Skatteavtal och skatteflykt, i ljuset av HFD 2012 ref.20

Frågan om nationella skatteflyktsbestämmelsers tillämplighet på förfaranden som företagits i enlighet med ett skatteavtal har varit omdebatterat både i Sverige och internationellt. Genom HFD:s avgörande i HFD 2012 ref.20 har vi fått ett uttalande som kan tillmätas statusen av gällande rätt i frågan om skatteflyktslagens principiella tillämplighet på skatteavtal. Av HFD 2012 ref.20 följer att skatteflyktslagen kan tillämpas om inte den gemensamma partsavsikten bakom det relevanta skatteavtalet utesluter en sådan tillämp-ning. Förevarande examensarbete syftar till att behandla HFD:s uttalande i HFD 2012 ref.20 och till att analysera vilka tillämpningsfrågor som uppkommer till följd av uttalandena. Examensarbetet är inriktat på att belysa hur den gemensamma partsavsikten fastställs och vilka faktorer som kan tillmätas betydelse för bedömningen huruvida avsikten varit att inte skatteflyktslagen är tillämplig på ett skatteavtal. För att möjliggöra en analys av uttalandena i HFD 2012 ref.20 behandlas även grunderna i skatteavtalsrätt. För analysen krävs det förståelse för både skatteavtalens syfte, tillämpning och tolkning av skatteavtalen samt om av-talens ställning i svensk intern rätt. Med anledningen av betydelsen som Sverige tillmätt OECD:s modellavtal vid ingående av skatteavtal och den betydelse kommentaren haft för dom-stolarnas tolkning av skatteavtal läggs stort fokus även på dessa instrument. Framförallt behandlas de uttalanden som tillkom kommentaren år 2003 om möjligheten att tillämpa nationella skatteflyktsbestämmelser. Vidare analys-eras faktorer som kan påverka kommentarens rättskällevärde som grund för den gemensamma partsavsikten bakom ett skatteavtal. Förutom att analysera fastställandet av den gemensamma partsavsikten ana-lyseras även skatteflyktslagens förhållande till intern rätt och hur HFD 2012 ref.20 förhåller sig till tidigare praxis gällande förhållandet mellan skatteavtal och intern rätt.The question regarding the application of internal general anti-abuse rules (GAAR) on tax treaties has been subject to debate both in Sweden and in-ternationally. Due to the decision by the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court in HFD 2012 ref.20 a rule can be derived regarding the application of the Swedish GAAR on tax treaties. HFD 2012 ref.20 stipulates that the Swedish GAAR is applicable on tax treaties if it cannot be found that the common intention behind the tax treaty prohibits such application. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the statements made by the court in this particular case and to highlight the questions that have aroused regarding the application of the GAAR on tax treaties due to the statements made by the court. The thesis analyse the examination of the common intention behind a tax treaty and circumstances that can imply that the Swedish GAAR is not applicable on a tax treaty. In order to analyse the statements made in HFD 2012 ref.20 tax treaty fun-damentals is studied. The thesis describes the basics regarding the aim of tax treaties, application and interpretation of treaties and the treaties status in Swedish internal law. Due to the importance of the OECD model tax treaty on Swedish tax treaty negotiations and due to the importance given to the commentaries on the model tax treaty by the Swedish courts these instruments are dealt with in depth. In particular is the revised commentary from 2003 and the statements regarding the possibility use internal GARR:s on tax treaties analysed. At-tention is paid to the circumstances that might affect the status of the com-mentary’s expression for the common intention of the treaty given by the contracting parties. Except analysing the examination of the common intention behind a tax treaty the relationship between the Swedish GAAR and internal law is ex-amined. The relationship between HFD 2012 ref.20 and earlier court praxis regarding the relationship between tax treaties and internal law is for that purpose analysed

Den nya tillsynslagen med inriktning mot aggressiva hundar

Hunden härstammar från vargen och har till viss del samma beteendemönster, samma sätt att kommunicera och har även ärvt vargens potential till aggression. Med den nya tillsynslagen hoppas man öka allmänhetens trygghet vad det gäller farliga och aggressiva hundar. Polisen har fått större befogenheter och kommer nu förhoppningsvis att få en möjlighet att bekämpa problemen med hundar i tid, och på så sätt kunna förebygga att vissa olyckor sker. De grupper man helst vill komma åt är de som använder hundar i kriminella syften och de som håller dem under extremt dålig tillsyn. Det som leder till en farlig hund beror oftast på flera olika faktorer, varav den största är olämpliga ägare. Även den genetiska faktorn och den socialisering som hunden får från och med valptiden, spelar en stor roll för hur den utvecklas. Med en hund av kamphundsras avses en hund tillhörande någon av de raser till vilka kamphundar historiskt hört. Exempel på sådana raser är bullterrier, amerikansk staffordshire terrier, tosa inu, bulldog, amerikansk pitbullterrier (pitbull) och staffordshire bullterrier. Det finns en rad olika åtgärder att tillämpa för att komma åt problemen som uppstår med hundar. Andra länder har till exempel valt att införa ett förbud mot vissa raser som anses vara farligare än andra. Andra åtgärder skulle kunna vara att införa hundkörkort. Sverige har inget av ovanstående, utan har istället skärpt sin tillsynslag i förhoppning om att komma åt de olämpliga ägarna. Det är polisen som tillsynsmyndighet, som bestämmer om en person ska medlas ett förbud eller föreläggande. Detta kan gälla till exempel om en hund skäller konstant så att allmänheten störs. I och med den nya tillsynslagen kan tester utföras för att avgöra huruvida hunden kan beräknas som farlig. Kopplat till detta kan ett omhändertagande av hunden göras om det visar sig att ägaren brustit i sin tillsyn av hunden på något sätt. Om man bryter mot denna lag kommer man att kunna bli straffad genom alltifrån böter till hundförbud eller fängelse.The dog is descended from the wolf and has similar pattern of behaviour, communication and aggression. This new law of supervision of dogs is supposed to enlarge the protection against aggressive and dangerous dogs in general. The police authority has increased and is now hopefully able to stop the problems that involve dogs, and in that way prevent some of the incidents that can occur. The group of people that the law mainly focuses on are the ones using dogs in criminal purposes and the ones having extremely poor supervision over the dogs. The things that can lead to an aggressive dog depend on different factors. The most important one is an unsuitable owner. Even the genetic factor and the socialisation of the dog in the earlier stage of development plays a big role in how the dog will develop later in life. A fighting dog is a dog belonging to the breeds that have a history as fighting dogs. Examples of that kind of dogs are bullterrier, American Staffordshire terrier, bulldog, American pitbull terrier and Staffordshire bullterrier. There are some different measurements to apply when problems with dogs occur. Other countries have for example chosen to introduce a prohibition against some breeds that are considerate to be more dangerous than other dog breeds. Something called a dog licence is another example. Sweden has nothing of the above, but has instead tightened up the law of supervision of dogs in expectations to get to those who are unsuitable as dog owners. It’s the police as a supervision authority that decides whether a prohibition or an injunction should be allocated to a certain person. This can be useful when a dog for example barks a lot all the time and is disturbing to the community. Because of the changes to the law it has now been possible to decide whether a dog is dangerous or not. Furthermore a dog can be taken into custody if the owner has failed in the supervision over the dog. If you violate this law the punishment could be anything from fines, to prohibitions about occupying a dog, to prison

Causes of Perinatal Death at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northern Tanzania 2000-2010: A Registry Based Study.

Perinatal mortality reflects maternal health as well as antenatal, intrapartum and newborn care, and is an important health indicator. This study aimed at classifying causes of perinatal death in order to identify categories of potentially preventable deaths. We studied a total of 1958 stillbirths and early neonatal deaths above 500 g between July 2000 and October 2010 registered in the Medical Birth Registry and neonatal registry at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Northern Tanzania. The deaths were classified according to the Neonatal and Intrauterine deaths Classification according to Etiology (NICE). Overall perinatal mortality was 57.7/1000 (1958 out of 33 929), of which 1219 (35.9/1000) were stillbirths and 739 (21.8/1000) were early neonatal deaths. Major causes of perinatal mortality were unexplained asphyxia (n=425, 12.5/1000), obstetric complications (n=303, 8.9/1000), maternal disease (n=287, 8.5/1000), unexplained antepartum stillbirths after 37 weeks of gestation (n= 219, 6.5/1000), and unexplained antepartum stillbirths before 37 weeks of gestation (n=184, 5.4/1000). Obstructed/prolonged labour was the leading condition (251/303, 82.8%) among the obstetric complications. Preeclampsia/eclampsia was the leading cause (253/287, 88.2%) among the maternal conditions. When we excluded women who were referred for delivery at KCMC due to medical reasons (19.1% of all births and 36.0% of all deaths), perinatal mortality was reduced to 45.6/1000. This reduction was mainly due to fewer deaths from obstetric complications (from 8.9 to 2.1/1000) and maternal conditions (from 8.5 to 5.5/1000). The distribution of causes of death in this population suggests a great potential for prevention. Early identification of mothers at risk of pregnancy complications through antenatal care screening, teaching pregnant women to recognize signs of pregnancy complications, timely access to obstetric care, monitoring of labour for fetal distress, and proper newborn resuscitation may reduce some of the categories of deaths

Recurrent and Founder Mutations in the Netherlands: the Long-QT Syndrome

Background and objective The long-QT syndrome (LQTS) is associated with premature sudden cardiac deaths affecting whole families and is caused by mutations in genes encoding for cardiac proteins. When the same mutation is found in different families (recurrent mutations), this may imply either a common ancestor (founder) or multiple de novo mutations. We aimed to review recurrent mutations in patients with LQTS. Methods By use of our databases, we investigated the number of mutations that were found recurrently (at least three times) in LQT type 1-3 patients in the Netherlands. We studied familial links in the apparently unrelated probands, and we visualised the geographical distribution of these probands. Our results were compared with published literature of founder effects in LQTS outside the Netherlands. Results We counted 14 recurrent LQT mutations in the Netherlands. There are 326 identified carriers of one of these mutations. For three of these mutations, familial links were found between apparently unrelated probands. Conclusion Whereas true LQT founder mutations are described elsewhere in the world, we cannot yet demonstrate a real founder effect of these recurrent mutations in the Netherlands. Further studies on the prevalence of these mutations are indicated, and haplotype-sharing of the mutation carriers is pertinent to provide more evidence for founder mutation-based LQTS pathology in our countr

An evaluation of classification systems for stillbirth

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Audit and classification of stillbirths is an essential part of clinical practice and a crucial step towards stillbirth prevention. Due to the limitations of the ICD system and lack of an international approach to an acceptable solution, numerous disparate classification systems have emerged. We assessed the performance of six contemporary systems to inform the development of an internationally accepted approach.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated the following systems: Amended Aberdeen, Extended Wigglesworth; PSANZ-PDC, ReCoDe, Tulip and CODAC. Nine teams from 7 countries applied the classification systems to cohorts of stillbirths from their regions using 857 stillbirth cases. The main outcome measures were: the ability to retain the important information about the death using the <it>InfoKeep </it>rating; the ease of use according to the <it>Ease </it>rating (both measures used a five-point scale with a score <2 considered unsatisfactory); inter-observer agreement and the proportion of unexplained stillbirths. A randomly selected subset of 100 stillbirths was used to assess inter-observer agreement.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>InfoKeep </it>scores were significantly different across the classifications (<it>p </it>≤ 0.01) due to low scores for Wigglesworth and Aberdeen. CODAC received the highest mean (SD) score of 3.40 (0.73) followed by PSANZ-PDC, ReCoDe and Tulip [2.77 (1.00), 2.36 (1.21), 1.92 (1.24) respectively]. Wigglesworth and Aberdeen resulted in a high proportion of unexplained stillbirths and CODAC and Tulip the lowest. While <it>Ease </it>scores were different (<it>p </it>≤ 0.01), all systems received satisfactory scores; CODAC received the highest score. Aberdeen and Wigglesworth showed poor agreement with kappas of 0.35 and 0.25 respectively. Tulip performed best with a kappa of 0.74. The remainder had good to fair agreement.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Extended Wigglesworth and Amended Aberdeen systems cannot be recommended for classification of stillbirths. Overall, CODAC performed best with PSANZ-PDC and ReCoDe performing well. Tulip was shown to have the best agreement and a low proportion of unexplained stillbirths. The virtues of these systems need to be considered in the development of an international solution to classification of stillbirths. Further studies are required on the performance of classification systems in the context of developing countries. Suboptimal agreement highlights the importance of instituting measures to ensure consistency for any classification system.</p

Verbal Autopsy: Reliability and Validity Estimates for Causes of Death in the Golestan Cohort Study in Iran

BACKGROUND: Verbal autopsy (VA) is one method to obtain valid estimates of causes of death in the absence of valid medical records. We tested the reliability and validity of a VA questionnaire developed for a cohort study in Golestan Province in northeastern Iran. METHOD: A modified version of the WHO adult verbal autopsy was used to assess the cause of death in the first 219 Golestan Cohort Study (GCS) subjects who died. The GCS cause of death was determined by two internists who independently reviewed all available medical records. Two other internists ("reviewers") independently reviewed only the VA answers and classified the cause of death into one of nine general categories; they repeated this evaluation one month later. The reliability of the VA was measured by calculating intra-reviewer and inter-reviewer kappa statistics. The validity of the VA was measured using the GCS cause of death as the gold standard. RESULTS: VA showed both good validity (sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV all above 0.81) and reliability (kappa>0.75) in determining the general cause of death independent of sex and place of residence. The overall multi-rater agreement across four reviews was 0.84 (95%CI: 0.78-0.89). The results for identifying specific cancer deaths were also promising, especially for upper GI cancers (kappa = 0.95). The multi-rater agreement in cancer subgroup was 0.93 (95%CI: 0.85-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: VA seems to have good reliability and validity for determining the cause of death in a large-scale adult follow up study in a predominantly rural area of a middle-income country

SCN5A mutations in 442 neonates and children: genotype-phenotype correlation and identification of higher-risk subgroups.

Aims To clarify the clinical characteristics and outcomes of children with SCN5A-mediated disease and to improve their risk stratification. Methods and results A multicentre, international, retrospective cohort study was conducted in 25 tertiary hospitals in 13 countries between 1990 and 2015. All patients ≤16 years of age diagnosed with a genetically confirmed SCN5A mutation were included in the analysis. There was no restriction made based on their clinical diagnosis. A total of 442 children {55.7% boys, 40.3% probands, median age: 8.0 [interquartile range (IQR) 9.5] years} from 350 families were included; 67.9% were asymptomatic at diagnosis. Four main phenotypes were identified: isolated progressive cardiac conduction disorders (25.6%), overlap phenotype (15.6%), isolated long QT syndrome type 3 (10.6%), and isolated Brugada syndrome type 1 (1.8%); 44.3% had a negative electrocardiogram phenotype. During a median follow-up of 5.9 (IQR 5.9) years, 272 cardiac events (CEs) occurred in 139 (31.5%) patients. Patients whose mutation localized in the C-terminus had a lower risk. Compound genotype, both gain- and loss-of-function SCN5A mutation, age ≤1 year at diagnosis in probands and age ≤1 year at diagnosis in non-probands were independent predictors of CE. Conclusion In this large paediatric cohort of SCN5A mutation-positive subjects, cardiac conduction disorders were the most prevalent phenotype; CEs occurred in about one-third of genotype-positive children, and several independent risk factors were identified, including age ≤1 year at diagnosis, compound mutation, and mutation with both gain- and loss-of-function

Levels, timing, and etiology of stillbirths in Sylhet district of Bangladesh

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lack of data is a critical barrier to addressing the problem of stillbirth in countries with the highest stillbirth burden. Our study objective was to estimate the levels, types, and causes of stillbirth in rural Sylhet district of Bangladesh.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A complete pregnancy history was taken from all women (n = 39 998) who had pregnancy outcomes during 2003-2005 in the study area. Verbal autopsy data were obtained for all identified stillbirths during the period. We used pre-defined case definitions and computer programs to assign causes of stillbirth for selected causes containing specific signs and symptoms. Both non-hierarchical and hierarchical approaches were used to assign causes of stillbirths.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 1748 stillbirths were recorded during 2003-2005 from 48,192 births (stillbirth rate: 36.3 per 1000 total births). About 60% and 40% of stillbirths were categorized as antepartum and intrapartum, respectively. Maternal conditions, including infections, hypertensive disorders, and anemia, contributed to about 29% of total antepartum stillbirths. About 50% of intrapartum stillbirths were attributed to obstetric complications. Maternal infections and hypertensive disorders contributed to another 11% of stillbirths. A cause could not be assigned in nearly half (49%) of stillbirths.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The stillbirth rate is high in rural Bangladesh. Based on algorithmic approaches using verbal autopsy data, a substantial portion of stillbirths is attributable to maternal conditions and obstetric complications. Programs need to deliver community-level interventions to prevent and manage maternal complications, and to develop strategies to improve access to emergency obstetric care. Improvements in care to avert stillbirth can be accomplished in the context of existing maternal and child health programs. Methodological improvements in the measurement of stillbirths, especially causes of stillbirths, are also needed to better define the burden of stillbirths in low-resource settings.</p