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Tuesday, 30 October 2018

What we’re tracking on 29 October 2018

Know your rights: The EGX has put out a guide that pulls together all the rules and regulations protecting the rights of minority shareholders in companies listed on the bourse. You can download a copy in Arabic here (pdf) and in English here (pdf).

The UK is going to tax Big Tech. How long before we try this here in Egypt? Britain is going to introduce a “first-of-its-kind tax on locally generated revenue by large technology firms—the most concrete attempt yet by an industrialized nation to rewrite the world’s tax code for the digital era,” the Wall Street Journal writes, noting that dozens of other countries, including Spain, Mexico and South Korea, are considering similar taxes on the activities of Google and Facebook, among others. The UK’s “digital services tax” could come into effect by 2020 and raise as much as GBP 400 mn annually by 2022-23, the Financial Times notes.

Why do governments want to tax them? Because large US tech firms have been “reporting relatively little of their profit in local jurisdictions.” Yes, double taxation is a risk — but (a) that will get sorted out and (b) why should companies be allowed to do business in the UK (or Egypt, or wherever) without paying taxes when you can’t do the same with your offline business? The UK’s chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond, says, “It is only right that these global giants with profitable businesses in the UK pay their fair share.” Bloomberg has a primer here.

The end of the Merkel era. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will be stepping down as Germany’s chancellor in 2021 and staying away from the political scene, according to the BBC. The announcement came during President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s state visit to Germany. We have more on the visit in Diplomacy + Foreign Trade, below.

The 100-year-old “near-religious” status of case studies at Harvard’s MBA program is under attack in some quarters. Yes, by some who say the case studies under-represent women leaders and are dominated by American examples — but also by others who argue there’s simply a better way to teach business. Instead, business educations should “rigorously test theories” rather than focus on writing and Socratic-style teaching. (Financial Times)

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