Article Category: Corporate & Commercial – Insight & Opinion

If you are looking at the options available for exiting your business, an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) may be worth considering. Previously, an individual looking to sell their shares in their company to a trust for the benefit of the employees faced a potentially significant tax charge. However, since the introduction of the EOT under… Read more »

Non disclosure agreements (NDAs) – or confidentiality agreements – have hit the headlines in recent months, as a number of well-known entrepreneurs have attempted to limit public disclosure of their sometimes dubious dealings with employees. However, many businesses continue to have a legitimate need to protect their trade secrets, software or valuable confidential information such as… Read more »

Selling a business can involve many hard decisions. We often see the emotional attachment that owners and family members have to their business and the soul destroying impact when the buyers’ advisers embark on the due diligence process.  This scrutiny can result in flaws that owners didn’t know existed being revealed, hence achieving the objective… Read more »

In our previous blog, Important changes to entrepreneurs’ relief announced in autumn 2018 budget, we explained how the proposed changes set out in the Autumn Budget 2018 appear to have added additional conditions that must be met in order for an individual shareholder to qualify for entrepreneur’s relief to reduce their Capital Gains Tax liability to… Read more »

When owners reach a decision to sell their business often the first assumption is to market their business for sale to a third party buyer. But more often there is an alternative option lying nearer to home. A Management Buyout (or MBO) is a common way to sell the ownership of a business to an… Read more »

The recent budget contained a number of important changes, but one that slipped through largely unnoticed at the time of the announcement in Parliament related to changes to the availability of entrepreneurs’ relief. Background to entrepreneurs’ relief: Entrepreneurs’ relief is a tax relief that is widely used on the sale of certain qualifying business assets… Read more »

The ability of a private limited company to purchase its own shares is a tried and tested method of providing an exit route for shareholders who are looking to cash in their investment, or who may be compelled to sell their shares following the termination of their employment, or as a result of death or… Read more »

Running a business involves planning for the future and setting goals. Unfortunately illness or loss of mental capacity is not something we can predict. A Commercial Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) can help to ensure your business continues to run smoothly should you lose mental capacity or be unable to run your business due to… Read more »

    The data protection developments together with a general increase in awareness of fundamental rights, particularly the right to privacy, have led to legislative changes in the form of the GDPR and the emergence of a new regime of privacy protection. Businesses are increasingly aggregating employee or customer information and collecting and processing data…. Read more »

Business owners are often unaware of the obligations they need to comply with when it comes to organising and holding board meetings. The Companies Act 2006 sets out the requirements. How can you make sure that your business is compliant and avoid potential disputes? Our guide, below, can help ensure that best practices are followed… Read more »