305 articles
Sidley Austin
Sidley Austin LLP, formerly Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, is a global law firm founded in Chicago in 1866, with about 2,300 lawyers in 22 offices and $3.1 billion in revenue.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is a New York-founded (1948) multinational law firm with 21 offices and about 1,700 lawyers, ranked Vault #3 and Am Law #5, known for M&A, litigation, and its 2025 White House agreement.
Stamp duty
Stamp duty: a tax on documents transferring property, shares, or securities, named for embossed revenue stamps first used in England in 1694; now charged on transaction value, e.g. UK SDLT and Singapore BSD/SSD/ABSD.
Stark Law
Stark Law, formally Section 1877 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395nn), the U.S. federal physician self-referral law barring Medicare referrals for designated health services to entities with which the physician or immediate family has a financial relationship, unless an exception applies; distinct from the criminal Anti-Kickback Statute.
Statute of Anne
Statute of Anne, also called the Copyright Act 1710 (8 Anne, c. 19), is the British Parliament's first copyright statute, effective 10 April 1710, granting 21-year terms for existing books and 14-year renewable terms for new works, and founding Anglo-American copyright law.
Statute of Labourers 1351
Statute of Labourers 1351: English law passed at the first post-plague Parliament, freezing wages at pre-Black Death levels, compelling service, and restricting worker mobility; reinforced the 1349 Ordinance of Labourers and failed to hold wages down.
Stop Online Piracy Act
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261, was a 2011 US anti-piracy bill by Rep. Lamar Smith that would have ordered ISPs, payment processors, and search engines to block foreign infringing sites; it died after January 2012 protests.
Stratton Oakmont
Stratton Oakmont, Inc., defunct Lake Success, New York broker-dealer (1989 to 1996) founded by Jordan Belfort; penny-stock boiler room known for IPO manipulation, NASD expulsion in 1996, SIPA liquidation, and the Wolf of Wall Street case.
Structuring
Structuring: splitting cash deposits or withdrawals to evade the $10,000 Currency Transaction Report threshold under the Bank Secrecy Act; criminalized by 31 U.S.C. 5324, subject to same-day aggregation rules and civil forfeiture.
Sugar Act
Sugar Act (American Revenue Act, 1764): British Parliament law revising the 1733 Molasses Act, cutting molasses duty from 6 to 3 pence per gallon, taxing sugar, wine, and coffee, and strictly enforcing collection via vice-admiralty courts; distinct from the British Sugar Act of 1846.
Sullivan & Cromwell
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (S&C), founded 1879 in New York, is a multinational law firm with 1,000+ lawyers in 14 offices, led by co-chairs Giuffra and Miller, ranked first by value in global M&A over 20 years.
Surety
A surety is a person or entity that assumes direct liability for another's obligation; suretyship, involving creditor, principal debtor, and surety, appears in surety bonds guaranteeing agreements are honored.
Suspicious activity report
Suspicious activity report (SAR): a FinCEN filing U.S. financial institutions must make under the Bank Secrecy Act on suspected money laundering, BSA evasion, or criminal transactions, filed via Form 111.
Tax avoidance
Tax avoidance: legal reduction of tax liability, distinct from illegal tax evasion and from tax planning. Covers corporate profit shifting channels, the BEPS framework, the 15% global minimum tax, and UK tax gap measurement.
Tax Day
Tax Day is the United States federal individual income tax filing deadline, generally April 15 for calendar-year filers. Moved from March 1 to March 15 (1918) to April 15 (1954); extensions to October 15, Emancipation Day shifts, and COVID-19 delays alter it in some years.
Tax deduction
Tax deduction: an amount subtracted from taxable income. Covers US standard vs. itemized deductions, above-the-line deductions, history since 1913, and 2025-2026 OBBBA amounts and new breaks.
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the illegal, criminally punishable nonpayment of taxes owed, distinct from legal tax avoidance. Covers forms, measurement via random audits, US losses of $116–304 billion, offshore leaks, and enforcement.
Tax exemption
Tax exemption removes qualifying organizations, property, or transactions from a tax base; in the U.S. it centers on IRC 501(c)(3) charities, churches, and nonprofits, built by statutes from the 1894 Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act onward, with deduction, inurement, filing, and revocation rules.
Tax returns of Donald Trump
Donald Trump's tax returns: federal and state filings he refused to release as candidate and president, first major-party nominee since 1976 not to; NYT 2020 leak showed $750 paid in 2016 and 2017; House Ways and Means released 2015–2020 returns in December 2022.
Taxation in France
Taxation in France covers income taxes, VAT, social contributions, and local taxes, with a 43.5% tax-to-GDP ratio in 2024, progressive income tax brackets of 0-45%, a 25% corporate rate, and one of the OECD's highest labour tax wedges.
Taxation in Germany
Taxation in Germany: the federal, state, and municipal tax system with a 38.0% tax-to-GDP ratio (2024), 47.9% tax wedge, 19% VAT, 15% corporate tax, shaped by the Miquel and Erzberger reforms.
Taxation in India
Taxation in India is a system of taxes collected by three tiers of government, governed by the Income-tax Act, 2025, which replaced the 1961 Act in 2026.
Taxation in New Zealand
Taxation in New Zealand: the national tax system administered by Inland Revenue, built on income tax (progressive rates 10.5%–39%) and 15% GST, raising over 90% of core Crown tax revenue, with self-assessment and a 183-day tax residence rule.
Taxation in Puerto Rico
Taxation in Puerto Rico: a separate Hacienda-run Commonwealth tax system plus partial federal taxation; bona fide residents are exempt from federal income tax on Puerto Rico-source income under IRC section 933, pay FICA taxes, and Act 60 incentives offer 4% corporate rates and investment income exemptions.
Taxation in Sweden
Taxation in Sweden: the national, municipal, and regional tax system run by Skatteverket. Dual income tax with ~52% top marginal labour rate, 30% capital tax, 20.6% corporate tax, 25% VAT; tax-to-GDP 41.4% in 2023.
Taxation in Switzerland
Taxation in Switzerland: a three-level federal system in which the 26 cantons levy their own income, wealth and corporate taxes, VAT stands at 8.1%, corporate rates run 11.7-21.6%, and the OECD 15% minimum tax applies since 2024.
Taxpayer Identification Number
Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN): unique identifier assigned by a jurisdiction for tax administration; in the U.S. covers SSN, EIN, ITIN, ATIN, and PTIN, and internationally underpins CRS information exchange.
Tea Act
The Tea Act (13 Geo. 3 c. 44, May 1773) gave the East India Company duty-free direct tea exports to America and a colonial sales monopoly, triggering the Boston Tea Party of 16 December 1773 and the 1774 Coercive Acts.
Termination of employment
Termination of employment: the legal ending of an employer-employee relationship. Covers at-will employment (all US states except Montana), ILO Convention No. 158's valid-reason standard, UK dismissal types, Ontario ESA notice rules, and OECD comparative dismissal-regulation strictness.
Terms of service
Terms of service (ToS, terms of use) are standard-form online contracts presented via clickwrap, browsewrap, or sign-in wrap. Key facts: Specht v. Netscape limited browsewrap enforcement; users rarely read 6,000-word agreements; EU study found unfair clauses in all 100 ToS sampled.