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Why You Need to Write a Will as A Business Owner

April 5, 2018 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Business owners tend to leave their wills at their later stage in life. Nonetheless, it must be remembered that it is the business owner’s legal responsibility to settle their business affairs. Otherwise, finding an individual to execute the late individual’s wishes can be inconvenient. So, therefore it is important to prevent this situation when an ill-timed situation occurs.

Making arrangements ahead of time can ease and help the period for the grieving family, since this will lessen the stress. In turn, the business owner’s employees would also be affected. So, structure within the business is crucial at this time so business affairs can continue.

The legal document the business owner will need to provide is a will. The will holds the information of how an individual’s assets and possessions will be divided and allocated, and informs the executor how to proceed. Although the outcome may differ for the business owner’s family and business partners, it allows the individual the chance to decide how to distribute their belongings. Otherwise, the law will take authority in handling the affair by implementing the “intestacy rules”, which aids the law themselves on how to distribute the departed’s properties and assets.

Care must be taken to ensure that risks in the business are minimal. This is to prevent a situation where should the business partners stay dissatisfied with the final outcome, it can create difficulties for the business to progress. Without a will, this can cause distress for the individual’s loved ones. As a result, their loved ones may find themselves forced to sell their residence to cover the cost of business expenses that have been incurred such as debt. This can raise more stress and additional grief. Should debt matters be left unresolved, this can cause employees to be made redundant.

This shows the importance of having a will for a business owner, as it will lessen the chances of the business going through legal battles and liquidation. For instance, there have been situations where the law may equally split the business owner’s assets between their next of kin and the business due to the intestacy rules. Hence, the law can overlook the individual’s unmarried partner, since they are not treated as a spouse throughout the process.

By making arrangements in advance with the succession plan, this can eliminate possible disputes between the family and the business partners. So, the business can be safeguarded from discord. The individual will also have an opportunity to be granted business property relief which affects inheritance tax within the business. Therefore, should you pay less inheritance tax, this can increase financial security for the business and the individual’s family.

Therefore, to safeguard the business and loved one’s future, a will must be written earlier to reduce uncertainty as it can cause financial hardships. Further advantages, includes the fact having a will gives the individual a voice. So, should there be an unexpected incident such as mental deterioration, the will can operate as the individual’s voice when they are their most vulnerable. To commence this procedure, you can find advice from your local will writing solicitors nearby where you are based.

Lawyers are here to give their clients directions by giving them the relevant documents to sign. If you are a sole proprietor, you also have the legal responsibility for your employees’ future. So, if you are worried, you can contact your local employment solicitors or a financial advisor for advice. By acting now, you can obtain a peace of mind in return for safeguarding the interests of those you care about.

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Protecting Your Business from a Divorce

About the Author

Contributed by Alexa Yeung. Alexa is a budding freelance writer. She wanted to write this topic after discussing this issue with her family, and believe this advice will help many business owners.

Starting A Business In Thailand

March 30, 2018 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

When you venture out to start a new business in Thailand, the journey can seem complicated at first, but once you know the in’s and out’s of setting up a business in Thailand, you will find your experience is financially rewarding.

There are several steps that you need to follow in order to adhere to Thailand’s laws, rules, and regulations. We will walk you through the steps to follow in order to set up a business in Thailand. Improve your finances and create the ultimate success by working for yourself and owning your own company. Thailand is the second largest country in the Southeast Asia economy; the possibilities are limitless there!

The Foreign Business Act of 1999 was created by late Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and this law was set up to protect Thailand nationalists and the economy. Thai business law and regulations need to be properly learned and retained, otherwise, large fines could be imposed — if new business protocols are not correctly followed.

Foreign Business Restrictions

Foreigners are not prohibited from owning businesses in Thailand. Although, it is important to know ahead of time that engaging in the following types of businesses is prohibited for foreigners in Thailand:

Property trading
Buddha and alms bowl manufacturing
Thai antique(s) — auctions and trades are prohibited
Foreigners cannot extract medicinal herbs
Thai ocean, marine life, and fishery businesses are prohibited
Foreigners cannot process wood deriving from forests or any natural forestry
Orchard, arable, and rice farming types of businesses are prohibited
Foreigners rearing livestock as a business is also prohibited
Television broadcasting, radio, or publishing (newspaper) is prohibited

What type of businesses can foreigners start in Thailand?

Limited Partnerships and/ or Registered Ordinaries
Limited Companies
Branch, Regional, or Representative Offices

You can read more about the specific types of businesses here.

‘Nominee Shareholders’ Are Prohibited

When foreigners begin to set up a company in Thailand, the words, nominee, and shareholder are common terms. A ‘nominee shareholder’ is known as a ‘name only individual’ who doesn’t have a large financial interest or stake in the company.

Note* The Foreign Business Act of 1999, prohibits ‘nominee shareholder’ practices, this is illegal — punishable by imprisonment and possible fines. Foreigners can have control over a company, under a minority shareholder, although the Managing Director needs to allow this.

Pay Registration Fees And Follow Procedures

If you are looking at registering a company in Thailand, there will be registration fees due. Private companies are required to have a minimum of seven shareholders, and they are also regulated by Commercial and Civil codes.

The business registration fees in Thailand can vary from 50 — 25,000 baht.

Nationals that are non-Thai can register public businesses, but the company must be 51% owned by a Thai national. Make sure that a minimum of half of your board is Thai if you want your public business registration process to run smoothly.

There are three ways foreigners can gain 100% control over a company in Thailand. The following methods can work:

Foreigners can get a foreign business license
Foreigners can gain this status through a promotion via the Board of Investment (BOI)
US citizens (only) can register via Treaty of Amity

Timeframe

If you are registering a private company, the timeframe to register your business in Thailand can take seven days, and it takes thirty days for a privately owned company to become registered.

Local Agency Help

Many foreigners find the Thai language barrier difficult, hence why many business owners don’t register companies in Thailand. There are local agencies that exist solely to limit this barrier. These local agencies can assist you when it comes to setting up a new business in Thailand.

Find out more information about local agency help at the Institute for Small and Medium Enterprise Development.

Steps To Register A Business In Thailand

Secure and reserve a company name
Next, gather and submit the following vital documents:
- The Articles and Memorandum of Association
- A list of all shareholders and an application form
- Signatures of each Director involved (New Director Form)
- Reservation of the company name
- The Declaration of Business Operation form
- Information regarding the company branches and office details

You may need to get your documents certified by the appropriate officials before you submit your business registration documents.

You will need to register your new business at the Thai Board of Investment. You can find more information regarding the registration process for new companies in Thailand here. You will also have access to financial incentives via Thailand investors.

Once you fill out all of the proper documents and send them to the right agencies in Thailand, you will need to notify Thailand’s tax authorities about recently registering your new business. Before 60 days is up, you need to retrieve a tax id card for the newly registered business.

Business Registration Completion

After you’ve completed the registration process for your business, you need to make sure that you keep up with the labor regulations in Thailand at all times. Registering a business in Thailand is similar to registering a business in the US, considering there are many documents and much paperwork involved, along with fees, plus long wait times.

It can seem like a lot of work and a daunting experience when you are registering a business in Thailand for the first time, but with the right consultation of local Thailand agencies, knowing what documents to file, what fees to pay, and what laws to abide by, you can achieve lucrative success in Thailand before you know it!

An Alternate Method: Virtual Phone Numbers

If all of the aforementioned seems to be beyond your business’ reach, there may be an alternate method of setting up a business and establishing a presence in the Thai marketplace: Thailand virtual phone numbers. Thailand virtual phone numbers allow your business to route calls to a destination phone number. For instance, if you wanted to capture part of the Thai market, you can post a Thailand virtual phone number on your website, which is indistinguishable from phone numbers that originate in Thailand. Thai callers can then reach your business, where you can provide them with services and products to meet their needs. Consider contacting Global Call Forwarding for all of your virtual phone number needs today!

About the Author

Tom Senkus is a freelance writer with over fifteen years of experience. When he’s not writing, Tom is traveling the world and helping others experience the wonders of a life well-lived.

UK Businesses to Report Gender Pay Gap in 2018

March 8, 2018 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

This Year’s International Women’s Day marks a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity including challenging the Gender Pay Gap.

The UN Women Report from 2015 showed that, despite women working longer hours than men when both paid and unpaid work is taken into consideration, women still earn an average of 24 percent less than men do worldwide. This wage gap is by far the worst in South Asia, where women earn 33 percent less than men.

Instant Offices delves into what the legal implications and desired outcomes of addressing the gender pay gap are.

Consider this: if someone asked you to continue doing your job for free until the end of the year, would you say yes? In the UK, Equal Pay Day marks the point in the year when women effectively stop being paid, while men continue earning.

10^th November 2016 marked the average 19.2% pay gap, highlighting how slowly the gap is being closed. The year before, Equal Pay Day was on 9 November, signifying the glacial pace of difference from 19.3% in 2015 to 18.1% for all employees, and a drop from 9.6% to 9.4% for full-time employees, this year.

Gender Pay Gap Legislation

New gender pay gap reporting requirements, due to start in 2018, will require large employers to report on their gender pay gaps. For companies with over 250 staff members, the need to report their gender pay gap by April 2018 means that more than 8,000 businesses across the UK might currently be unprepared to meet their legal duties.

The Guardian reports, “Birmingham council alone faces total costs of £1.2bn to settle its case with female staff. Reading has now won the dubious title of the last local authority in England and Wales to settle an equal pay claim, keeping women waiting for seven years. This is not only a public sector issue. The £100m legal battle between supermarket chain Asda and its shop floor staff shows that the private sector also faces equal value claims.”

Aside from the much-needed transparency, the new legislation will encourage businesses to discuss their approach to pay with conviction – which could help change perceptions in traditionally male-orientated industries (such as engineering, finance, and politics) and top positions. This will encourage new talent to join your business, a win for gender equality and business growth.

What You Can Do to Address and Challenge the Gender Pay Gap

As employers report how much they pay men and women in salaries and bonuses, research by ONS found that:

o More women work part-time than men, leading to a larger pay gap overall

o Since 1997 the gender pay gap has narrowed for full-time workers but widened for part-time workers

o A higher proportion of women work in jobs that tend to be lower-paid

o From age 40 the gap widens significantly

To contribute to a society in which individuals can fulfil their potential regardless of their gender, these steps, suggested by The Fawcett Society, will aid you and your employer in making a difference:

o Talk about your salaries with your colleagues, and whether they know about new regulations being implemented next year, and if they are ready to implement this change

o Contact your MP and enquire about what they will be doing to close the gender pay gap

o Advertise jobs at all levels in your organisation as flexible, part-time or a job share, unless there is a strong business case not to

o Support women to progress to higher paid jobs. Tackle unconscious bias and use targets or quotas to measure progress and focus minds

If you haven’t already, be sure to start curating your pay information today to avoid the implications of not complying with the legislation – contribute to gender equality in the workplace.

About the Author

The Instant Group is the global flexible workspace specialist. Underpinned by unrivalled expertise, Instant tailors unique solutions to help businesses of all sizes to grow, drive savings or gain invaluable insight. Established in 1999, The Instant Group has achieved 23% compound growth over the past four years and continues to expand with private equity funding secured from MML Capital in 2012. With offices in London, Berlin, Dallas, New York, Hong Kong and Sydney, The Instant Group employs more than 100 experts and has clients in 113 countries. For more information, visit www.theinstantgroup.com.

Employing Someone With A Disability: What You Should Know

February 24, 2018 by Guest Post 1 Comment

The National Disability Employment Awareness month comes this October. On that entire month, multiple advocacy groups and organizations in the U.S. will organize events to educate employers and promote hiring individuals with disabilities. There are a lot of things an employer must know when hiring people with disabilities. In fact, regardless if you’re a large corporation or a beginning microbusiness, there are plenty of benefits and reasons for hiring disabled persons, including those with hearing loss, vision loss, and other disabilities.

Why Should You Hire Disabled Persons?

The business case for employing disabled persons is strong. A company may save costs due to reduced staff turnover, lower enlistment or recruitment, and retraining costs. Further, people with disabilities make fewer compensation accidents and incidents at work, unlike other employees. Thus, insurance cover and compensation expenses are generally lower.

Employing persons with disabilities also guarantees that the team represents all components of the local community. Disabled persons also contribute an extensive set of skills, abilities, and talents to the workplace, like all other employees. Many possess tertiary or trade certificates which guarantees they can operate in any job.

What You Should Know When Hiring Someone With A Disability

Employing disabled people can bring plenty of benefits to the workplace. In fact, there is a notable gap between the ratio of non-disabled employees compared to handicapped employees. Inviting disabled persons to send applications is good for the business.

1. Individuals with disabilities are highly reliable and manifest higher job retention rates.

Studies show that people with disabilities take fewer days off, and are more likely to stay in their jobs compared to other employees. A study conducted by The Chicago Lighthouse demonstrated that there was indeed a significant retention rate with disabled persons. The Illinois Tollway call center employs disabled persons such as those who are visually impaired, completely blind, suffer from another disability, or are veterans. The results show that employees with disabilities had a higher retention rate in contrast to the retention rate of non-disabled employees.

2. Disabled employees are less susceptible to work-related accidents.

Further studies deduced that disabled workers had remarkably higher key performance in their area of safety in contrast to employees without disabilities. Thus, disabled persons are more conscious of their safety in the workplace.

3. Businesses may receive tax credits or other incentives when they hire persons with disabilities.

Legitimate businesses may receive incentives such as tax credits to assist them in accommodating and hiring disabled people. Most of these credits are given to finance expenses involved in purchasing equipment suited for disabled workers. The credits or incentives may also be used for covering the expenses of any modifications or improvements necessary to make the building more accessible to them.

The grants or incentives given can also be used to fund the following expenses:

Special equipment and aids
Travel to and from work
Communication support
Offer support to individuals with mental health conditions who find it difficult to work

4. Employing persons with disabilities will increase diversity in the workplace.

Employees with and without disabilities benefit equally from a diverse or varied work setting. Further, working together with disabled employees make non-disabled employees become more aware in making the work setting more accessible and inclusive to everyone.

Non-disabled employees may consider ideas they have never reflected on before, like the accessibility challenges and experiences of their disabled co-workers. Moreover, disabled employees can also enlighten their co-workers about imagination, creativity and other methods of solving problems and accomplishing multiple tasks.

5. Persons with disabilities are as skillful and talented as anyone else.

This is the simplest, but many times most challenging consideration for employers to comprehend when hiring disabled persons. In fact, in many parts of the world, the unemployment rate of disabled persons has been hovering at more than 70 percent. Unfortunately, most employers refuse to employ people with disabilities because they think they are incapable of doing required tasks or jobs. Further, employees refuse to hire disabled persons simply because they are unaware of the multiple adaptive techniques and equipment available that can allow them to work.

6. Hiring disabled persons is suitable for the workplace.

Further, employing persons with disabilities can increase the number of excellent applicants. These disabled persons can create a workforce that reflects the diverse customers the business serves, and the community it is located in. Moreover, disabled persons possess plenty of skills that can benefit the business. For instance, a disabled employee’s ability to use sign language can result in huge savings. Also, they can converse with clients or customers who can only communicate with the use of the sign language.

7. The expenses of creating reasonable adjustments to assist disabled employees are quite low.

Disabled employees stay longer. Thus the benefits of a retained skilled disabled employee are significantly higher than recruiting, enlisting and training new staff.

Conclusion

One of the key features of the disability equality policy is equal opportunities in the employment world. Thus, employing someone with a disability benefits both employers and employees. Disabled employees possess skills, talents, and faculties which can provide added quality to any small business or large enterprise. If you’re not sure on the legal areas of hiring someone with a disability it might be best to see help from a lawyer.

About the Author

Andrew Nickleson is a passionate writer, writing about disabilities and the law. He has written about many subjects aimed to help those who have questions unanswered. In his spare time he enjoys working on volunteering for those less fortunate.

What To Consider When You Have A Lawsuit Put Against Your Business

January 18, 2018 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: This article should not be treated as legal advice. It’s recommended that readers still consult legal counsel and contact a lawyer should they have any concerns regarding a business lawsuit.

When we get ourselves our own small business, we normally focus on how to gain profit and how to maintain those profits in the long run. After all, we have services to market to the public, products to sell, and employees to pay. Unfortunately, when it comes to the legal aspect of businesses, we can’t help but have potential scenarios where a lawsuit can be filed against our businesses, and we have to be prepared for the eventualities related to these circumstances.

While there are numerous kinds of cases and factors involved when it comes to a business lawsuit, there are generally some common factors and considerations to look for when it comes to tackling them properly. Understanding how these considerations work and reviewing your business structure with your lawyer can greatly help you get a heads up when it comes to your business and any potential lawsuits.

Do remember that this article shouldn’t be treated as legal advice, and things you want to consider here should be reviewed by your lawyer as well, as you, your lawyer, and your financial personnel know your business best.

Consider the Cost

Having a lawsuit can be extremely costly for both parties, so always take note of how these expenses can affect your profits when you do get one. Paying for the support of an attorney to help solve the case, or paying extra fees in court are just some of the basic things to consider. However, there are also instances where we may have to pay damages, or other forms of fines depending on the nature of the lawsuit being presented to us.

Things Can Get Out Of Control

A lawsuit in itself is stressful, but the circumstances that can happen during the lawsuit can get

out of control. This means you have be in a position that allows you to at least understand how the lawsuit will work out and come out stronger in the process. This doesn’t mean doing something illegal, but at least finding the best solution that can at least allow your company to grow and not be harmed.

For instance, remember that if a lawsuit goes to court, the trial can have a lot of surprises. Key witnesses can become unreliable, stories can be inconsistent, and even juries can decide on things in unexpected ways. This, combined with the costs of the actual trial, can be stressful for all parties.
If you opt to settle, both parties can at least negotiate the way the payout goes, which allows both parties to at least have some degree of satisfaction.

Remember the Image

When we deal with our company, we should remember our business always has an image to maintain. Having a lawsuit go public due to a trial can harm the potential of our business to profit, so always consider how your actions in the lawsuit can affect the public perception of your company as a whole.

For instance, if you have an aspect of the suit you don’t want to go out in public, consider trying to settle out of court in order to avoid this exposure.
Remember, being on trial encourages both sides to make the other be shown in a negative light, and chances are the judge might allow the evidence in the trial be accessible to everyone.

Start Thinking About the Future

When we say the “future,” we don’t mean the immediate future of your company, but its future in the long-term. Regardless of what path you choose to take with your attorney, try to think of the long-term consequences of your actions with the lawsuit. Most importantly, try to think of your company’s future in the long run after the suit. This means you should think about adjustments to company policies and other relevant things you should do in order to prevent lawsuits in the future.

Review how the lawsuit has affected the nature of your company, and how you have dealt with the situation. Do you have sufficient protocols that have allowed you deal with the situation properly, or do you have to make adjustments?
Think of the direction your company is going in relation to the incident that caused the lawsuit. Should there be company policies that should be changed in order to avoid these situations?
Investopedia actually has an article elaborating on what you could do to avoid business litigation, which can help you and your lawyer formulate a plan to protect your business against lawsuits in the future.

Conclusion

If there’s anything the above considerations teach us about business lawsuits, it’s that preparation is still one of the best ways to make sure these lawsuits don’t happen in the first place. Proper understanding of our business, including our services, what we offer employees and clients, and our legal policies, can be of great help when it comes to making sure we have everything we need to know, especially when it comes to what to consider when you have a lawsuit put against your business. We hope you liked this article from Stewart Guss.

About the Author

Ashley Thompson is a promising young law writer. She hopes to apply her years of study into helping explain legal issues to the public. Ashley loves cooking and often cooks for her family during weekends.