Planning for the Corporate Executive
Our firm is prepared to assist in tax advantage planning for the corporate executive, including:
- We structure and draft (or vet) compensation
agreements for high- and mid-level executives in order to optimize
tax-saving opportunities
- We look for strategies for segmenting
compensation arrangements to take advantage of tax treaties
and other tax-reducing features in French or U.S. law
- We secure protection under the U.S.-France
Social Security Treaty, to obtain significant tax savings for
both employee and employer
- We recommend where applicable what specific
categories of income may be tax-free or tax-favored in France
- We review tax equalization or tax reimbursements
- We are aware of the special tax and social
security considerations of the owner-employee
- We help the entrepreneur create his or
her own company in France
Especially in
today's economic climate, employers are interested in minimizing
the tax cost of executive compensation. France is a high tax
jurisdiction. We are experts in assessing the tax cost of a
given compensation package and in giving suggestions on how
this cost can be reduced.
We can help you secure the 5-year exemption
from French Social Security taxes, and assist in obtaining the
appropriate visa and work permit that is consistent with that
status.
Owner-employees
are a special sub-set and need additional guidance. Should
the entrepreneur become an "employee" of the company?
How does the fact that the owner is acting as manager ("gérant")
of his or her company bear on liability issues as well as tax
issues? We will guide you through this difficult and unfamiliar
terrain.
We help an executive understand the
tax implications of a proposed or existing compensation agreement.
We can also explain what are the available techniques within
French and/or U.S. law - taking into account the provisions
of the double tax treaty - to reduce global taxation. We help
an executive understand what his or rights are in a threatened
or actual firing situation. If anything is true in the area
of executive dismissal, it is the maxim that what the employment
contract states is often now what the ultimate outcome will
be. |
