Doing business in the world’s largest single market area simply makes sense. But foreign companies need to be prepared for Europe’s varied HR rules and regulations. There’s a lot to gain from establishing operations in Europe, particularly the European Union, with its reduced trade barriers, lower business costs and increased efficiency as you sell your goods and services to a 500 million-consumer market. But the EU’s lack of border bureaucracy and harmonisation of company law doesn’t extend to all aspects...

Read more

Cost segregation has long benefited taxpayers with increased cash flow and long-term net present value benefits by reclassifying building or improvement costs to property with shorter tax lives, such as personal property or land improvement property. We discussed cost segregation benefits in light of tax reform in a prior issue of For the Record (see Cost Segregation Benefits from the Recent Tax Reform Act). In this tax reform update, we discuss how cost segregation continues to add value in light of recent changes...

Read more

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and MicroBank have signed a social entrepreneurship guarantee agreement in Spain supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the core of the Investment Plan for Europe. This financing agreement was also made under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). This guarantee agreement allows MicroBank to launch a new product, targeting 500 start-up and developing social enterprises across Spain over the next 2 and a half years. Under this EU backed program, Spanish...

Read more

By Daniel R. Sieck & Gregory C. Dorris | Pepper Hamilton| March, 3rd, 2019 U.S. technology companies raising funds from foreign investors should carefully consider whether the proposed financing transaction can be structured to avoid falling within the purview of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which now has jurisdiction to review certain financing transactions pursuant to interim rules under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA). In particular, FIRRMA expanded the jurisdiction of CFIUS through...

Read more

By Marc S. Friedman | Director of Professional Relations| Global Commerce Education In the last installment in this series, I explained how many non-US companies, including Baltic businesses, may wrongfully refrain from doing business in the US because of  Myth #9 - There are no effective ways to control the risks to our business if we come to the US.  Today I address the last Legal Myth in this series - Myth #10 It is almost impossible to locate trusted advisers including...

Read more

By  Timothy S Murray |Christopher Colman What Is It? A two-year pilot scheme running in certain divisions of the English High Court, designed to reduce the volume of disclosure documents (discovery) produced in English litigation. What Will It Mean? In some cases - most likely smaller ones – the new scheme will result in the disclosure of more documents at an earlier stage in the proceedings. Previously, it was common practice for a limited amount of documentation (such as the relevant contract in...

Read more

By Lee Grosse | Vice President, Structured Finance| TMF Group There has been an influx of foreign investment in real estate in the United States as a direct corollary of the stable legal framework, strong property rights and as well as a robust commercial real estate environment. But, these foreign investors may not be aware of the mandatory filings required by the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis for US domiciled corporations with 10% or more foreign ownership.  What is the BEA? The...

Read more

As of February 26, 2019, companies and individuals filing for a trademark with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (“IPTO”), using the dedicated website, will be able to choose a new, optional fast-track procedure. The key advantage of this new procedure, as defined in the Ministry of Economic Development circular no. 604 of February 6, 2019, is that trademark applications will be published in the IPTO bulletin in a considerably shorter amount of time (within 7 days of filing). In fact, the standard procedure...

Read more