On 1 July 2015, came into force Law 4/2015, which introduces two significant changes to the Macau Legal System, with particular impact in the Macau Commercial Code: (i) the elimination of bearer shares and (ii) the definition of regular activity, for the purposes of submitting foreign companies to certain obligations under Macau Law.

As a consequence, from 1 July onwards, it is prohibited to:

• Issue new bearer share certificates;
• Convert nominative share certificates into bearer share certificates;
• To transfer bearer share certificates by an inter vivos transaction, save as by court decision or judicial sale;

In view of the elimination bearer shares certificates, the new Law establishes a number of duties and obligations, both to shareholders holding bearer share certificates and issuers (the companies).

On the other hand, Law 4/2015 has also amended article 178 of the Macau Commercial Code, which governs foreign companies with “permanent” activity in Macau. The announced objective of the said amendments was to clarify the concept of “permanent activity”, which is again motivated by tax transparency reasons.

The new Law has basically added two new paragraphs to article 178:

• the new paragraph 2 says that the permanent activity comprehends a fixed installation, in particular by a place where the management is, or a branch or an office, through which the foreign company carries respective business in Macau;
• paragraph 3 now says that, without prejudice to other legal provisions, the activity exercised in Macau for a consecutive period of over one year, or nonconsecutive periods of over 3 months per year during the past five years, are presumed permanent.

To read the complete analysis of Law 4/2015 please check the link bellow.

/Portals/0/Files/News/Law 4-2015 Analysis.pdf

http://images.io.gov.mo/bo/i/2015/22/lei-4-2015.pdf

The Legislative Council’s President has admitted a draft Law proposal for amending Law 10/2011 (Economical Housing Law) presented by the Chief Executive Office.

According to the explanatory memorandum that accompanied the draft Law, the main objective of the Chief Executive Office with the amendment is to increase the administrative efficiency and expedite the procedure of economical housing assignment.

The present amendment is the first phase of a two phase project of the Chief Executive Office to adapt the Economical Housing Law to the current needs of the MSAR residents.

The first phase of the project consists of the modification of the present selection regime of formal appreciation followed by a lucky draw by a regime of preliminary appreciation of the applications, followed by the inclusion of the accepted applicants in various priority groups established in the Law, and subsequent distribution of the available economical houses according with the list of applicants graduation.

The draft Law also includes new limitations and requirements for the Economical Housing application and assignment.

The draft Law shall be submitted to the legislative assembly plenary session and, if approved, will be sent to a permanent commission for specific analysis and approval.

http://www.al.gov.mo/proposta/10-2011/proposta.pdf

http://www.al.gov.mo/proposta/10-2011/proposta_cn.pdf

The Legislative Council’s President has admitted a resolution proposal presented by the Commission of Regiment and Mandate for amendment of the Legislative Council rules of procedure.

The main objectives of the amendments proposed are related with the:

• (i) Determination of a time limitation for interventions in the period before entering in the agenda;
• (ii) The determination of the maximum time available for the presentation of projects and/or proposals;
• (iii) The clarification of the section regarding the renewal of a legislative initiative;
• (iv) The improvement of the rules regarding the initiative of Legislative Council members to initiate hearing proceedings as well as the rules regarding the possibility of the permanent commissions and/or ad hoc commissions to summon individuals to testify or present evidence in hearing proceedings.

The Draft Resolution shall be submitted to the legislative assembly plenary session for discussion.

http://www.al.gov.mo/resolucao/2015/04-30p.pdf

http://www.al.gov.mo/resolucao/2015/04-30c.pdf

The Legislative Council’s President has admitted a draft Law proposal for amending Law 7/2003 (External Commerce Law) presented by the Chief Executive Office.

According to the explanatory memorandum that accompanied the draft Law, the main objective of the Chief Executive Office is to increase, promote and further facilitate MSAR External Commerce.

The main amendments proposed by the Chief Executive Office consist in:

• (i) The adoption of the A.T.A. carnet for the temporary admission of goods as a legal document for external commerce operations and the incorporating of A.T.A. Convention regime in the MSAR legal system.
• (ii) The facilitation of the customs clearance and the simplification of the customs clearance administrative procedures and formalities through the inclusion in the custom clearance procedures of the possibility of choosing to “customs clear the goods before proceeding with their declaration”.

The draft Law shall be submitted to the legislative assembly plenary session and, if approved, will be sent to a permanent commission for specific analysis and approval.

http://www.al.gov.mo/proposta/alt_comercio/proposta.pdf

http://www.al.gov.mo/proposta/alt_comercio/proposta_cn.pdf

On the 27th of April 2015 was gazzeted the Law 3/2015 amending Macau SAR Legislative Council’s Organic Law.

Such amendments mainly consist in:

• (i) adapting legislative council´s support services to the increase of activity of the legislative Council;
• (ii) increasing and reorganizing the administrative staff of the support services;
• (iii) increasing the effectiveness of the support provided to the legislative Council, the legislative Council´s members and to the general public.

The main modifications contained in the proposal are the creation of two new departments in the support services (the General Affairs Department and the IT and Publications department), each one responsible for the supervision of several sub-divisions.

The draft law also provides several small modifications to the staff´s career and remuneration.

The Law entered into force on the 28nd of April 2015.

http://images.io.gov.mo/bo/i/2015/17/lei-3-2015.pdf