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Take advantage of our free expert resources, written by the experts at LCN Legal, based on their practical experience of working with multinational groups and their advisers across the globe. If you are interested in these areas, you may wish to bookmark this page to check back regularly for new information.

Legal document automation tools and social enterprises

Paul Sutton

It’s funny how it often seems so much easier to see the potential in someone else, than it is to see it in yourself. I had a pro bono video call last week with someone who wanted to incorporate a new legal entity for a social enterprise. She was wondering whether she should set it […]

LCN Updates

Intercompany Agreements

Free invitation to TPMinds Digital panel discussion: Can you afford not to review your transfer pricing agreements in the COVID-19 environment?

Paul Sutton

As the Coronavirus epidemic continues to cause widespread disruption, almost all multinational organisations will be forced to formulate precautionary measures to mitigate risks. Restructured arrangements will be implemented swiftly and often with little thought as to the wide-ranging implications to the organisation’s transfer pricing policies and the legal agreements that have been implemented to document […]

Intercompany Agreements

Why do some Western companies succeed and others fail in China?

Paul Sutton

I thought you might be interested to watch this informal interview with China guru Benjamin Schmittzehe on the subject “Why do some Western companies succeed and others fail in China?”. Ben has some fascinating things to say on questions such as: Why has IKEA done so well in China, whereas B&Q has been a disaster? […]

Interviews

Intercompany Agreements

The Digital CFO: LCN Legal and Adjoint join forces to help digital acceleration by Corporate CFOs

Leiza Bladd-Symms

We are delighted to feature the following article which has been written by Somil Goyal, COO at Adjoint. Accelerating Digital is crucial to business success as we recover from a dislocated economic and social context. Experts and observers are talking about intelligent blocks that go beyond robotic automation to support this strategic activity. In the first phase response to Covid-19 dislocation, […]

Intercompany Agreements

Transfer pricing insurance for financial transactions

Leiza Bladd-Symms

Until recently, we at LCN Legal weren’t aware that insurance was available in relation to transfer pricing risks. We thought you would be interested to read the following article, which was kindly contributed by Paul Dickinson, Head of Tax (International) at Themis, an underwriting agency gaining significant traction in the M&A insurance market owing to […]

Intercompany Agreements

DAC6 – Best Practices

Paul Sutton

Many organisations – corporates and advisers – are still formulating their policies and processes for complying with DAC6. If you’re also in that position, you’ll probably find this article written by Keith Brockman to be helpful. Keith is VP Global Tax at Welbilt Inc, a US headquartered multinational with annual revenues of over US$ 1.5 […]

Group Reorganisations

Intercompany Agreements

Coronavirus Q&A: Loans by subsidiaries to a parent company which needs cash

Paul Sutton

Last week, we were asked by the European management team of a substantial multinational group to advise on a very common scenario in the current environment – a request by made by the overseas parent company to ‘repatriate’ cash, by way of loan. The key issue was whether the directors of the European subsidiaries involved […]

Group Reorganisations

Intercompany Agreements

Coronavirus Q&A: Can a force majeure clause in an intercompany agreement justify a period of no mark up for a UK service company?

Paul Sutton

I thought you might be interested in a question we received last week from an international tax adviser. I’ve set out the question and our answer below. Q: We’re having a number or enquiries from US headquartered groups regarding adjusting TP with UK service companies. I was wondering whether a force majeure clause in an […]

Group Reorganisations

Intercompany Agreements

Free DAC6 preliminary assessment tool

Paul Sutton

Sometimes it feels like hard work to keep pushing forward. I have to admit that when I first heard about DAC6, my first reaction was ‘what now?’ And then when I started reading into it, my second reaction was ‘this is a complete nightmare.’ (In case you haven’t come across this little beauty yet, DAC6 […]

Group Reorganisations

Intercompany Agreements

The natural approach for board resolutions in group restructuring projects

Paul Sutton

The more complicated a decision is, the more important it is to express what’s happening clearly and succinctly. In the legal world, group reorganisations and cross-border restructuring projects are prime examples of this. Board resolutions and other forms of corporate approval are an essential part of documenting the steps involved, and of managing personal liability […]

Group Reorganisations

Intercompany Agreements

'No ambulance chasers please'

Paul Sutton

In my conversations with fellow professionals (including tax and TP advisers) over the last few weeks, one common theme has emerged of not wanting to appear to be ‘ambulance chasers’. In other words, not wanting to be seen to profit in an environment where so many people in business are suffering. My personal view is […]

Intercompany Agreements

How to give your intra-group distributors and service providers a coronavirus haircut

Paul Sutton

Last week the gods of Amazon smiled down on me and answered my prayer for new hair clippers. So on Friday I entrusted them to Xiaofang, and I think she did a pretty good job in the kitchen, as you can see from the picture above. In the transfer pricing world, many multinational enterprises are […]

Intercompany Agreements

COVID-19 and force majeure clauses in intercompany agreements

Paul Sutton

A short guide for transfer pricing and tax professionals on force majeure clauses in intercompany agreements and other key legal points to consider when revising transfer pricing policies in response to COVID-19 The OECD’s evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 containment measures on economic activity (as updated on 14 April 2020) suggests  that  “the  initial  […]

Intercompany Agreements

My grandfather and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Paul Sutton

I don’t usually share this kind of story, but it’s a special occasion today – it’s the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. My grandfather Edwin Oliver Sutton was born in Hankow, China (a district of Wuhan) in 1902. He was a Methodist minister and served as a chaplain in the British […]

LCN Updates

How to manage teams from home during Covid-19

Paul Sutton

Team meetings can be tough to get right. They can feel: Boring – if a small number of participants seem to be droning on about the amazing things they’ve been doing. Confusing – if there’s no clarity about the agenda or the concrete steps to be taken following the meeting. Frustrating – if the people […]

LCN Updates

Intercompany Agreements

Transfer Pricing in a Pandemic – Lessons from China

Paul Sutton

It has been very encouraging to receive the news from Xiaofang’s family and from our friends that life in China is starting to open up again. Her parents are now busy in her grandmother’s vegetable garden in the countryside near Xinzheng (having been allowed to leave the family home in the city), local schools in […]

Intercompany Agreements

Day-tight compartments

Paul Sutton

We’re not supposed to admit having read ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living’ by Dale Carnegie, but (apparently) it’s a very good book, and maybe it has special value right now. In it, the author makes an analogy between living day-by-day, and the construction of ships: vertical internal walls called bulkheads divide the ship […]

Intercompany Agreements

What we can learn from Roald Dahl about working from home

Paul Sutton

During my professional career so far, my working environment has ranged from three-trainees-in-a-room-without-windows, to partner-office-with-big-desk, to open plan (KPMG and Pinsent Masons), to working primarily from home (since 2013). For us at LCN Legal, what’s new about the current arrangements is not working from home, it’s having children in the home at the same time. […]

Intercompany Agreements

How to ‘survive’ coronavirus quarantine with children

Paul Sutton

There are probably very few areas of life where I’m ahead of you. One of them might be intercompany agreements for TP compliance. Another might be surviving* coronavirus quarantine – having spent around 5 weeks of ‘lock down’ in China, and then another two weeks of self-isolation in the UK. Since there seems a real […]

Intercompany Agreements

New: Free scoping tool for intercompany agreements, and how to survive coronavirus quarantine

Paul Sutton

I’m very pleased to report that we’ve survived the 14 day period of self-imposed quarantine in the UK, having flown back from China on 21st February. The only tense moments were wondering whether our children will pass the various airport temperature checks – they haven’t had any signs of fever, but they’re just naturally ‘hot’. […]

Intercompany Agreements

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