniform solutions in the area of formation of international e-contracts.
BUSINESS ASSETS TAX
The Business Assets Tax (IAE for its initials in Spanish) was abolished through a law published on the Official Gazette 38.002 on August 17, 2004 , which took effect on September 1 st , 2004 .
Upon the abolition of the law, there where some doubts with respect to the timing for filing the tax returns for the taxable period in which the law was in force finishing August 31 st , 2004. These doubts were solved by the National Integrated Service of Tax Administration (SENIAT, for its initials in Spanish), which issued an opinion on September 14, 2004, stating that “…the Business Assets Tax is in its essence a tax integrated to the Income Tax, and, therefore, the determination of the tax obligation of the Business Assets Tax is linked to and conditioned by the application of the Income Tax (…) In consequence, the tax payers will only be obliged to file their Business Assets Tax returns and pay the corresponding taxes during the three months following the closing of the respective taxable year for Income Tax purposes.”
VAT
Beginning September 1 st , 2004 , the VAT rate was diminished from 16% to 15%. The amendment to the Value Added Tax Law was published in the Official Gazette Nº 37.999 on August 11 th , 2004 .
ANNULLED ARTICLE 15 OF THE LAW OF THE PUBLIC REGISTER AND THE NOTARY SYSTEM.
The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela annulled article 15 of the Law of Public Register and the Notary System, declaring that it violated the Constitutional provision that requires that all taxes be established by law. The annulled article allowed the Executive Branch to determine the tax rate for register and notary services.
Therefore, Registers and Notaries will not be able to charge any taxes for register and notary services until a Law fully establishing the tax rates is enacted, as required by the Constitution.
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The purpose of this publication is to provide legal information and comments of interest. Neither Viso, Rodríguez, Cottin, Medina , Ramírez & Associates, nor the authors directly participating in this publication, are responsible for decisions that might be taken based on the content of the articles posted. Those articles shall not be considered by any means legal advice and they are not necessarily applicable to the special circumstances of each specific case.
