Civil liability of the sole executive body of a business company: correlation with labor and tax law institutions

In modern conditions of business turnover, characterized by the desire of business entities to achieve the benefits and goals of social corporate responsibility, the issues of preserving the balance of interests of parties that have a diversified status are of particular relevance. Such subjects include the general director, who is simultaneously a management body, an employee and a taxpayer, being in relations with a business company regulated by both corporate, labor and tax law norms, which allows to qualify his status as a diversified one. The issue of correlation of the norms of three branches of law in relation to the status of the chief executive officer (CEO) through the prism of the institute of civil liability in the form of compensation for losses caused to the company by incentive (bonus) payments to the CEO is considered. The article assesses the law enforcement practice in disputes concerning the recovery of this category of losses from the director, where the courts give priority to the norms of corporate law without taking into account the explanations of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the unconditional right of an employee to receive bonuses, which are a variable component of salary. The court approaches are analyzed and their justifications are given with regard to the inclusion of the amounts of personal income tax paid by the company to the budget of the Russian Federation into the damages recovered from the CEO. The conclusions are made about the priority importance of labor and tax legislation norms in correlation with corporate law norms when applying the institute of directors’ indemnification for losses. The results of the study can be used for the development by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of appropriate explanations to the courts of lower instances on consideration of disputes on the recovery of losses from the sole executive body of a business company.

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