FIVE COMMON LEGAL MISTAKES MADE BY STARTUPS
June, 2019 When starting a business, it’s easy for owners to make legal mistakes that can prove costly down the road. Avoiding these missteps will keep your new venture on the path to prosperity. Over-complicating the Formation. Don’t try to structure your business to accommodate every future contingency. Instead, design the business to address what you expect will work best for you at startup and in the near future. Too often, entrepreneurs waste precious resources assuming they need to be ready to “go public” before they’ve even begun operations. Others overcomplicate things based on what they think some theoretical [...]
Residential Leases – An Owner’s Guide
May 2019 Perhaps you’ve invested in an apartment building as a source of retirement income. Maybe you inherited a second home from a relative, and are debating whether renting the property is worth the trouble. No matter the size of your property, or the specifics of your goals or circumstances, the most important thing you can do to protect your investment is to codify an agreement with your tenants by means of a well-crafted (and legally enforceable!) written lease. This is your initial guide: What Is a Residential Lease? A lease is a contract, like any other; albeit one [...]
Simplify Your Estate Planning Trust
March 2019 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 raised the federal gift and estate tax exemption substantially. The Unified Gift and Estate Tax Exemption is now $11,400,000.00 per person for 2019 (for a total of $22,800,000.00 when combined for a married couple). This means that most revocable trusts accomplished before 2018 are antiquated and should be revised. Pre-2018 Trust. Trusts before 2018 (1) typically provide for the separation of the initial trust’s assets and liabilities upon the first spouse to pass. Two trusts, sometimes commonly known as A-B trusts or Bypass and [...]
What is the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018?
Following the lead of the European Union, last year the California legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”). It grants consumers more control over, and insight into, the spread of their personal information online. Although the CCPA will not become effective until January 1, 2020, steps should be taken now to implement its requirements. Among other things, the CCPA: Grants a consumer the right to request a business to disclose personal information (information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer [...]
Avoiding Personal Liability and Limiting Taxes: Business Entities after the 2017 Tax Act
Business activities, no matter how small, come with risk as well as tax liabilities, both of which can be reduced by operating through a legal entity --- a limited liability company or corporation. The Federal corporate tax rate for C Corporations[1] has plunged, down to 21%; a 20% qualified business income deduction applies to limited liability companies (LLC) and S Corporations. If you have not done so already, now is the time to determine the appropriate entity to limit your risk and legally avoid taxes. Risk avoidance. Business activities involve risk as our society has placed the burden of damages [...]
A Business Owner’s Guide to Responding to Third Party Document Subpoenas
Nobody wants to be involved in litigation. If you are reading this, chances are you have taken an active role in protecting your business from needless lawsuits by scrupulously following the law, treating your employees as the valuable assets they are, and working with talented tax and legal professionals to ensure you are thoroughly protected from unpleasant regulatory intervention. But even the most litigation-averse business cannot avoid the possibility of that dreaded document: the third –party document subpoena. At best, a subpoena is an unwanted hassle and, at worst, it can be a source of significant liability if it is [...]