In addition, Highgate Law & Tax is also celebrating its win in the “Capital Markets” category, proving itself to be a comprehensive law firm with an extensive portfolio of expertise and the ability to successfully navigate diverse legal challenges.

The awards gala evening, which was organized by the media and educational group EPRAVO Group and the weekly TREND, was held at the Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Bratislava. For Highgate Law & Tax it was not only an opportunity to celebrate its success, but also to thank its clients and partners for their trust and support, without which this milestone would not have been possible.

This double triumph confirms Highgate Law & Tax’s excellent reputation for legal and tax services and reinforces its position as a leading player in the legal services market in Slovakia.

Článok Highgate Law & Tax and its double triumph in the prestigious Law Firm of the Year competition je zobrazený ako prvý na Highgate.

Článok Hello world! je zobrazený ako prvý na Highgate.

We are thus relatively intimately familiar with the related realities of this segment. Whether it is the topic of tax optimization, “employing sole traders”, investor entry, setting up a holding company, automated accounting, ESOPs, the legal, practical and tax pitfalls of scaling a business abroad, or operating with cryptos, these are all topics that we encounter in practice.

For this reason, we perceived that this conference can help many entrepreneurs to navigate through the complex tangle of more complex Slovak and foreign tax and legal issues. It was also intended to help to better understand the perspective of an investor or potential buyer in a company exit.

Sale of the company or entry of an investor :

• What are the basic situations and types of investor entry into companies?
• What are the key motivations and areas of interest for the investor and the company owner?
• What should an IT firm focus on to maximize the benefits of the investment for the firm and the business owner?
• Structured transactions and relevant tax implications from an income tax perspective (e.g. tax burden through a Slovak vs. a foreign holding company);
• Transaction Experience;

Relevant financial ratios when a company is sold or an investor enters :

• What is of interest to the investor or the buyer in accounting?
• Risks associated with incorrect accounting;
• Capitalization of the company;
• Transaction Experience;

Foreign IT contractors and work “from Bali” :

• Withholding taxes on payments to foreign contractors;
• Working from “Bali” – tax and levy implications;
• Setting up contract documentation;

ESOP – Best practice :

• What forms of shares and options can Slovak companies offer to their employees?
• Legal and practical context;
• Tax and levy context;
• Cross-border structure and practical experience;

Functioning in the crypt :

• Receiving retribution and paying contractors in the crypt;
• Types of crypto projects (token issuance, management, consulting, community token,…) and regulatory and tax aspects;
• Accounting and tax pitfalls in Slovakia and best practice when leaving Slovakia;
• Experience;

Scaling the IT business abroad :

• Do I need to have a company abroad in different business situations?
• Establishment of a permanent establishment, VAT regimes, withholding taxes;
• A company in an offshore jurisdiction from a legal, tax and practical perspective;
• Holding abroad – advantages and disadvantages;
• Investor requirements for foreign structure;
• Protection of the owner’s private property in the context of the political situation in Slovakia;
• Transfer pricing;

Software contracts :

• Framework or one-off contracts;
• Waterfall vs. agile SW development;
• Licensing Terms;
• Warranties and liability for defects in the SW;
• Problematic provisions – experience from practice;

Structuring business to the US :

• How best to enter the US market;
• Where can I get some help/information/grants?
• What is the tax and administrative burden?
• How to choose the right lawyer and accountant?
• How to get into the investors/funds horizon?
• In which state are the best conditions to enter the US market?

Tax optimization for digital and IT companies :

• Holding structure – owner protection;
• Patent Box and Supercomputing – how some IT companies do not have to pay income tax in Slovakia;
• Other tax and levy types and practical experience;
• When is tax optimisation already a criminal offence;

Schwarz system :

• Tax-tax implications and calculations;
• Impact on employees’ social insurance benefits (maternity, pension, sick leave,…);
• What impact does the change to a sole trader’s trade have on a sole trader’s pension?
• Analysis of court decisions that have dealt with the topic;
• Practice of tax administrations and labour inspectorates;
• Criminal liability;
• Setting up contracts with contractors;

Relevant financial ratios when a company is sold or an investor enters :

• What is of interest to the investor or the buyer in accounting?
• Risks associated with incorrect accounting;
• Capitalization of the company;
• Transaction Experience;

Many topics and many questions from conference participants. Companies were particularly interested in topics around ESOPs, tax optimizations or company sales. However, many attendees stayed until the end to hear the current practice in connection with the so-called In the meantime, there was a lot of interest in the practice of the shvarc system (i.e. the employment of freelancers).

We received a lot of positive feedback on the content and organisation of the conference. We are therefore very pleased that after the conference on setting up investment funds, this conference was also a success.

If you are interested in this topic, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Článok Conference on legal and tax optimization for technology companies je zobrazený ako prvý na Highgate.

Not all entrepreneurs can really be helped financially by the state in a crisis. We are also trying to do so.

(Source: https://www.forbes.sk/nie-vsetkym-podnikatelom-vie-stat-v-krize-naozaj-financne-pomoct-snazime-sa-o-to-aj-my/ )

Peter Varga and Tomáš Demo have worked for the most important international law firms for years, where they provided legal and tax advice to the biggest players on the Slovak market. For 2 years now, they have been successfully building the concept of “one stop shop” consultancy through Highgate Group. As the economic crisis affects them not only as advisors but also as entrepreneurs, they have launched the project www.zachranfirmu.sk, which they want to help small and medium-sized companies to financially survive the impact of the coronacrisis.

What services do you provide?

Peter: We provide legal, tax and accounting advice for businesses under one roof. The flagship of our consultancy has long been legal tax and levy optimisation, which is proving to be one of the key consultancy areas for straightforward and fast assistance to businesses right now. It is important to remember that businesses at this time have to pay taxes for 2019, which has been a very successful and therefore profitable year for a large proportion of businesses. These taxes are then used to calculate the advance income tax payments for 2020. In both cases, however, the fall due to the coronary crisis is not taken into account. We are therefore also trying now in 2020 to optimise companies’ tax liability for 2019 with defensible instruments and thus significantly improve their financial situation. In addition, clients today naturally demand options to legitimately reduce their current levy burden, which includes not only monitoring and assistance using government solutions to help businesses, but also various other generally applicable tools for operational levy optimization.

Thomas: These solutions are not just purely tax and tax measures, as Peter describes, but companies also need practical legal advice. Imagine a situation where a company has funds tied up in illiquid assets such as goods, has a bank loan with personal guarantees of the company’s directors or owners, and payments from customers are dramatically reduced or stopped altogether. In such situations, the owner naturally needs to protect not only the company’s assets but also his personal assets. For example, he may wish to legally cash out old dividends or excess liquidity from the company. He may also wish to transfer a healthy part of his business, such as the e-commerce business, to a new company and continue in a limited business mode. By doing so, he not only protects himself and his family to some extent, but he also helps to maintain employment by doing so. However, even in the context of the legitimate interests of creditors, these and similar steps are always associated with certain legal and accounting constraints, which we can grasp and resolve for the entrepreneur in all their complexity.

In addition, a number of businesses will inevitably have to make staff reductions. As the Labour Code does not provide for any relief in emergency situations such as a coronary crisis, laying off even part of the workforce with standard notice periods and severance pay can be devastating for the entrepreneur. Here, we can also suggest alternative legal and practical solutions for entrepreneurs.

There are probably more such advisers. How are you different from the competition?

Peter: It’s in the complexity. I’m an attorney who specializes in taxes. In Slovakia, I have maybe up to ten advisers of this combination who are fully dedicated to the issue. Several of them are very skilled and we often consult together on complex legal-tax constructions, we exchange experiences. However, by default they work in multinational consultancies, which naturally have a different target group of clients. Having also been an entrepreneur who has been through a lot in building companies with minuscule family capital, I know that our target group requires more practical and quickly applicable solutions. Our client doesn’t want to hear legal platitudes and theoretical solutions for 150 euros an hour. And since we also provide accounting and tax advisory services within the Highgate Group, I don’t know if there is any other such comprehensive advisory group for smaller and medium-sized companies in Slovakia.

Thomas: In practice, we have already confirmed several times that, especially in more complex cases, such as mergers, sales of companies, investor inputs or the use of the tax institute of the patent box or super deduction, it is necessary to combine legal, tax and accounting inputs. Even in cases as simple as a cash contribution to a company by a shareholder, it is important to have the opinion of a tax adviser. Otherwise, the client may subsequently be unpleasantly surprised by the tax consequences when withdrawing these funds from the company. Although such an advisory package is offered by the larger international advisory firms, most client assignments go through two or three departments, which is not always time or cost effective for the client.

What do you think about the government’s measures to rehabilitate the economic damage?

Peter: It’s good that they exist and naturally we help clients with the possibilities of using them. It is important to remember that never in the history of Slovakia has it been necessary to take such comprehensive measures so quickly, so of course these measures cannot objectively be perfect. Nor can it be ruled out that their current form will not create scope for unjustified abuse. I firmly believe that the state will not rely on the honesty of entrepreneurs in this regard.

Thomas: As the state is unlikely to have sufficient capacity to monitor compliance with the conditions for receiving state benefits, it is very important that we advisers take strong exception to grossly abusive practices.

Who are your clients by default?

Peter: From small business owners, for whom we often propose a more tax-efficient model for their business, to complex tax analyses of cross-border transactions. Right now, for example, I am commenting on the Slovak tax aspects in a 320-page loan agreement for a syndicate of UK and US banks financing a large acquisition in Central Europe. However, our target group is mainly smaller and medium-sized companies. It is in providing comprehensive advice to this segment that I see our greatest added value. In addition to the above-mentioned services, we also provide these companies with standard accounting services and handle such details as the individual claims of owners and employees for maternity or nursing benefits.

Thomas: The composition of our clients is diverse in terms of size and segment in which they operate. We manage accounting for startups with two founders, but also for companies with millions of turnovers. We also account for such specialties as securities traders or investment funds with variable share capital. Our tax and legal services are used by a number of angel investors, fast-growing Slovak companies, mainly from the IT and digital services sector. Perhaps also thanks to our positive references, we are already being approached by large players such as O2, Bolt or TrustPay with requests for legal and tax advice.

What is the zachranfirmu.sk project about?

Peter: The coronacrisis hit Slovak entrepreneurs very quickly and unexpectedly hard. The most vulnerable companies are those that have no financial reserves or sufficient access to bank financing. We started the project to help companies that are flexible enough to make major cost-saving decisions relatively quickly. So today we have three webinars planned to discuss, among other things, the various options for rescuing companies in a practical way.

Thomas: It is now quite likely that the effects of the economic crisis in the coming weeks and months will be absolutely incompatible with our ideas from as recently as February 2020. That is why the only solution for many entrepreneurs is to start crisis management and urgently reduce their operating costs as much as possible as well as protect their assets. In addition to general advice in the form of webinars, we can also deal with entrepreneurs individually. We can very quickly analyse the current situation in the company and accordingly propose a series of tailor-made measures to reduce costs, keep as many people as possible in the company or protect assets, including the rescue of healthy parts of the company.

Článok Interview for FORBES business magazine je zobrazený ako prvý na Highgate.