Joint Ventures

Business Litigation Attorney in Atlanta

Even the greatest of companies and businesses need some help from other corporations from time to time. Perhaps a project will simply cost too much, or require experts that do not exist in your company’s infrastructure. When two or more businesses decide to work together and pool their resources, this is known as a joint venture. For example, an agricultural team, a distribution company, and a marketing firm might use a joint venture to develop a new brand of snack foods.

Nothing in the world of business is as simple as a handshake. A successful joint venture will require a joint venture agreement and the careful planning of a business litigation lawyer.

If you need to create a joint venture agreement, contact our Atlanta business litigation attorneys from Buckley Bala Wilson Mew LLP today!

Joint Venture Agreements, Piece By Piece

To avoid walking into a disadvantageous joint venture, you will need to understand at what you are looking. After all, a joint venture agreement is a form of business contract, and you will have to follow it closely lest you be faced later with contract disputes and litigation.

There are three main elements of a joint venture:

1. Goal: What is the purpose of your joint venture? Do you want to make a new product? Are you conducting additional research in a particular field? Whatever the answer, you need to know it ahead of time and ensure that everyone is on the same page from the beginning.
2. Resources: Every party that enters a joint venture agreement cannot do so for free, and they are expected to give some of their resources to the cause. This can be in the form of finances, labor, or conceptualization. Outline everyone’s role clearly and how much they are contributing.
3. Profits: Assuming that your joint venture reaches its goal and profits start to roll in from the effort, you must have clearly defined statements as to which parties get what percentage of the profits. Typically, the more resources a party contributed, the more profits gained for that party.

Trouble can quickly arise with more abstract ideas of joint venture contribution, though. Imagine your partner put in only 20% of the finances to get your project started and agreed to get only 20% of any profits, but they later came up with a brilliant idea that greatly benefitted the entire operation. Now they are expecting more than 20% of the profits, stating that their idea is a valid reason as to why they should get more money. Is it? You will need a business litigation attorney and a sound joint venture agreement to find out.

Taxes and Joint Ventures

Some joint ventures are considered an actual business entity, even though it is created between multiple companies. The government will assign a federal employment identification number to the project, or expect it to file annual tax returns. There are some joint ventures that are not considered a taxable entity, though. Usually, this is the case for a joint venture that is merely a pooling of resources without an end product in mind, such as a research and development team. We can assist clients with tax disputes and other tax-related matters.

Team Up with Us First

Before you start to partner with other companies in a joint venture, make certain you side with our Atlanta business litigation lawyers first. We have more than 85 years of collective legal experience under our belts we can use to your advantage. Whether you are looking to work with foreign entities or want to amass resources from dozens of corporations, we can help you establish a fair joint venture agreement that works for everyone.

Call (404) 781-1100 today and request your case evaluationwith our team.