Asia win for PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers won the Asia tax firm of the year award at International Tax Review's fourth Asia Tax Awards in Singapore last night.

The firm fought off competition from the other big-four professional services firms, Baker & McKenzie and Taxand to succeed Deloitte as winner of the most prestigious award at the ceremony.

Deloitte won two of the other 10 regional awards. It won the editor's choice and best use of the internet prizes.

Independent firms to win regional awards included Mallesons Stephen Jaques, which was named Asia tax controversy firm of the year and DLA Phillips Fox, which won the capital markets tax team of the year award. Mori Hamada & Matsumoto triumphed as M&A team of the year, Baker & McKenzie was the first winner of the tax restructuring firm of the year, Taxand was named as newcomer of the year again and White & Case won the award for international firm of the year for Asia tax practices in firms headquartered outside the region.

Fifty three awards were also presented in 13 jurisdictions

Awards for tax, transfer pricing, tax controversy and indirect tax were presented in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. There were also presentations for case of the year in Australia, Hong Kong and India.

Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers tied as the most successful tax practices at the awards. Both won 12 times. Ernst & Young took seven awards and KPMG had five victories.

Methodology

In August 2009, firms in the 13 jurisdictions were invited to submit three examples of their best work for the August 2008 to August 2009 period. The submissions were eligible for consideration for the four awards in each of the countries, the three case of the year awards, as well as for the 11 pan-Asian awards.

International Tax Review editorial staff compiled the awards shortlists based on these submissions and tax executives responsible for the region were consulted before the winners were decided.