Tag Archives: Business Law
Accountants Denied Privilege
When I trained as a tax accountant many years ago there was a clear understanding that my duty was to my client and whilst I should not collude in illegal tax evasion or financial irregularity I owed no duty to “rat” on clients to the authorities.
Indeed it was always accepted that anything told to me [...]
Legal Action Settled After 67 Years
One of the world’s longest running cases was settle out of court 67 years after it started in 1941.
The case, known as Re Jahre, concerned a dispute over the recovery of assets alleged to belong to the shipping magnate Anders Jahre. Jahre died aged 90 before the main trial started in 1983. Although the case [...]
The Companies Names Adjudicator : New Protection for Business Names
From 1 October 2008, there is a new right for individuals, partnerships or companies to object to the registration of a new company with the same or similar name as they use for their own business.
This new right has been established under the 2006 Companies Act which itself is being introduced in stages over a [...]
Reforming the Law on Bribery and Corruption
The Law Society has just published a report entitled Reforming Bribery setting out proposals which it intends should clarify and simplify the existing laws.
Anyone in business should be aware that there already are established offences of bribery and corruption on the United Kingdom statutes. International pressure is increasingly being applied to stamp out activities which [...]
Good News! – Yet Another U-Turn from the Labour Government
In his Pre-Budget Statement on Monday Alistair Darling quietly dumped legislation intended to outlaw income splitting arrangements among individuals that would have effectively forced small, family-run businesses to pay more tax.
For some years now the Labour government has tried to take action against income splitting arrangements which it considers “unacceptable tax avoidance”. Leaving aside the [...]
Google Pays $125 Million to Settle Copyright Cases
Google recently reached an agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) under which the firm will pay $125 million to resolve outstanding legal actions against it in relation to its Google Book search service, which offers full-text searching facilities to users.
The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, is subject to [...]
Starting a Business? Don’t Overlook a Partnership
Ask most people how they would structure a new business and the chances are that they will talk about starting a company. That’s fine and works a lot of the time but usually only in conjunction with a shareholder agreement.
One of the oldest forms of business structure is the Partnership – and this is often [...]
