As a cross-border family lawyer in China, there are always clients from USA or China dealing with estates inheritance or asset transfer to United States. Very often, American tax issues are one of the core concerns. Thus, I have endeavored to take the trouble to understand American complex federal tax systems esp in regard of estate planning issues.
Foreign investments in China have continued to prosper against current global pandemic and warring backdrop, partly thanks to American and Western countries relentlessly confiscating Russian citizens’ assets amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Rich people are scared of the barbarous violation of personal properties that are considered…
We told you before on this blog that creditors can go after a China company‘s shareholders if these shareholders have not paid up their subscribed capital in the company’s registered capital. Click here: Can Creditors Go After Corporate Shareholders Who Have Not Paid up Subscribed Capital in China?
However, as with other things in China, Chinese laws…
This is an open secret, even to IRS in USA that many American citizens marrying foreign nationals may hide their assets in such foreign countries where their spouses are from.
A typical example: an American businessman gets married with a China lady and in order to avoid high-rate taxes levied by IRS, the American husband keeps quite a bit of cash in the bank account…
The world is changing and evolving all the time. Something that was unthinkable in the past may happen now. China, as a conservative society in contrast to western societies, has been getting liberal over time, as reflected in legislation and judicial practice.
A woman won a land-mark case against her lover, who claimed …
Dealing with inheritance issues, we occasionally encounter inquiries about death compensation arising from fatal accidents though we don’t generally deal with many personal injury cases in China. Instead, we focus on how death compensation is treated in the course of inheritance and estate administration.
This is an interesting case that deserves a post itself, shedding further lights on the issue whether a spouse (often wives) is legally entitled to take back properties or cash that is transferred to a third party mistress. We used to write a post about this on this blog 10 years: what if your spouse buys a property for his or her lover in China?
Very often we receive inquiries from foreign companies asking about opening a bank account in China in order to facilitate their trade with China business partners. In the past, we have written a post about opening foreign exchange bank account in China.
With China endeavoring to internationalize its currency RMB, back in 2010, …
There used to be the golden era for foreigners to invest in China property market. Yes, that was before July 11, 2006 when China central government issued the regulation entitled “Notice on Regulation on Access and Administration of Foreign Capital into China Real Estate Market” (the “Decree 171“).
In the area of cross-border estate planning practice, the term “forced heirship” is a concept that shall be given due heed.
As a family lawyer in China working on both divorce and estate planning, I would like to introduce forced heirship rules and its implications under Chinese laws.
I. What is Forced Heirship
Forced heirship is a regime restricting…
We are talking about China courts dividing marital properties involved in cross-border divorce cases where choice of law applicable to the division of marital properties plays a deciding and vital role that could lead to wildly different result.
By the way, this is not the first post discussing property division…
Leases of residential properties are generally not big deals, so we don’t deal with them very often despite that frequently we are asked about lease disputes in China. However, if it comes to business premises such as manufacturing factories, it could be big deals but also intricate deals.
Yes, I am talking about property leases involving…
A recent case prompted us to delve into the issue of ownership of home properties bought by couples with capital contribution from their parents.
It is commonplace in China (esp. in first tiered cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou) throughout the country, young couples often buy their first home, with substantial…
Recently, we have received quite a few inquiries from foreigners who want to know whether they are eligible for applying for China green card. That is probably because they have read our post a while ago when China government published a draft regulation overhauling current regulation.
It was a bit surprising to see the surging demand for China…
Insurances are popular in China. People in China rural villages are buying various insurance products, mainly, health insurance, and personal accident insurance. In urban population, many people buy life insurances (with dividend payout or investment components), and annuity insurance as well.
China property markets have somehow been tamed and reined in by its government in past a couple of years.
There have been quite some significant developments in property markets in major China cities, I mean the first-tiered cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Let us look at a few charts for your intuitive understanding.
Take Shenzhen for…
Insurances are big and important things in our lives. For family lawyers and lawyers who do estate planning, insurances, in particular health insurances and life insurances are powerful and indispensable instruments, though I admit that I have not given enough attention to insurances laws in the past.
With more Chinese people getting…
Our team have been dealing with inheritance of estates in China for more than a decade, most of time, on behalf of foreign heirs or beneficiaries.
I. Facts of the Case
In a recent case, the decedent had two wills respectively dealing with estates in China and estates in USA. The China Will covers both personal and real properties mainly in Shanghai, and the American…
We used to touch on this subject matter some time ago from the perspective of estate planning: guardianship for the elderly under China law. In this post, we discuss some concrete issues related to custody of elderly people in China. To many overseas Chinese whose parents or grandparents are still living in China, this may be of their interests.
In older posts, we have discussed legal issues surrounding inheritance of personal properties in China. When it comes to inheritance of bank deposits in China, there is another layer of problem in practice: what if the inheritor or heir doesn’t have a bank account in China?
I. Real Case Scenario
An American man died back in USA, and his parents found out that he…
Jason Tian, the blogger, Senior Partner at Shanghai Landing Law Offices. You can reach him at: [email protected] or [email protected], or call him directly at+86-13816548421 (also his WhatsApp)
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