Blog - Page 4 of 10

Lying On Expense Reports Can Eliminate Rights To All Compensation, Even For A Company President

business deals, business divorce, Business Law News, business operations, corporation law, UncategorizedBy William A. Price February 20, 2015

The First District of the Illinois Appellate Court upheld a $9.8 million award for ICD Publications, Inc. against Ian Gittlitz this December, http://www.state.il.us/court/Opinions/AppellateCourt/2014/1stDistrict/1133277.pdf Mr. Gittlitz had admitted to fraudulently taking more than $1 million in advances on entity distributions, without information to the other two co-owners of ICD Publications, Inc. He had signed an agreement…

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New Laws For The New Year

Business Law News, UncategorizedBy William A. Price December 23, 2014

Members of the 98th Illinois General Assembly introduced 13,337 bills and resolutions to date. Of these, 1,146 have become Public Acts. For the full text and legislative status of all 98th General Assembly bills and Public Acts, you can go to http://www.ilga.gov/ Acts that could affect how you do business effective January 1, 2015, include…

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IRS Seizes Cash Deposits

agency actions, asset forfeiture, forms, IRS, UncategorizedBy William A. Price December 16, 2014

The New York Times this week described an asset forfeiture case involving a restaurant with routine cash deposits of less than $10,000. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/us/irs-asset-forfeiture-case-is-dropped-.html?_r=0 Take-away: Get the information for a Form 8300, including taxpayer information numbers, for cash payments, even those involving non-terrorist items like Iowa eggs and bacon for breakfast, or risk equivalent (and unjustified) government…

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How Do We Get Rid Of Junior?

buy-sell agreements, family business, Majority owner, mergers acquisitions recapitalization, UncategorizedBy William A. Price December 4, 2014

More than three quarters of all businesses in the US are family run. (The proportion is even higher elsewhere.) Family ownership means that family relationships, for good or for bad, often trump (or at least complicate) whatever the corporate documents say should be done about distribution of profits; hiring, firing, and promotion of managers; purchase…

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How Do You Make Sure You Get Paid?

business operations, collections, contracts, UncategorizedBy William A. Price December 4, 2014

The only worse thing than clients is – not having clients. When you do get them, how likely are they to pay you? This is worse for some service providers than for others. Auto repair and other service providers such as computer stores, which get items from customers, can be sued for conversion (and prosecuted for theft) …

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Things To Remember

Business goals, hard times, harvest, lists, neighbors, referral sources, thanksgiving, UncategorizedBy William A. Price November 26, 2014

US Thanksgiving reminds me to make a list every year of all the things that have gone well, and all the friends, clients, referral sources, and others who I’ve been able to work with during the year. This doesn’t mean that all the feelings of the season are good. They never have been. The Mayflower…

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Money Sources For A New Product Or Company

factoring, finance, private equity, private placements, SBA export express, small business loans, UncategorizedBy William A. Price October 8, 2014

The traditional sources of funding, for companies that don’t expect to grow enough to pay 50 times investment in two years (a tech angel funder’s demand) or 10x in two years (venture capital’s demand), while giving up control of their business, are: a. Factoring: Business factors deal with multi-billion dollar funds like Bibby (http://www.bibbyusa.com/) to…

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Did You Know A Job Offer May Not Support A Noncompete?

UncategorizedBy William A. Price September 16, 2014

Fifield and Enterprise Finance Group, Inc. v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc., 2013 IL App. (1st) 120327 held that unless a guarantee of at least two years of employment is made, Illinois courts would not enforce a noncompete agreement, even where the signer is an applicant for a new job. California is even more rigorous, limiting…

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Business Owner Asset Loan Guarantees Don’t Produce Personal Title To Assets

business deals, business sale, corporation, corporation law, family business, Illinois corporations, mergers acquisitions recapitalization, partners, small business, UncategorizedBy William A. Price August 14, 2014

Owners of part of a business who guarantee auto or other asset loans for the company do not get title to the asset for which the loan is made. They may or may not even get credit for a capital contribution to the company, depending on the internal organizational agreements (partnership agreement for a partnership,…

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Buy-Sell Agreements

business deals, business divorce, business sale, business valuation, buy-sell agreements, corporation, corporation law, death, disability, divorce, entity dissolution, family business, Illinois corporations, key man insurance, LLC, mergers acquisitions recapitalization, partners, resignation, retirement, small business, UncategorizedBy William A. Price August 6, 2014

There are two times that business partners argue: when they have money, and when they don’t. Those alternatives cover all available time segments, so if you’re advising people on how they should organize their business, some rules for the arguments may be in order. The classic horror story about such arguments is the Illinois appellate…

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