Category Archives: Corporate Commercial

Well Known Trademarks in Mongolia

In case of a dispute in connection to the unfair competition and conflict of interests of your trademark, the trademark owner is entitled to apply a request for declaration of your mark as well-known in Mongolia him/herself or through representation of an authorized intellectual property agent to the Dispute Settlement Committee of the Intellectual Property Office of Mongolia.

For this purpose, the trademark owner shall file an application only in relation to one trademark and such request shall include, aside from providing basic personal and business information on the applicant and/or the authorized intellectual property agent, following information:

  • Description of the trademark for the declaration as well-known mark;
  • The name list of the well-known trademark product and services;                    
  • The date of the trademark declaration as well-known;
  • The status of the intellectual property rights of that particular trademark in Mongolia;
  • The justification/reasons for declaration of trademark as well-known mark along with their proofs and evidences.

Furthermore, the Intellectual property office of Mongolia is responsible for the public distribution of the well-known marks, yet unfortunately according to the unofficial statement, no such applications for declaration of trademark as well-known have been submitted and hence there is no list of the well-known marks in Mongolia as of today.

Obtaining Lottery Permits

With today’s blog we aim to provide you the information regarding the documents required for obtaining the special license of the lottery operations. In order to submit the request for obtaining the special license permit, you require following document listed below.

  1. Application for the special license
  2. The state registration certificate
  3. The state stamp duty fee payment /240 000-600 000/
  4. The lottery operation type, and the business project prospectus
  5. Audited financial report of the latest quarter
  6. The bank guaranty and information on the taxation loan
  7. The procedures and norms regarding the allocation of lottery profits
  8. Lottery tickets, or any other documents, templates and samples of lottery, its requirements, criteria, notes, drawings or signs, as well as the methods for the prevention from the production of counterfeit lottery products
  9. The procedures concerning the ticket checking during the lottery winning and its payment
  10. The feasibility study on the lottery operation, the financial funding of the lottery costs and the preliminary calculation of the lottery revenue
  11. Market analysis of lottery operation
  12. The technical requirements for the lottery equipment
  13. The Procedure on the registration of the distributed and non-distributed tickets
  14. The Procedure on the re-allocation and storage of non-distributed tickets
  15. The Procedure on the storage of the winning prize not claimed by the winner and the distribution of the winning prize after the termination of the lottery timeframe.
  16. In case, the lottery shall be operated via online, then the contract between the IT operators, companies and a detailed and understandable description of the project

With the next blog we will provide you a detailed information concerning the special permit for lottery operations, how and where you can get the permit and things to consider.

Basics of Tax Reporting in Mongolia

Pursuant to Article 43 of the General Taxation Law taxpayers are obliged to independently determine their taxable income and tax deductions payable in accordance with the law based on relevant documents, reflect them in their tax reports and pay either in cash and non-cash forms.

Timeframe for submission of tax reports and payment of taxes are determined by the laws of the particular tax type, and deadline for submission of tax reports and payment of taxes are usually the same. Lets have a look at timeframes for submission of tax reports and payment of taxes commonly paid by legal entities (companies) and individuals.

Corporate income tax

A taxpayer must pay the taxes due in advance by the 25th of each month, and submit the quarterly tax reports by the 20th of the first month of the following quarter and annual tax report by February 10th of the following year to corresponding tax authority and finalize tax year-end calculations.

Personal income tax

A tax withholder must pay the taxes deducted (withheld) from the taxpayer’s income to the relevant budget by the 10th of the following month and submit the quarterly reports of the withholding taxes by the 20th of the first month of the following quarter and annual report of the withholding taxes by February 15th of the following year with ascending sum to corresponding tax authority.

Value added tax

A tax withholder must pay the taxes imposed from sale of goods, rendering of works and services in accordance with the laws to consolidated account of state treasury by the 10th of the following month and submit the tax reports to corresponding tax authority in accordance with approved forms.

Capital city tax

A tax withholder must pay the taxes imposed from sale of goods and rendering of services by the 10th of the following month and submit the tax reports by the 20th of the first month of the following quarter to corresponding tax authority in accordance with approved forms.

Tax on automobiles and self moving vehicles

Individuals must pay annual tax on automobiles and self moving vehicles once a year to corresponding tax authority before June 1st of the same year. If an automobile or self moving vehicle has been imported after June 1st, taxes payable for the remainder of the year must be paid to corresponding tax authority within the same year.

In order to implement the law, on January 26th, 2015 by Resolution No. 28 of the Presidium of the Capital City Council of Citizens’ Representatives was approved “Regulation on re-implementation of vehicle registration and payment systems in the capital city”. Pursuant to this new regulation the timeframe for payment of taxes on automobiles and self moving vehicles in the capital city shall depend on the last digit number of the licence plate (state registration number) of the automobile or self moving vehicle. In other words, if your vehicle’s licence plate (state registration number) ends with 1 or 6 – the taxes must be paid before end of January, if it ends with 2 or 7 – before end of February, if it ends with 3 or 8 – before end of March, if it ends with 4 or 9 – before end of April, if it ends with 5 or 0 – before end of May.

Legal entities must pay annual tax on automobiles and self moving vehicles by the 25th of the last month of each quarter dividing annual tax into equal amounts and submit the tax report by February 15th of the following year to corresponding tax authority.

Land fee and tax on immovable property

Unless stated otherwise in the land possession or land use contracts, land fee payers must pay the land fee by the 25th of the first month of each quarter dividing the annual land fee into equal amounts; and may pay the next quarter installments in advance. The authority (or official) in charge of land fee matters (collection) must submit to the tax authority one copy of the land possession or land use contract of a citizen or legal entity and a copy of the land fee report produced at corresponding administrative level.

A taxpayer must calculate tax on immovable property based on the value of immovable property as of January 15th of each year. Legal entities that own immovable property must pay annual tax on immovable property by the 15th of the last month of each quarter dividing annual tax into equal amounts. Individuals (citizens of Mongolia, foreign citizens and stateless persons) that own immovable property must pay annual tax on immovable property once a year by February 15th of each year. A taxpayer must submit the tax reports of taxes on immovable property by February 10th of the following year to corresponding tax authority.

Pursuant to law if the deadline for submission of tax reports and payment of taxes coincides with weekends and/or public holidays, the tax reports shall be submitted, and taxes paid on the previous working day. Due to circumstances that this year’s Lunar New Year holidays fall on February 5, 6 and 7th, and that the Government of Mongolia has ruled to transfer the workday of February 8th to another day and make it a public holiday, tax authority has decided to extend the legal timeframe for submission of annual tax reports for 2018 for 5 business days, i.e. now taxpayers may submit their annual tax reports by February 15th.

Pursuant to Article 45 of the General Taxation Law taxpayers (tax withholders) are obliged to execute tax reports in accordance with instructions, forms and within timeframes specified by the law, and submit to corresponding tax authority. Taxpayers eligible for tax exemptions and returns in accordance with laws are not be relieved from duty to submit tax reports. Because the tax reports are the main documents to provide taxpayers with tax exemptions and returns.

Using Factoring as a Finance Tool

Factoring is a financial transaction and a type of debtor finance in which a business sells its accounts receivable (i.e., invoices) to a third party (called a factor) at a discount. Factoring is commonly referred to as accounts-receivable financing, accounts receivable factoring, and sometimes invoice factoring.

Accounts-receivable financing is a type of asset-financing arrangement in which a company uses its receivables — outstanding invoices or money owed by customers — to receive financing. The company receives an amount that is equal to a reduced value of the receivables pledged. The receivables’ age largely impacts the amount of financing the company receives. Accounts receivables financing companies typically advance companies 70 to 90 percent of the value of their outstanding invoices. The factoring company collects the debts and pays the original company any remaining amount beyond the financing amount minus a factoring fee.

This type of asset-based financing allows companies to get instant access to working capital without jumping through the hoops or dealing with the long waits associated with getting a business loan (bank loans). While bank loans may be secured by different kinds of collateral, including plants and equipment, real estate, and/or the personal assets of the business owner, accounts-receivable financing is backed strictly by a pledge of the business’s assets associated with the accounts receivable to the finance company.

This type of financing helps companies free up capital that is stuck in unpaid debts. When a business leverages its accounts receivables to boost its cash flow, it also doesn’t have to worry about repayment schedules. Instead of focusing on trying to collect bills, it can focus on other core aspects of its business.

While this type of financing is commonly used in many countries, in Mongolia it is not quite popular. Although legal definition, grounds and regulations are provided for in relevant laws, not many financing companies provide this type of financing, nor the demand for it is so big either. But with today’s rapid development and progress in international business and trade it is an open business option to consider for companies.

Letter of Credit in Mongolia – a Trade Finance Tool

Foreign trade is an important part of the economic life of any country and for Mongolia it is an essential part of its economic life. In recent years foreign trade in Mongolia is expanding, offering consumers a wide variety of goods and services. Thereby traders, both importers and exporters, must carefully and mindfully choose from range of trade finance tools to help their transactions run smoothly.

Most popular and commonly used trade finance tool is a letter of credit. Working with an overseas buyer can be risky because you don’t really know who you’re working with. A buyer may be honest and have good intentions, but business troubles or political unrest can delay payment or put a buyer out of business. In addition, due to different laws, different time zones, and different languages there might occur certain difficulties. A letter of credit spells out the details so that everybody is on the same page. Instead of assuming that things will work a certain way, everybody agrees on the process up front.

A letter of credit is a document issued by a bank that guarantees payment. There are several types of letters of credit, and some of them may be defined by their purpose. Still they provide security when buying and selling. Importers and exporters regularly use letters of credit to protect themselves.

Commercial letter of credit is a standard letter of credit that is commonly used in international trade and may also be referred to as a documentary credit. This is a negotiable financial instrument from an importer’s (buyer’s) bank guaranteeing that payment to an exporter (seller) will be the correct amount and received on time subject to the exporter presenting compliant shipping documents (assuming those documents meet the requirements listed in the letter of credit).

To get a letter of credit, importers must contact a bank in their home country and apply for opening a letter of credit. In Mongolia most banks issue letters of credit. In turn sellers must trust that the bank issuing the letter of credit is legitimate and that the bank will pay as agreed. If sellers have any doubts, they can use a “confirmed” letter of credit, which means that another (presumably more trustworthy) bank will guarantee payment. Sellers typically get letters of credit confirmed by banks in their home country.

However, prior to contacting a bank, important to remember that buyer and seller must have mutual agreement that the payment will be done with a letter of credit and list all requirements to shipping documents in the contract.

Issues with Mongolian Competition Law

Our Mongolian lawyers have encountered an unusual number of inquiries regarding Mongolian competition and anti-monopoly issues in the past few months. The scenario below takes a looks a common situation found in Mongolian trade.

Let’s assume that multinational company A currently sells to several Mongolian counterparties (Supplier Customers) who have a product import permit. Under the terms of sale, title passes to the Mongolian counterparty before the product is imported on either the Russian or Chinese border.

Mongolian wholesale client (Company B) proposes a profit-sharing agreement whereby Company B will Purchase products from Company A for purposes of:

  • storing product in Company B’s facilities and reselling to the other Supplier Customers within Mongolia; and
  • selling to wholesale clients provided that they are not already existing customers of the Supplier Customers.

In this scenario Mongolian Competition Law does not apply to the company A.  The Mongolian Competition Law does not apply to business entities which are not registered in Mongolia and are operating outside of its borders. Since the proposed transaction contemplated by the agreement would have company A deliver the products to the purchaser outside of Mongolian territory, the provisions of the Competition Law would not be applicable.

In our view, Company A and B would not be forming a monopoly because the transaction is cross-border, and A is not a “business entity” within the meaning of the Competition Law.

Company B only occupies approximately 1% of the domestic market for sale and supply of certain products. Accordingly, since it does not occupy a “dominant position” in Mongolia’s market (defined as a party which sells or produces 1/3 or more of a certain type of goods), the prohibitions in Mongolia’s Competition Law with regard to monopolistic activities would not be relevant to its operations.

With regard entering into agreements and monopolies, the following activities are prohibited under the Mongolian Competition Law:

  • mutually agreeing to fix prices of products;
  • dividing markets by location, production, services, sales, name or type of products or consumers;
  • restricting the production, supply, sale, shipping, transportation and market accessibility of products, investment, technical and technological renovation;
  • participating in competitive tender or bid auction or activities procuring goods, works or services by state and local funds having in advance agreed on the price, other conditions and criteria of products;

In addition, the following agreements or entered between business entities shall be prohibited where they contradict the public interests or create circumstances restricting competition:

  •  refusing to establish economic relations without economic or technical justifications;
  • restricting sales to or purchase by third parties of products;
  • collectively refusing to enter into agreements or negotiations which have significance for competition;
  • preventing competitors from joining organizations with the purpose of running their businesses profitably;

Mongolian business entities are prohibited to enter into agreements with effects as described above.

Liability of a Mongolian Company for Non-Compliance

We have looked at the requirement for a Mongolian company to have an internal control body and discussed a little about the forms such body may take. Our readers may be interested to note that while having such body is mandatory for a Mongolian company under law, there isn’t actually any penalty for a company that does not establish an internal control process.

What this means is that while there is no penalty for not having the review body, the Company will be considered liable under Mongolian law for any compliance violation or audit irregularity caused by the actions of the company’s officers or staff, which result in legal penalties or civil damages. By making the company responsible to maintain the internal control and compliance committee, the law makes the company responsible for any failure of compliance. Such liability will be in effect even where the non-compliance was accidental or was caused by the unapproved actions of a single staff member. The theory is that these things would not happen if the company had established and followed an appropriate internal control process.

Mongolian companies should therefore take the legal requirement to establish a Internal Control and Audit Committee seriously. The internal control system will allow company management to better ensure proper operations of the company and identify and stop potentially non-compliant behavior before it results in a larger problem, potentially carrying legal penalty. Since the law makes the company liable for non-compliance in any case, it makes sense for the company to establish internal procedures to reduce this risk.

Compliance Options for Your Mongolian Company

We talked yesterday about the Internal Control or Auditing Committee every Mongolian company should have. The Committee should operate by a set of rules, which the company approves and implements for itself. Government regulations stipulate that each, “Entity or organization must have its own internal control and auditing procedure in compliance with this regulation and consistence with its activities.”

To comply with this rule, the company must establish the Internal Control or Audit Committee, or for larger companies a complete department devoted to compliance may be used. Smaller companies have the option to appoint a single company officer to be responsible for compliance. This individual office, committee or department will have responsibly to conduct internal compliance reviews and audits.

Internal Control and Audit Requirements for Your Mongolian Company

All types of legal entities, regardless of ownership or organization details, are required to comply with state inspection requirements. Each company is required to establish an Internal Control or Auditing Committee comprised of company officials responsible for monitoring internal company operations and compliance. Whether the company is locally owned or foreign invested, or operating in mining sector, industrial manufacturing or providing a service, the company must establish an internal audit committee.

The Internal Control and Audit Committee is responsible for internal compliance issues for the company, to ensure the company meets all of its obligations as set out elsewhere in Mongolian law. The Committee is broadly responsible for compliance as regards meeting environmental impact and conservation obligations; ensuring quality of products or services provided by the company; monitoring working conditions and workplace safety and health; ensuring the company meets all obligations regarding property registration, utilization, storage and finally, the committee is responsible to ensure accurate accounting of financial records.

If you are unsure if your Mongolian company’s internal compliance and control procedures meet requires of the law, contact your Mongolian legal counsel for a consultation.

Basics of Initial public offering (IPO) in Mongolia

In recent years several Mongolian private companies have gone public, or conducted an initial public offering (IPO), very successfully. This shows that interest and knowledge about IPO is growing both among companies (businesses) and public (investors).

As you may know, an IPO is when a private company or corporation raises investment capital by offering its stock (shares) to the public for the first time. Initial public offerings are often issued by growing companies seeking capital to expand, but they can also be done by large privately-owned companies or corporations looking to become publicly traded. Prior to an IPO the company is considered private, with a relatively small number of shareholders made up primarily of early investors (such as the founders) and professional investors. The public, on the other hand, consists of everybody else – any individual or institutional investor who wasn’t involved in the early days of the company and who is interested in buying shares of the company. The Law on Securities Market requires that to conduct an IPO the issuer must offer its stock to at least 50 and more investors.

In an initial public offering, the issuer, or company raising capital, procures the assistance of an underwriting firm (underwriter), to help determine the offering price, amount (number) of shares and timeframe for the market offering. When a company initiates the IPO process, a very specific set of events occurs. The chosen underwriter facilitates all of those steps. Primarily, an external IPO team is formed, consisting of an underwriter, law firm, audit company, appraiser company, and other experts if required. The external IPO team compiles information and documentation regarding the company (issuer), including financial performance and financial statements, expected future operations, corporate governance and corporate documents, and prepares IPO prospectus, legal opinion, audit report, asset valuation report and other necessary documents respectively that are to be filed to Financial Regulatory Commission of Mongolia (FRC). After the company files its prospectus and other necessary documents with the FRC, it sets a date for the offering.

Going public can be a great way to raise money, increase your company’s profile. However, there are number pros and cons in going public. So, when considering conducting an IPO, one must do all proper researches, calculations and analysis. In doing so we advise to seek professional advice and services from FRC listed underwriters, law firms, audit companies and appraiser companies.

Our law firm is FRC listed. Here at LehmanLaw we have FRC certified lawyers, who will provide you with qualified legal assistance.