Bakers hires TP expert Shanwu Yuan from China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT)

Shanwu Yuan, a former senior official in the People’s Republic of China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT), has joined Baker & McKenzie’s highly regarded Global Tax Practice as a Director.  Mr. Yuan brings to the Firm over 17 years of experience in international tax policy and administration, having served as China’s delegate to tax and transfer pricing technical working groups at international organizations including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations, and interacted with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the area of taxation.

“We are delighted to welcome Shanwu to our Global Tax Practice,” said Erik Scheer, head of Baker & McKenzie’s Global Tax Practice Group.  “As a former senior SAT official who has worked with numerous international tax policy organizations, Shanwu can offer our clients invaluable insight to the positions of tax authorities in China and around the world.”

“Shanwu’s joining further strengthens our ability to provide world-class tax and transfer pricing advice to our international client base,” said Hong Kong-based Michael Olesnicky, head of Baker & McKenzie’s Asia Pacific Tax Practice Group.

Based out of the Firm’s New York office, Mr. Yuan will work closely with the Firm’s tax and transfer pricing practices in China and throughout the Firm’s 72 offices, advising clients on tax and transfer pricing matters based on his in-depth knowledge of international tax legislation and enforcement trends.

During his tenure with the SAT, Mr. Yuan served as a member of the United Nations Tax Committee’s Subcommittee on Transfer Pricing – Practical Issues and helped draft the United Nations Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing for Developing Countries.  He also served as China’s delegate to the OECD’s Peer Review Group from 2009-2010, where he assisted the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information in formulating the Methodologies and the Terms of Reference, pursuant to which the Global Forum conducts reviews of countries’ implementation of their systems for the exchange of information in tax matters. He also served as a delegate to the OECD’s Working Party 6 on the Taxation of Multinational Enterprises, and contributed actively to the OECD’s work on intangibles and other topics.

In addition, Mr. Yuan served as a policy member on the drafting team for the current corporate income tax law of China and served as the assistant to the Chief Economist of the SAT.  In 2009, he rose to the position of Deputy Director of Anti-Avoidance, where he was heavily involved in transfer pricing policy, advance pricing agreements and policy matters related to China’s general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR).

Mr. Yuan joined SAT in 1995 after receiving his BA in Business Administration from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China.  He received his MBA in 2001 from the Business School of the University of Durham, UK.

Mr. Yuan is the latest in a series of prominent hires for the Firm’s Global Tax Practice.  Ulises Castilla-Flores, the former Central Litigation Administrator of Large Taxpayers for the Tax Administration Service in Mexico, recently joined the Firm as a Partner in Mexico City.  Partners Josh Odintz, a former Senior Advisor for Tax Reform to the Assistant Secretary at the US Department of the Treasury, and Mary Bennett, the former head of the Tax Treaty, Transfer Pricing & Financial Transactions Division of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy & Administration (CTPA), also joined the practice in Washington, DC.  In addition, Caroline Silberztein, head of the CTPA’s Transfer Pricing Unit, joined as a partner based in the Paris office.