Company: LAZ
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-007441
Chunk: 136

Company: Lazard, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 136
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 as a result of cybersecurity incidents or threats, will be adequate.

Failure to maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could materially adversely affect our business.

We have documented and tested our internal control procedures in order to satisfy the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting and a report by our independent auditors regarding our internal control over financial reporting. We are in compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as of December 31, 2024. However, if we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, as such standards are modified, supplemented or amended from time to time, we may not be able to ensure that we can conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Failure to maintain an effective internal control environment could materially adversely affect our business.

Changes in relevant tax laws or rates, changes in regulations, treaties or the interpretation of these items or changes in the jurisdictional mix of our earnings could negatively impact our effective tax rate.

We are a multinational company subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign jurisdictions and we earn a significant amount of our income outside the U.S. A change in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates may result in higher effective tax rates for the company. Our effective tax rate is based upon the application of currently enacted income tax laws, regulations and treaties, and upon our non-U.S. subsidiaries’ ability to qualify for benefits under those treaties and those laws, regulations and treaties, and the administrative and judicial interpretations of them are subject to change at any time and such changes may adversely impact our effective tax rate. 

For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 includes several international provisions applicable to us and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposes, among other items, a 1% excise tax on net stock repurchases made by certain publicly traded corporations which may impact us and consequently, we continue to monitor guidance and regulations on such provisions. All of these provisions are complex and changes to such provisions or our interpretation of them could adversely impact our effective tax rate in future years.  

Multiple levels of government, foreign legislatures and international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) and the European Union, are increasingly focused