BUSN732 | Global Business Management | The Liability of a Shareholder

1. A corporation having a separate legal identity means it owns a business that is detached from its operations with respect to management and accountability. Hence, a separate legal entity can be set up by a limited liability company or corporation to separate the core actions of the mother entity from those of other individual companies.

 

2. In limited liability corporations, the liability of a shareholder is limited to the set amount unpaid, if there is any, on his/her shares. But in contrast, the overall liability of a shareholder in a no liability corporation only applies to the total amount they’ve paid on the shares they hold.

 

3. When you are a limited liability owner, it means you’re legally responsible for the credit of a company only to the extent of the relevant nominal value of your shares. Personal guarantee, however, is your individual legal promise to settle the debts of the business you serve as a partner or executive partner.  This means you won’t be able to choose what to repay, but rather, you’ll be obliged to settle the credit.

 

le="text-align: justify;">4. Double taxation of the corporation profit

Both the state and federal government demands tax from the corporation. The dividends are treated as income when being dispensed to shareholders hence making them eligible for taxation, again.

More federal and state regulations and oversight

Filing tax returns for corporate is complicated. Filing of annual reports, Articles of corporation and corporate bylaws is mandatory

5. Preferred share is a class of specific ownership in a corporation with a much high claim on its earnings and assets than a common stock. Preferred stocks don’t carry voting rights. “Common” share, on another hand, is a security that serves to represent ownership in a company. Owners of this class of stock have voting rights.

While Preferred stock earns a dividend, they aren’t as attractive as they seem. In fact what makes the “preferred stock” term look misleading is that the owner has no right to participate in the decision making processes of the company because s/he doesn’t not have voting rights (Clairmont, 2016).

6. As an investors, you’ve two choices for investing is a company; you can buy the company’s stock or you can opt for its bonds.

As a bondholder, you’re described as being a lender to the company who’ve been given a given amount of interest in exchange. Hence, you can only make money by selling the bonds or keeping them and collecting the interest. A shareholder, on another hand, can be described as a part owner of the company by possessing a piece of the company in form of shares. You make money by receiving the dividends or selling the stocks altogether.  

7. Each country’s Companies Act spells out various duties given to the director of the corporation. They include;

1. Promoting the success of the corporation by acting in good faith for the benefit of the company and the members
2. Acting in his/her power for the given purpose. It can be in line with the company’s constitution, resolutions, articles of association etc.
3. Avoiding conflicts of interest in relation but not limited to exploitation of property, opportunity of information

8. Explain why it is becoming increasingly difficult to get prominent individuals to serve as directors of Canadian corporations.

Prominent individuals shun the idea of taking up director roles in corporations because it is considered to be a junior position in the organization (below CEO and an array of other posts). Prominent people dislike working as juniors.

9. The process of dissolving a corporation takes several steps although this may vary from one country to another

1. Calling a board of meeting
2. Filing the certification of dissolution with the government
3. Notifying the revenue authority
4. Closing credit lines and accounts
5. Canceling Licenses etc.

10. An employee has a long term relationship with the company and the company is permitted by the law to withhold his/her income tax and submits it to the revenues authorities. Independent contractors have short tern relationships with the company and submit the taxes on their own without the intervention of the company.

In a court of law, a Judge will examine how an individual pays the income tax. If it is submitted via a third-party, that person qualified to be an employee and vice versa.

11. A contract meant to last for an indefinite period of time can be terminated one of the involved parties by giving a notice in advance with a reasonable time period. The notice is determined by consulting the provisions from the constitution. ?

 

12. An employee is allowed to dismiss the employee without notice under the following circumstances;

1. Gross misconduct that amounts to serious violation of the company rules
2. In case the company has already settled the employee’s wages beforehand and wishes to retrench part of the staff

As an employee, you can leave employment without notice in the following circumstances;

1. If you believe you won’t be allowed to work for the employer through the legal 2 week notice period
2. If you have found a better job and you are required to begin right away but your manager isn’t willing to make the necessary arrangements that may facilitate your departure
3. If the company is laying off people
4. If your manager is involved in a major conflict with you

13. In the employment law, constructive discharge occurs when an employee terminates the contract or resigns due to the hostile environment created by the employer (Weiner, 2011).

The court will consider the following when determining compensation for wrongful dismissal;

1. Whether reasonable notice was given to the plaintiff (the employee)
2. Whether reasonable pay was given to the plaintiff (employee)

The remedies available to the plaintiff includes claiming damages for the wrongful dismissal or payment in lieu of the reasonable notice.

14. “Duty to accommodate” refers to the obligation of service providers and employers to adjust rules, practices and policies to enable you as an employee to participate fully. It helps employers understand their rights, the rights of the employees and their responsibilities under Alberta human rights law (Trotter, 2011).

 

?15. Workers’ compensation is an insurance that seeks to provide medical care and/or cash benefits for workers injured or become Ill as a result of their respective jobs given by the employer. In no way shall an employer require the employees to make contributions to the cost of compensation.

In case the employer fails to compensate the injured employee accordingly, the employee may seek alternative forms of statutory compensation or compel the employer to do so through the courts.  

16. A union shop is a security clause in which the employer agrees to only hire members from a specific labor union or require employees yet to join the labor union to join it. In a Closed Shop, the employer employs members of a specific union and requires them to remain in the union lest they lose they lose their jobs. In Agency Shop, the employer is allowed to hire workers inside or outside the union but the current workers to remain employed, they must join the union(Ponak & Gottlieb, 2001).

 

17. In the Labor Law, a strike is the refusal to work, obstruction, or a work slowdown initiated by employees often to resolve a given conflict between the employer and the striking employees. A lock-out, on another hand, is refusal by an employer to allow the employees to access the place of work. Some of the steps to be taken before such actions is to verify if there is existence of any agreement that forbids the employees or employers from taking such action. Also, there should be no court order barring the parties from undertaking the action.

 

18. Intellectual property tries to balance 2 principles; investment and creativity should be recognized and duly awarded and the burden of proof lies on the initial advocates of change?

 

19. You are assumed to be the owner of any original work if, under the Copyright Act, your intellectual property is original; you can prove works of authorship; and the word is reduced to material form. No other actions are needed for copyright protection i.e. you don’t need to file for any application. A copyright protection on a material lasts for 70 years (Wayne, 2015).

 

20. The main purpose of the patent law is incentivizing innovation. It also serves to balance the interests of the public on one hand and those of investors on the other. Protection is necessary to prevent unwarranted parties from abusing or benefiting from a given innovation which would be a serious inconvenience to the innovative company. Patent protection lasts for a period of 20 years from the date of registration.

 

21. A trademark may entail coined words (fanciful words such as Kodak), arbitrary marks and suggestive marks. You obtain trademark ownership by registering it with the Trademark and Intellectual property authority. You will lose ownership of a given trademark if you abandon or fail to use it for 3 or more years. Ownership of a trademark lasts for 10 years but can be renewed before the 6^th year of that period.  

22. An employer can protect confidential information by inserting non-disclosure provision in employment agreements. The employer can also label appropriately on documents containing confidential information entirely limit access to the said information.

 

24. Data is valuable asset for any organization. Here are steps to protect it from both external and internal threats;

1. Find the location where your sensitive data files resides
2. Achieve visibility awareness into who has and can and access the data 
3. Set appropriate access policies, Separation of Duties policy and compliance controls in place
4. Automate the Access Requests, Eliminate Stale Objects, Perform Access Reviews, Delegate authority, and enlighten everyone in the organization about data protection

References

Clairmont, S. (2016). A Look into Protection of Preferred Stockholders' Rights under the Context of State-Owned Enterprise Reform. Journal of Labour Market, 652-7351.

Ponak, A., & Gottlieb, D. (2001). Mandatory agency shop laws as an explanation of Canada-U.S. union density divergence. Journal of Labor Research, 541-568.

Trotter, G. (2011). The Right to Decline Performance of Same-Sex Civil Marriages: The Duty to Accommodate Public Servants - A Response to Professor Bruce MacDougall. Journal of Commerce, 125-236.

Wayne, C. (2015). The Fantastic Failure: How Current Copyright Law Stacks the Deck against the Original Authors of Justice. Journal of Labour Markets , 167-201.

Weiner, S. (2011). Constructive Dismissal and Repudiation of Contract: What Must Be Proved. Journal of Labour Market, 354-433.