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A seemingly obvious solution to improve resilience of built structures facing natural hazards is enhanced structural integrity. One program designed to achieve this is the building code effectiveness grading schedule (BCEGS) which rates communities on the strength and enforcement of local building codes. However, little is known on how well this program has fared in terms of community participation. The purpose of this study is to use the BCEGS program in Florida (a hurricane at-risk state) to provide tangible evidence of whether participatory achievement occurred and identify characteristics that predict high performance in the program.

Data is used from the Insurance Services Office, a division of Verisk Analytics to compare characteristics of communities with high levels of participation to communities with lower levels of participation. This is done using descriptive statistics and regression models.

Communities more likely to have high BCEGS ratings are more urban, have higher wealth and a younger, more educated population. Discussed also is the role risk exposure and public policy play in both maintaining higher ratings and overall improvement in BCEGS ratings across time.

Identifying what motivates communities to enhance their construction standards is a useful tool in attracting interest to enhance resilience. The results show that resilience can be improved by public policy initiatives and knowledge by communities of their risk profile.

BCEGS data is proprietary, so no study of this type has been conducted on what motivates communities to adopt higher standards in the strength and enforcement of local building codes.

The purpose of this paper is, first, to discuss if the Portuguese corporate tax reform, implemented in 2014, moved the system towards international trends. Second is to analyse in what areas the similarities and disparities are more pronounced when assessing the Portuguese reform against the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, the Mirrlees Review or other relevant international guidelines. Finally, it assesses how a European country under a bailout could significantly reform the corporate tax.

The methodology employed is based on a mix of the legal research method and case study analysis. The legal method will be applied under comparative income taxation, and the case study will draw on the Portuguese reform to broaden the discussion about critical issues like the participation exemption regime and its place in the taxation of international income flows. The paper will analyse core issues in international income taxation, the present state of corporate tax harmonization in the European Union, discuss the main issues that were dealt by the Portuguese tax reform and offer a critical assessment of tax policy choices that underpinned the reform.

During the past decades, Portugal was increasingly out of line with international trends in corporate taxation. The bailout asked for the Portuguese Government in 2011 placed a heavy burden in public finances, with an apparent lack of room to follow international trends of corporate tax reform. However, it can be concluded that, after convincing the troika that investment and growth were paramount to overcome the severe economic and social crisis that fell upon the country, the corporate tax was seen as an important policy tool to promote these goals. The reform was thus possible even in the context of a restrictive public finance situation, and followed most guidelines put forward in highly regarded international reports.

A broad corporate tax reform, including rate reduction, a participation exemption regime, a more flexible rule on cost acceptance, an extension of loss carry over period, to name a few, was possible in a very constrained public finance situation. By placing the emphasis on moving the system towards international trends and promoting measures to enhance investment and growth, international creditors could accept such a reform. Also, a consensus with the main opposition party was a very important factor in securing much needed political support.

The findings from what can be considered as an experiment in corporate tax reform in tough economic and social times can be useful to policymakers, tax authorities and international bodies dealing with tax reform processes. The impact on managerial decisions such as investment and financing is also relevant.

This paper aims to examine the implications of exemptions to facilitate small businesses’ access to crowdfunding (CF) schemes. The aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis and even now witnessed many small profits and non-profits encountering significant difficulties in accessing funding from the conventional sources and on many occasions have to turn to the newly emerging Internet-enabled donation or product compensation CF schemes. Access to securities-based CF schemes has, however, been seriously difficult due to securities laws obstacles. Regulatory authorities in the USA and the UK have responded with exemptions to facilitate small businesses’ access to CF.

The paper driven by the qualitative doctrinal approach would rely extensively on primary data from the applicable regulations and secondary data from industry sources and other publicly available commentaries.

Securities-based CF schemes hitherto heavily restricted in the USA and the UK are under current regulatory interventions-accorded exemption status, thereby enabling enhanced access for those small businesses seeking alternatives to conventional financing and enhanced investment opportunities for small investors. The paper’s preliminary analysis suggests that the proposed new regulatory rules in the USA and the UK are generally well-balanced with adequate small investors’ protection, while simultaneously not hampering the innovative growth of small businesses with excessive restrictions. Further, the preparedness of the regulators to fine-tune the proposed rules as the CF industry evolves would likely ensure its orderly growth, thereby helping to address various humanitarian and social challenges in these jurisdictions.

The added value of the analysis lies in its substantive evaluation of the proposed rules in both jurisdictions to ascertain the feasibility of securities-based CF schemes as alternatives for small businesses in relation to traditional financing and enhanced investment opportunities for small unsophisticated investors.

The purpose of this article is to determine the influence of the tax system on the location of holding companies in Spain.

To achieve this purpose, we have used an analysis of cointegration in time series. The independent variable used was the number of holding companies under Régimen de Entidades de Tenencia de Valores Extranjeros Spanish regime. The dependent variables were divided into two groups: fiscal and non-fiscal variables. The dependent fiscal variables are effective tax rate and double taxation convention, whereas the non-fiscal dependent variables are government effectiveness and business freedom.

The study concludes that the fiscal variables are relevant to establish a holding company in Spain, but there are other variables such as government effectiveness and business freedom that show as well as influence on the location of holding companies.

In the year 2015, the article The influence of the tax system on the location of holding companies in Switzerland was published in the Competitiveness Review. In this article, the influence of taxation on the decision to locate a holding company in Switzerland was analyzed. Now that the Spanish holding regime is consolidated, thanks to more than twenty years of application in our tax legislation, we consider it important to carry out an analysis of the influence of taxation in the decision to locate a holding company in our country. As already mentioned in the article published in 2015, the study of the taxation of holding companies is a topic related more to law firms and/or tax advisors than to academic research, and it is for this reason that there are few empirical studies on this topic. Hence, the research developed in this paper is important.

The aim of this paper is to provide hedge fund and other private fund managers with a brief recap of regulatory changes in 2010 and a reminder of certain “best practices” they should consider as they prepare for 2011.

The paper provides 2010 regulatory highlights, including relevant provisions of the Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Pay‐to‐Play Rule, and amendments to Form ADV. It outlines issues for consideration in 2011, including preparation for SEC registration (if applicable), review of compliance policies and procedures, updating Form ADV, Form D and Blue Sky Filings, “custody rule” (Rule 206(4)‐2 under the Advisers Act) compliance, other regulatory filings that may be required (including Form 13F, Schedule 13D/13G, and Forms 3, 4, and 5), CFTC regulatory requirements for investment managers who trade or advise others on trading commodity futures contracts, certain tax considerations (including foreign bank, brokerage and other financial account (FBAR) reporting requirements), the Foreign Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (FACTA)), ERISA and Department of Labor considerations, fee deferral arrangements, and offering document updates.

This summary is not intended to provide a complete list of an investment manager's obligations relating to its compliance with applicable rules and regulations or to serve as legal advice. It does not address any non‐US or state law requirements and has not been tailored to the specific needs of a particular investment manager's business.

This paper provides useful summary practical guidance from experienced financial institutions lawyers.

Luxembourg is the jurisdiction of choice for many private equity and venture capital investors/funds. Though the optimum balance of financing instruments in relation to any structure varies according to its particular circumstances, one factor that all Luxembourg domiciled FDI structures have in common is the requirement for an appropriate level of equity investment. This article intends to summarize some of the topics frequently encountered in relation to equity structuring choices.

Author details the different steps and choices available to investors and funds. The article offers answers to questions to provide a broad, yet detailed, overview of the process and journey; from selecting the vehicle right through to distributing to investors, governance, and compliance.

To avoid an expensive mistake, it is paramount that the private equity or venture capital investors and management team receive detailed advice to ensure: (i) the deal is structured in the most tax efficient manner possible and the commercial deal is suitable for all parties, and (ii) the deal is structured in a manner which is effective under Luxembourg law, for both tax and legal purposes.

It is important that non-Luxembourg lawyers are able to identify key issues when negotiating the terms of the investment documents, in particular, the articles of association and shareholders' agreement.

Practical guidance from Luxembourg lawyer specializing in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity transactions.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the emergence of corporate political activities (CPAs) in the form of social responsibility in the banking sector in Bangladesh. The use of institutional logics allows the authors to explore not only the motivations underlying this sudden shift in corporate approach towards corporate social reporting (CSR) disclosure but also to investigate whether a logical plurality exists in this new approach.

The analysis is based on 21 in-depth interviews with policymakers, regulatory bodies and top management and members of boards of directors in the banking sector.

The findings of this study are both consistent with and different to those of Uddin et al. (2018). While their findings show that Bangladeshi companies engage in CSR activities primarily to demonstrate their allegiance with the ruling political regime driven by notions of traditionalism, this study’s findings show the existence of a logical pluralism across industries in the manner they engage with CSR activities and disclosures. In addition to the dominant market logic, the authors also find the co-existence of community and family logics shaping the nature of CSR disclosures made by banking companies in Bangladesh.

The authors contribute to the accounting and management literature by providing first-hand evidence of the motivations underlying the emergence of CPAs in the context of a developing country. The adoption of an alternative theoretical framework allows the authors to identify the multiple logics that dictate corporate attitude towards CSR engagement and disclosure.

“When James Boswell returned from a tour of Corsica in 1765 he wrote: ‘It is indeed amazing that an island so considerable, and in which such noble things have been doing, should be so imperfectly known.’ The same might be said today of Puerto Rico.” Thus began Millard Hansen and Henry Wells in the foreword to their 1953 look at Puerto Rico's democratic development. Four decades later, the same could again be said about the island.

This paper aims to analyse the corporate rent-vs-buy decision on real estate through the trade-off theory and default option in the framework of a corporation that aims to optimise its capital structure.

The methodological core of this paper comprises the trade-off theory that approaches the optimal capital structure by counterbalancing debt tax savings with bankruptcy costs. Impacts on the default option and the default barrier are made explicit. The paper also explores the practical applicability of the renting scenarios in the European context by examining the regimes of real estate investment trusts in different countries from the demand-side of commercial renting.

Analytical relationships with tax savings, bankruptcy costs, default option and default barrier are identified for the renting-vs-buying real estate decisions.

The theoretical model assumes simplifications, such as constant debt, to make it operational. The paper centres exclusively on the trade-off capital structure theory.

This paper is an analysis of corporate real estate decisions together with capital structure. Applications are not only quantitative but also conceptual and strategic.

Identifying the main variables that govern the impact of corporate real estate decisions on capital structure and interweaving different approaches generates a conceptual framework that enlightens strategic thinking in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss tax and accounting issues related to the evolution of the intellectual property box in Portugal and present a preliminary view of its impact. In 2014, Portugal adopted an Intellectual Property (IP) box, exempting from corporate taxation half of the gross revenue obtained from selling IP rights. In 2016, the country adopted a new IP regime, in line with BEPS’ recommendations, with stricter rules for exempting income. The “modified nexus approach”, recommended by the OECD, was the cornerstone of legal changes. The research questions addressed in this paper are as follows: was the Portuguese IP box, set up in 2014, internationally competitive in terms of the scope of qualifying assets and the tax rate when compared to other EU countries? Could its legal design induce potential corporate tax avoidance? Does the new IP box framework reduce avoidance opportunities and does it increase tax and accounting complexity for companies and tax auditors?

The methodology used in this paper is based on the legal research method combined with a case study analysis of the IP box in Portugal. The economic motivation for legal changes, the interaction between the tax authorities and the policy makers in the wake of BEPS’ recommendations, and the economic crisis that Portugal faced, influenced legislative options. A multidisciplinary approach is required to analyse the IP box modifications, and the methodology follows this line of enquiry.

The author concludes that the 2014 IP box was not competitive in terms of the scope of qualifying assets and the tax rate. However, it could be a potential tool for tax avoidance, mainly linked to transfer pricing strategies. Legal changes, introduced in 2016, by enacting stricter rules for granting tax benefits, fit a worldwide trend of restraining profit shifting opportunities linked to intangibles. The new framework clearly impacts tax and accounting complexity, for companies and tax auditors. Preliminary data, for 2014 and 2015, show a negligible impact of the IP box on corporate taxation.

The “modified nexus approach” is not a definitive panacea for fighting tax avoidance. Multinationals may move resources (e.g. highly specialized persons) to entities that are developing IP, curtailing the restriction associated with acquiring services from related parties. Tax authorities may fight these schemes, but face a challenging task. The grandfathering option and new accounting choices related to expense allocation are delicate issues. Not all countries adopted BEPS’ recommendations at the same time, which may impact international profit shifting activities and increase tax authorities’ costs to control them. The paper also provides preliminary and exploratory evidence that IP boxes, per se, do not suddenly raise the R&D activity of firms.

The analysis highlights legal, accounting and economic issues in dealing with changes in investment incentives and can or may be a useful remainder for countries in the process of setting up, or amending, IP boxes.