Classroom exercises with verified legal fee data

A private company limited by shares is formed with nominal (stated) share capital of 5,000,000 in the local currency of each country: NGN, GHS, PKR and KES. The figure is a classroom parameter, not a typical company. For each country add the government fees the table lists for that event: for Nigeria the private-company registration rate, for Ghana the registration fee and capital duty, for Pakistan the electronic registration fee, for Kenya the statutory fee and the stamp duty on the Memorandum and on the Articles. Kenya’s initial nominal share capital is exempt from capital duty under Legal Notice No. 60 of 2016, so no capital duty enters the Kenyan formation total. Leave out name reservation and optional fast-track services. Then express each total as a percentage of the capital. Next, find the capital at which Ghana’s capital duty overtakes its registration fee. Last, using the capital duty row for Kenya, calculate the duty on a later increase of share capital by 5,000,000.

1. Nigeria’s total leaves out stamp duty on share capital, which the table marks as not verified. How does a missing component change the comparison, and how should a published comparison report it?
2. The Kenya total treats the two stamp duties as separate payments. The row notes say it was not confirmed how the registry collects them, and the registry lists KES 10,650 against a statutory KES 10,000. Which range of totals can you defend, and which single figure would you print?
3. Until 31 October 2026 the table row for Kenyan capital duty read "on registration or on an increase", although a 2016 legal notice exempts initial capital. How should a published table record a correction like this, and how should it show that the answer depends on the date the notice is read?
4. A fee based on capital is a fee on a number the founder chooses. What incentives follow, and what does the Pakistan cap on the total fee change at very large capital?
5. Why compare percentages of capital instead of converting each total into one currency?

For the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (federal), take the standard electronic incorporation fee and add the companion fee the table lists for the same event: the name step in most countries, and in Hong Kong the one-year business registration fee and levy. Add every name-related fee the table lists, whether or not a particular applicant needs it, and apply any credit the table notes give against the incorporation fee (Ireland). Report the total and the add-on as a percentage of the headline fee. Then work out how much more the paper, hard copy, physical and same-day routes cost than the electronic route, in amount and in percent.

1. The Hong Kong business registration certificate is paid at the same time as incorporation. Should a statement of the cost of incorporation include it, and who decides?
2. The table lists name reservation as a separate row. When a comparison says "company registration costs X", which rows should the reader be told were left out?
3. A registry that charges 81.8% more for a physical filing than for an electronic one is pricing something. What might it be, and what evidence beyond this table would you need to tell?
4. Fees are checked on one date. For which of the eight jurisdictions would you expect your answer key to go out of date first, and what would you read to find out?

A client files one US trademark application covering 3 classes by electronic filing. The client is not yet using the mark, so it later files one six-month extension request and a Statement of Use, each for all 3 classes. The identification of goods and services is free-form text in 2 of the 3 classes. Calculate the USPTO fees up to the Statement of Use, then the fee for the combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal for all 3 classes. Next, check whether filing the Section 8 and Section 9 declarations as a combined filing costs less than filing them separately, and do the same for Section 8 with Section 15. Last, work out the extra cost of a paper application over an electronic one.

1. Combined filings cost exactly the sum of the separate filings. What else could make an applicant choose the combined form?
2. Every fee in the answer is charged per class. How should that shape a client’s decision between one broad application and three narrow ones?
3. The free-form identification surcharge is charged per class. Read the row and its legal basis: what choice by the applicant avoids it, and what is the fee meant to influence?
4. The table gives a date from which the fee level has applied. Where would you look before quoting these figures to a client next year?

Three landlords let a property without a premium. Rent is KES 600,000 a year in Kenya (KES 50,000 a month), MYR 24,000 a year in Malaysia (MYR 2,000 a month) and SGD 36,000 a year in Singapore (SGD 3,000 a month). Calculate stamp duty for lease terms of 3, 4 and 6 years and express each duty as a percentage of the total rent for the term. Then, for the Malaysian 3-year tenancy, calculate the late-stamping penalty if the agreement is stamped 2 months after the deadline and if it is stamped 4 months after.

1. Which of the three structures makes duty least sensitive to lease length, and which creates the sharpest jump? Do the parties have a reason to split one long lease into two shorter ones?
2. In Singapore a 6-year lease pays the same duty as a 4-year lease. Who benefits from that design?
3. For a small tenancy the flat Malaysian penalty exceeds the percentage alternative. What does a flat minimum do to low-rent tenancies compared with high-rent ones?
4. The table notes that Kenya, Malaysia and Singapore do not charge residential and commercial leases differently. Is that worth teaching as a policy choice, and what would you check before generalising it to other countries?

Open the CSV in a spreadsheet and filter the item column to notarization_or_acknowledgment. List the states whose value says an acknowledgment is required. Then list the states whose conditions_notes say the statute text was read from a secondary source, and the states whose rows say the check could not be completed. Repeat for witnesses and waiting_period. Write two sentences that report your counts to a reader who has not seen the file, including how many states each count covers.

No figures are printed here on purpose. A count of states depends on how the class treats rows marked as not verified or read from a secondary source, and that choice is the point of the exercise. Compare the sentences students write: a good one gives the count and the number of states it covers.

1. A dataset could drop a state it could not verify, leave the value blank or keep the row with a warning. Which choice protects a reader best, and which makes a count easiest to misread?
2. Why is "N states require notarization" a weaker statement than "N of the M states checked require notarization"?
3. Which columns of the file would you need to rebuild the source trail for one state, and how long would that take?