Setting up a business involves complying with a range of legal requirements. Find out which ones apply to you and your new enterprise.
Every business needs to be aware of its obligations under minimum wage and equal pay laws, as well as recent pensions auto-enrolment changes.
What particular regulations do specific types of business (such as a hotel, or a printer, or a taxi firm) need to follow? We explain some of the key legal issues to consider for 200 types of business.
While poor governance can bring serious legal consequences, the law can also protect business owners and managers and help to prevent conflict.
You must comply with legal restrictions on employees' working hours and time off, or risk claims, enforcement action and even prosecution.
The right employment policies are an essential part of effective staff management. Make sure any policy is clear and well communicated to employees.
Whether you want to raise finance, join forces with someone else, buy or sell a business, it pays to be aware of the legal implications.
While sick employees need to be treated fairly, you need to ensure that 'sickness' is not being used as cover for unauthorised absence.
Marketing matters. Marketing drives sales for businesses of all sizes by ensuring that customers think of their brand when they want to buy.
Most pregnant employees are entitled to maternity leave and maternity pay, while new fathers are entitled to paternity leave and paternity pay.
Commercial disputes can prove time-consuming, stressful and expensive, but having robust legal agreements can help to prevent them from occurring.
As well as undermining morale, illegal discrimination can lead to workplace grievances. Employee discrimination is covered by the Equality Act 2010.
Whether your business owns or rents premises, your legal liabilities can be substantial. Commercial property law is complex, but you can avoid common pitfalls.
Home, remote and lone workers are becoming increasingly commonplace. Key issues include communication and how to manage and motivate people remotely.
With information and sound advice, living up to your legal responsibilities to safeguard your employees, customers and visitors need not be difficult or costly.
The right approach to consulting with and providing information to your employees can improve employee motivation and performance.
As information technology continues to evolve, legislation must also change. It affects everything from data protection and online selling to internet policies for employees.
Disciplinary and grievance issues can be a major burden to employers. Putting in place and following the right procedures is essential.
Following the right dismissal and redundancy procedures helps protect your business and minimise the risk of a legal dispute at tribunal.
Intellectual property (IP) isn't solely relevant to larger businesses or those involved in developing innovative new products: all products have IP.
Employment tribunal claims are a worrying prospect for any employer. A tribunal case is a no-win situation – even if the claim is unjustified.
Knowing how and when you plan to sell or relinquish control of your business can help you to make better decisions and achieve the best possible outcome.
From bereavement, wills, inheritance, separation and divorce to selling a house, personal injury and traffic offences, learn more about your personal legal rights.
Inheritance tax (IHT) is chargeable on your estate if it exceeds the IHT nil rate threshold (currently £325,000). Effective inheritance tax planning can substantially reduce the amount of tax that will be payable on your estate. If your estate is likely to exceed the IHT nil rate band - at £325,000, this is less than the value of many properties - it's worth investigating how family trusts and other IHT planning options could benefit you.
Inheritance tax is charged at 40% on the value of your estate in excess of the nil rate band. The basic nil rate band is £325,000 (2020/21), but there is an additional residence nil rate band of up to £175,000 if you leave your home to a child or grandchild.
If your estate is valued at less than the nil rate band or meets the requirements for excepted estates, IHT is not payable. Equally IHT is not payable on any inheritance you leave to your spouse. In addition, if your own estate does not use up the full nil rate band, your spouse's tax free allowance will be proportionately increased.
You can reduce IHT by giving away up to £3,000 a year and small gifts to other people of up to £250 each tax free. Regular gifts out of income (but not capital) also reduce IHT, as do gifts to help maintain dependant relatives.
Larger gifts can avoid IHT provided you survive at least seven years after making the gift. To qualify, you must not continue to benefit from the assets you have given away.
Other IHT reliefs include reduced IHT on some business assets as well as gifts to charity. Death benefits from most pension schemes and life policies are exempt from IHT.
Family trusts can provide extra flexibility in your IHT planning. For example, a family trust can be used to provide a lifetime income for your spouse but with the assets passing to your children, or to help protect ownership of a family business.
The tax treatment of family trusts is complex and depends on the type of family trust being used. A 'bare trust' set up by a grandparent allows income and capital gains to be taxed as the recipient child's - often meaning that no tax is payable once the child's tax allowances are taken into account.
IHT may be payable on gifts into a family trust if the amount given exceeds the nil rate band. Income and capital gains made by the trust are also taxable.
IHT planning, like other kinds of tax planning, should start with thinking about what you want, rather than simply minimising IHT. While gifts and family trusts can reduce the value of your estate (and so IHT), it's important to retain enough for your own financial needs.
The best IHT planning tends to be done early and takes a balanced approach to risk. A long-term view of IHT planning might include skipping a generation, for example, by setting up a family trust for future grandchildren.
Other practical issues include choosing the right trustees for any proposed family trusts, and organising your financial affairs so that your estate has ready access to the money needed to pay any IHT liability.
Reviewed by Nigel Merchant, Technical manager, Kings Court Trust