Bird & Bird's transfer pricing offering, which is currently managed by dedicated teams within the tax department, has grown continuously and significantly over the last few years.
The agreement follows increased scrutiny from the likes of tax authorities, investors and customers about the transfer pricing structures of multinationals.
Multinationals are under increasing pressure to demonstration tax transparency with many institutes attempting to exploit tax planning strategies. For example, the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project that refers to ‘tax avoidance strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to artificially shift profits to low or no-tax locations.’
Mat Oliver, co-head of international tax at Bird & Bird, said: ‘Our clients know that with the arrival of BEPS they need to put serious effort and resource into their global tax strategies but the solutions needed cut across legal, tax, valuation, economic and practical considerations. Our collaboration with Questro will allow us to provide all of this in a one-stop shop, giving clients a holistic and cost-effective service.’
Transfer pricing is also important for small and medium sized businesses as in this day in age it is easy to operate across countries through the internet.
Questro International is a specialist firm which provides a full range of transfer pricing solutions. The firm works with law and accountancy firms to handle the tax, legal, valuation and accounting implications of multi-jurisdiction projects.
Questro International will also help with the firms IP advisory by offering transfer pricing solutions to help businesses protect, manage, and exploit the value of their intangible assets.
Stephen Alleway, co-founder of Questro International said: ‘We are very pleased to be working with Bird & Bird which has a preeminent reputation in the IP space. Over the course of my career, transfer pricing has shot up the corporate agenda and now consistently ranks as the number one issue in international tax and is an increasing area of boardroom concern.
‘New compliance requirements and increased transparency and scrutiny makes the operation of a sustainable TP model more complex and increasingly cross functional within a corporation involving tax, finance, and legal functions.
I am excited that our two firms can collaborate in such a way as to provide the ground-breaking end-to-end services that companies grappling with these issues now require.’
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