European Union: Venture Capital

Ireland's implementation of AIFMD 2.0 brings significant regulatory changes for alternative investment funds, alongside evolving requirements for ESG disclosure and board effectiveness. The Central Bank of Ireland explores emerging opportunities in distributed ledger technology, tokenisation, and artificial intelligence while addressing future modifications to venture and growth capital fund regulations.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office and the European Investment Fund have launched a groundbreaking initiative to help EU businesses unlock the financial value of their intellectual property assets. Through a new Memorandum of Understanding, these institutions aim to address longstanding barriers that prevent innovative European companies from using their IP rights as collateral to access financing, potentially opening alternative funding routes beyond traditional equity and venture debt options

On 23 January 2026, the Legal Notice titled “Tax Treatment of Highly Skilled Individuals Rules, 2026” became effective.

The European Commission announced its welcome proposal for EU Inc yesterday, the centrepiece of its wider plans for a ‘28th regime', which looks to be a game-changer for European founders...

With the introduction of the Final Income Tax Without Imputation (FITWI) Regulations through Legal Notice 188 of 2025, Maltese companies can elect to apply a 15% final tax rate on chargeable income, instead of operating under the full imputation system.

On 19 December 2025, the CSSF published the Circular CSSF 25/901 (the "Circular"), which relates to the assets, investment limits, risk capital, techniques, borrowing, and transparency requirements in relation to SIFs, SICARs and Part II UCIs.

Significant changes have been introduced to the Non-Habitual Residents Regime (NHR) in Portugal.

For Portuguese taxpayers, royalty income is generally treated as part of their normal taxable income and is subject to the standard corporate income tax (CIT) rate. Any withholding tax (WHT) paid on this income is considered a pre-payment toward the final CIT liability.

An exit tax is a levy imposed on individuals or companies when they cease to be tax residents of a country.