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 Spanish

Now that Christmas Holidays belong to the past, and they already seem far away, we’re back to normal and it’s time to make an evaluation of what the Three Wise Men brought to us. Unfortunately, you can not help feeling a sense of disappointment.

 PROS:

 On the one hand, and as we mentioned in our last post on 23/12/2010, we have the Royal Decree-Law 13/2010 “anti-crisis measures”, of December 3, highlighting the following ones:

 -     In fiscal nature: both Company Tax (raising the threshold of the special regime for small size institutions, increasing the amount to which the taxable income is taxed at the reduced rate of 25% and giving more freedom of amortization to new fixed asset investment attached to economic activities), and Transfer Tax & Stamp Duty  (being exempted the operations addressed to the creation, capitalization and maintenance of companies).

 -          Suppressing the compulsory payment to the Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Navigation.

 -          Speeding up the creation of companies (or so they say), so that the procedures for setting up a LLC can be made “within a maximum period of one to five days” (I won’t believe it until I see it!). We referred to this point we referred in our previous post dated 23/12/2010.

-          Reducing obligations of publicity of some company acts in newspapers (not in the BORME, the public diary, because this money goes to the State!). Thus, for example, it is expected the release of advertisements on the Company website instead of doing it on a newspaper. Do your math and you’ll probably realize that creating a website is a good deal.

CONS:

The other side of the coin is the new criminal liability of legal persons. Since last Dec. 23, Law 5 / 2010 of June 22 came into force by which the Criminal Code is modified. It introduces a new development: the assumptions in which legal persons (companies as well) can be criminally responsible. Obviously the company can’t go to prison, but it may be fined, disqualified, placed in administration, or even dissolved.

The company, as an entity, will be responsible for the committed crimes both by its legal representatives and administrators of fact or law, and by those who are under the authority of administrators when the proper control hasn’t been exercised over them, whenever they act on behalf or for the company and in favor of it, and that the offense is committed in the exercise of social activities. In other words, firms now can be sentenced by either a faulty management of risks arising from their activity, or for a lack of command of the organization and breach of the duties of monitoring. It is the new POLICE-COMPANY status. The truth is that the employer is increasingly looking like a one-man band…

 It is important to emphasize that this criminal liability of companies will be required regardless of the specific criminal responsibility that apply to individuals who committed the crime or administrators who have not exercised proper control and that will be required to the company even in cases in which the particular responsible person cannot individualize or the process cannot be run against them. The danger may arise when focusing on companies, individuals who run them go scot-free…

 Let this post be a mere approximation of what lies ahead, that, for sure, will be something worthy to talk about and what we will be discussing about in next posts.

If I had known, I would have asked for “treat”

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