The human suffering in Ukraine is immense and leaves all of us aghast. Prosaic as it may sound by comparison, however, the economic effect of the Russia/Ukraine conflict is also trickling down into Belgium and the rest of the world, as prices for utilities and food are on the rise almost everywhere. Soon enough, Belgian … Continue Reading
Friday last week saw the issue of the fourth Treasury Direction to HMRC concerning the administration of the CJRS. TD4 deals with the CJRS job retention bonus scheme, shamefully immortalised in the drafting as the CJRS(JR)B – what would have been so hard about “the Bonus”? Five and a bit pages of circumlocution and sub-sub-sub-paragraphs … Continue Reading
In a recent blog, we wrote about the stringent language requirements in Belgian employment: how documents drafted in the wrong language are null and void but that this sanction of nullity may not be to the detriment of the employee, meaning that the employee can do a “cherry picking” of the provisions that are most … Continue Reading
30 April is to non-recurrent results-based bonus schemes in Belgium what 29 March was to the UK: a doom and gloom deadline that turned out to be … well, no big deal, really.… Continue Reading
Group of 10 reaches agreement on employment conditions In the very early morning of 26 February, the Belgian social partners in the so-called Group of 10 (the main representatives of employers’ federations and trade unions) reached the bones of an agreement on employment conditions for 2019-2020. In this draft agreement, the margin for increases in … Continue Reading
The interpretation of bonus clauses in German employment contracts is a never-ending fountain of judicial discussions and disputes. Employers always try to achieve the greatest level of flexibility possible while employees naturally seek clear conditions that guarantee that the agreed bonus is paid once certain requirements are met. In light of recent cases in the … Continue Reading
Here is a recent case which contains lessons harder than A-Level Maths for employers with discretionary bonus schemes. Mr Hills was regional sales manager in the UK for Niksun Inc, a US-owned business whose website says that it is “the primary provider of full packet capture for DISA“. No, nor me. Niksun runs a bonus … Continue Reading
Readers may have been seen BBC1’s Panorama programme earlier this week, which touched, amongst other things, on the so-called “bump plan.” Details of this entirely legal tax strategy came to be heard in unfortunate circumstances for a very highly regarded member of the tax profession, who has subsequently resigned his position on the GAAR panel- … Continue Reading
