Vinstandelsstiftelser - spörsmål kring obligatoriskt och optionellt förvaltade vinstandelar

Sammanfattning: A company that wishes to initiate a profit-sharing scheme involving its employees have a number of legal formats at its disposal. This thesis deals with one of these, namely the profit-sharing foundation where companies share part of their profit with their employees by allocating part of the profit to a foundation according to certain established legal rules and principles. The profit-sharing foundation has been given a purpose, viz. to administer the allocated profit funds according to specific directions to which it is bound. The employees who are beneficiaries to the profit-sharing scheme could be claimed to receive an imaginary share of the capital of the foundation. Such profit-sharing foundations and profit shares are described in the present thesis. In Swedish law, there is a certain amount of uncertainty as regards potentially different legal consequences connected to the profit-sharing foundations and the proper legal classification of such schemes. As a direct consequence, the proper handling of profit shares in different legal contexts, e.g. in a case of a division of property for an employee or in a case of execution of his/her property, remains to a large extent unclear. To this date, there is no definition in Swedish civil law of what constitutes a profit-sharing foundation. The overarching purpose of the present thesis is to give a detailed account of the legal character and background of the concept of the profit-sharing foundation. Two questions are at the heart of the discussion&semic how should this kind of foundation be evaluated and which is the best way to illustrate which legal consequences that are associated with such a foundation, especially with regard to the profit-shares? In the light of the current analysis I also discuss the appropriate handling of the shares in the two cases mentioned above, viz. potential execution of the property of an employee, as well as an instance of a division of his/her property. In connection to this, an adequate comparison is also made with the appropriate procedure as regards occupational pension. The thesis takes as its starting point cases in existing Swedish law where all parties involved in the legal relations are domiciled in Sweden. Some comparisons are however made to the Anglo-Saxon institution of trust. The investigation and analysis according to civil law of profit-sharing foundations carried out in this paper forces us to distinguish profit shares of two different kinds, all depending on the kind of premises under which they are administered. The distinction made appears necessary if the specific character of the concept of a foundation, a legal subject in its own right, is to be respected. The two kinds of profit shares are labelled obligatory and optional respectively and illustrate a difference in legal consequences. Profit shares under obligatory administration are the property of the foundation. Profit shares under optional administration are the property of the employee and represent trust money in relation to the capital of the profit-sharing foundation itself. The proposed distinction between obligatory and optional profit shares may be of great significance for the legal treatment of profit shares.