Several EU member states are taking the taxation of employee share ownership plans in startup companies a step further. Their national rules make share plans far more attractive to startup employees and provide a more founder-friendly environment. While the rules aim to ensure startups give their employees a stake in the company, there are many solutions countries can use to achieve this goal.

As stated in the conclusion of the first instalment of this article, foreign markets offer various litigation funding models. In addition to the model we analysed before, where the claimant’s litigation is funded by an institutional litigation funder – an investment fund specialised in litigation funding, in this article we are looking at available alternatives. This overview covers some of the less familiar and sometimes unusual sources of litigation finance whose successful use would reduce the number of cases where a lack of finance limits the legal remedies available to a litigant.

Every now and then corporate groups decide to undertake a strategic restructuring of their assets, including a transfer of assets to one or more group companies for financing another activity. Using a contribution in kind to increase a company’s share capital raises a number of important legal and tax issues. In this article we will explore whether a contribution in kind attracts VAT, as well as assessing the need to adjust the input VAT deducted on the contribution and the right to deduct the input VAT on services acquired for the contribution, such as expert valuation services and legal advice.