European Chapter meets in Zurich.

• Position: Chapter News

The second meeting of the European Chapter of TEI for the 2003-2004 season was held at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich on February 11th and 12th The meeting attracted 101 members and guests, beating the previous attendance record made last May at Disneyland Paris. It was organized and hosted by Victoria McIniss and Erika Fischer of General Motors Europe AG who brilliantly handled all of the administrative arrangements.

Chapter President Guy Kersch welcomed the participants to the meeting and introduced TEI Executive Director Timothy McCormally, who commended the European Chapter on its growth and continuing good work in advancing TEI's educational, networking, and advocacy objectives. (Mr. Kersch subsequently reported that the European Chapter had grown to 181 members.) Mr. McCormally also commented that a founding member of the chapter, William Ramirez, has been reassigned to Hong Kong and is now active with several other local tax executives in advancing the goal of an Asia Pacific Chapter.

Outsourcing Global Tax Compliance

Andy Morris from PricewaterhouseCoopers UK made an impressive presentation of the firm's Global Compliance Services. Members questioned, however, whether these services were Sarbanes-Oxley compliant where the service provider was also the company's auditor. Mr. Morris agreed that some services had to be excluded in such situations (e.g., payroll or company secretarial), but that it was merely a scoping issue. A member of the audience reported that another Big Four firm (Ernst & Young) recently declined to do work on the tax provisions of audit clients. Mr. Morris stated that work on local provisions was acceptable if authorized under local legislation.

Member Roundtable

Following the chapter's business meeting, the traditional roundtable discussion--involving everyone in attendance--followed. Topics discussed included:

* Sharing experience on global tax compliance outsourcing

* Finding a tax consultant in South Africa

* Finding a Spanish lawyer (Basque Country)

* Registration of technology in Brazil

* TP experience in Poland

* Extension of the parent/ subsidiary directive to French partnerships

* Guidance on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

* VAT on goods to be assembled on-site

* German Competent authorities

* Distance sales to private customers (VAT)

* PE issue in France

* Finding a tax adviser in Egypt

* TP audit in France

* TNMM methods in Europe

* Italian blacklist and definition of economic activity performed in...