Patsalos announces dream team to strengthen financial service APA and dispute resolution offering

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) member firms have assembled a multi-national team with deep knowledge of the approaches that tax authorities in key jurisdictions are likely to take in the transfer pricing of financial services transactions.

Ellie Patsalos, London-based global tax financial services industry leader at Deloitte, comments: [private]“Financial service companies have struggled to develop transfer pricing policies that can be globally applied. The rules and guidance covering these sorts of transactions have not always been clear or consistent across countries.

“As well as presenting opportunities, transfer pricing is one of the most significant tax and FIN 48 compliance risks for multinational groups. Tax authorities around the world are investing heavily in developing new ways to challenge transfer pricing with more effective risk assessments, audits and litigation success. For multinationals, strong systems, up-to-date pricing models, access to experts and a global approach are at the heart of the best defences in this environment.”

With the addition of Andy Martyn to the UK firm, Deloitte has five of the most renowned experts on transfer pricing rules and regulations in the world. These five professionals have joined Deloitte from tax authorities in the UK, US, Japan, Singapore and Australia to strengthen the member firms’ globally integrated financial services transfer pricing team led by Rob Plunkett, a principal at Deloitte. They are:

Andy Martyn (UK) – Andy recently joined Deloitte UK from HM Revenue & Customs Business International where he was the Assistant Director responsible for International Financial Services. He brings with him a wealth of technical and commercial experience having, amongst other things in his 18 years with the authority, led negotiations on a number of the most significant FSI transfer pricing and advance pricing agreements (APAs) settlements and the 2007 rewrite of the independent agent tax rules governing hedge funds with UK investment managers.

Paul Epstein (USA) – Paul joined Deloitte LLP a year ago after nearly 12 years as the Senior Technical Reviewer in Branch 5 in the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International) and 23 years working on the international taxation of financial institutions and products. He is a leading authority in the global trading arena and was heavily involved in drafting both the US Proposed Global Dealing Regulations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Report on the Attribution of Profits to Permanent Establishments.

Masahiko Kobayashi (Japan) – Masahiko has 26 years experience as a tax official in various departments in the National Tax Agency (NTA), including the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau and the Ministry of Finance. He spent over 10 years working extensively in transfer pricing and APAs, including more than five years experience as a Deputy Director in the Office of Mutual Agreement Procedures, in the NTA. He also helped to draft the Japanese transfer pricing guidelines and has considerable experience of resolving global trading and Japanese permanent establishment disputes.

Jee Chang See (Singapore) – Jee Chang worked for the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore for more than 10 years and was the Tax Director of the Tax Policy & International Tax Division. He was responsible for transfer pricing and APA negotiations, playing a key role in developing the Singapore transfer pricing guidelines that were issued in 2006. He was also involved in the negotiation of a number of double taxation agreements and competent authority issues.

David Grecian (Australia) – David joined Deloitte Australia after 35 years working for the Australian Taxation Office. He has extensive transfer pricing experience gained from casework, litigation, public rulings, compliance strategy and policy in the financial services sector. David is one of the most experienced and globally recognised figures in the transfer pricing arena after nearly 30 years of involvement at the OECD, where he was involved in the development of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and chaired the working party which produced the Attribution of Profits to Permanent Establishments report for banking, global trading and insurance.

Rob Plunkett, global financial services transfer pricing leader at Deloitte, says: “The implementation of globally consistent transfer pricing policies that span the major financial centres has been a strategic objective for many financial service companies. In practice, this has been difficult to achieve. However, with this team Deloitte can bring financial industry leading capabilities in multi-lateral APA negotiations, competent authority issues and interpretation of double taxation treaties, which can help make the strategic objective a reality.”

Patsalos adds: “As the financial landscape continues to change, Deloitte’s Global Financial Services network is committed to providing continued thought leadership, surveys and studies on the issues most important to global financial institutions. Deloitte’s aim is to help guide clients through these challenging times and provide them with insights useful in not only surviving the credit crisis, but essential for clients to continue thriving in a changing environment.”[/private]