One of the functions of Companies House is to make information filed with it available to the public. Staff at Companies House do not question the validity or accuracy of the documents filed and this combined with the ability to freely obtain company details from Companies House can lead to potential fraudsters "stealing" or hijacking a company's identity. Such a fraud took place in 2004 when Companies House forms were, without the company in question's knowledge, lodged by X, a fraudster ...
As mentioned in our information bulletin of June 8, on June 7, 2005 the Federal Official Gazette published an “Executive Order to Amend the Value Added Tax Law” which altered the procedure for calculating the crediting of valued added tax by removing operations not taxable ...
In the Official Gazette of the Federation dated June 16, a Decree was published through which several provisions of the Industrial Property Law are amended and added. The object of these modifications is the issuance of a declaration of protection of well-known and famous trademarks in our country. 1 ...
GoodCorporation, the standards organisation for responsible business practice, today officially announced the launch of its service in Ireland. The first organisation of its kind to operate in Ireland, GoodCorporation audits companies for corporate social responsibility practices and provides benchmarking against which member companies can measure their performance ...
It is quite common in Hong Kong for employers to arrange an employee's employment by using dual contracts to take advantage of the tax position. Under Hong Kong law, only income derived from Hong Kong is taxable and earnings under a foreign employment contract with non-Hong Kong entity in respect of duties carried out outside Hong Kong are not taxable. However, the benefits under this arrangement may reduce following a recent UK guideline ...
David Hughes v Seamus Duffy and Eugene Hanratty, 19 April 2005, High Court Facts: This case was taken under Section 150 of the Companies Act 1990, by the Official Liquidator of the Supreme Oil Company Limited. Section 150 provides for a prohibition or restriction of persons acting as company directors for a period of five years. The respondents sought to have the application dismissed or refused by reason of the delay in bringing the application ...
Amendments made to the Quebec Professional Code in 2001 authorize professional orders to allow their members to exercise their professional activities within the framework of a limited liability partnership, or a joint-stock company. In 2002, the Ordre des comptables agréés (Order of Chartered Accountants) was the first professional order to adopt a regulation to this effect. The Quebec Bar and the Ordre des comptables généraux licenciés (Certified General Accountants) followed suit in 2004 ...
The Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Competition Act (the “Act”), including criminal provisions relating to conspiracies to lessen competition, price fixing, market allocation, bid rigging and resale price maintenance, and civil provisions relating to abuse of dominant position, as well as other practices that may lessen competition, such as tied selling, refusal to deal and exclusivity ...
Overview A recent B.C. court decision provides welcome news for trustees of multi-employer, defined benefit, negotiated cost pension plans. Under s. 59(3) of the Pension Benefits Standards Act (“PBSA”), trustees of these plans can reduce accrued benefits to meet solvency requirements, and have used this power at various times in the last 12 years. But this power had never been judicially tested. In Neville v ...
Judgment of the European Court of Justice in Tetra Laval BV v. European Commission (Case C-12/03 P) of 15 February 2005 In its judgment of 15 February 2005 in case Tetra Laval BV v. European Commission, the European Court of Justice (hereinafter the “ECJ”) upheld and confirmed conclusions reached by the Court of First Instance (hereinafter the “CFI”) in its judgment of 25 October 2002 ...
The judgment of the European Court of Justice in European Commission v. max.mobil Telekommunikation Service (C-141/02 P) of 22 February 2005 The plaintiff was an Austrian mobile operator contesting the level of regulatory fees it was required to pay. Specifically, as the claimant indicated, it was subject to fees similar to those applicable to a competing mobile operator owned by the Austrian state ...
Unlimited Liability Corporations Lawson Lundell LLP is committed to excellence in business law. In fulfilling this commitment, we ensure that we are aware of changes in the legal environment and are proactive in identifying opportunities for our clients to benefit from such changes. The recent introduction of legislation in Alberta to allow the creation of unlimited liability corporations (¡§ULCs¡¨) presents such an opportunity. Enclosed is a brief summary of ULCs and their uses ...
On June 7, 2005, a Decree amending, enacting and repealing various provisions of the VAT Law was published at the Mexican Federal Register. These amendments, to a large extent, merely renumber and relocate various provisions of the VAT Law, leaving their content unaltered. Nonetheless, it is quite important to underline that these amendments repeal any reference to “activities which fall outside the scope of this tax” in the provisions dealing with creditable VAT ...
Mexican tax laws, rules and regulations are subject to amendments on a regular basis. Herein we intend to provide our friends and clients a general overview of the most recent and significant changes to our tax system[1]. Rule JG-SAT-IE-1-2005. - Debt Forgiveness for Certain Taxpayers ...
As a director you have a duty to act honestly, in good faith and in the best interests of the company. This means you must take proper care of the company's assets and ensure that you don't profit from your position. To this end, when purchasing property from the company, the purchase price should reflect the current market value ...
What is Licensing?Globalization and the opening of international markets generate an increase in trade on a world-wide basis and greater competition between businesses. It has become increasingly difficult for companies to follow the traditional process of developing, manufacturing and distributing products themselves.Licensing is a simple and different way of selling one’s products ...
The Director of Corporate Enforcement is targeting company directors who abandon insolvent companies and leave them to be involuntarily struck off the Register as an alternative to a formal liquidation. The Director has indicated that he will take proceedings under Section 160 of the Companies Act, 1990 to secure disqualification orders against such directors in appropriate cases. He is getting support for this in the High Court ...
Inheritance tax is often assumed to be a rich man's concern, but the recent housing boom means that this is no longer the case. The sharp rise in house prices has completely outpaced tax thresholds, meaning that there has been a huge increase in the number of families who could face large bills for Inheritance Tax (IHT) when the homeowner dies ...
MAJOR INDUSTRY USE AND CLASSIFICATION ISSUES I.Introduction A.General Principles of Classification Under s. 19(14) of the B.C. Assessment Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 20 (the “Assessment Act”) and the Prescribed Classes of Property Regulation (B.C. Reg. 438/81) (the “Classification Regulation”), real property in B.C ...
EQUITY AND CONSISTENCY IN ASSESSMENTS I. General Principles of Equity A hallmark of the assessment and taxation of property in B.C. is the principle of equity: taxing authorities must deal even-handedly with all taxpayers in a municipality or rural area, and all taxpayers with a class must be treated in the same way. Equity in the context of the property assessment in B.C ...
In the majority of countries, the rights obtained over a trademark are created by its use and/or its registration. Mexican law follows a mixed or exception system. In effect, the right to the exclusive use of a trademark is obtained by means of its registration, which protects certain products or services (the principle of specificity of products or services); however, its use also produces legal effects before and after the registration ...
Under the current law, for an organisation to be liable for a fatality the 'identification' principle must apply. This first requires an individual to be personally guilty of the wrongdoing. This individual must then be identified as the "controlling mind" of the company. There are several problems with the current system. It is often impossible to identify the "controlling mind" behind the decision which results in the death ...
Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and Parmalat: names associated with tales of corruption, mismanagement and financial irregularity. But these names are now also synonymous with something else: a raft of reforms to company regulation worldwide. Two such reforms being felt in the UK are the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, and the FTSE Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Corporate Governance Index Series ...
This paper is about the role of the pension and benefits lawyer in the context of a merger or acquisition. The paper profiles several recent high profile corporate transactions where pension issues played unexpectedly significant roles. These provide potent examples of how the pension and benefits lawyer should be consulted early on in the transaction process ...
The Benefits of Using a an Unlimited Liability Company (1) Introduction Unlimited Liability Companies (“ULC”) have become useful vehicles for the acquisition of a Canadian business by a U.S. investor. This paper summarizes the advantages of using a ULC, the treatment of a ULC in Canada and in the U.S. and the use of a ULC in a factual setting involving the acquisition of a Canadian business. Until recently, only Nova Scotia offered the possibility of incorporating a ULC ...
