The closing date for submissions was Monday February 2 2015. No more entries are being accepted.The awards will be presented at a dinner at the Grosvenor House hotel in London on Thursday May 21 2015 in these categories:
National tax (27 jurisdictions) and transfer pricing (25 jurisdictions) firm of the year
European Tax Firm of the Year (no separate submission form - award will be judged according to the national submissions)
European Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year (no separate submission form - see above)
European deal of the year in 11 industry sectors or practice areas
Best Newcomer (international tax practice <5 years since formation) (no separate submission form - award will be judged according to the national submissions)
US Tax Firm of the Year (no separate submission form - award will be judged according to the national submissions)
Editors' Choice - awarded by the editorial staff of International Tax Review who has made the biggest impact on tax in Europe in 2014.
Winners at the awards' dinner in 2014 included EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC; Baker & McKenzie, Loyens & Loeff, DLA Piper and the Best Friends Network (pictured below) of Bonelli Erede Pappalardo; Bredin Prat; De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek; Hengeler Mueller; Slaughter and May and Uria Menendez, which was named as European Tax Firm of the Year.
In addition to the awards for the best tax and transfer pricing firms in 27 jurisdictions or regions, including South Africa, the 2015 ceremony will feature the presentation of three separate awards to company tax departments, who can enter to be named the direct or indirect tax, or transfer pricing in-house team of the year. To win they must compose a 500-word description of their objectives for the 2014 calendar year and how they were achieved, highlighting areas where the work done by the team made a significant impact on the overall goals of the company.
Alcoa (pictured below) won the in-house tax team of the year award in 2014.
Deals
There was a separate submission form for the 11 deals of the year awards:
banking;
capital markets;
consumer products;
energy;
financial services;
joint ventures;
media and entertainment;
M&A;
private equity;
restructuring and
telecommunications and technology;
Any firm that worked on any of the tax aspects of the winning deals will receive an award.
Methodology
Between December 2014 and February 2015, law firms, tax advisers, accountants and other tax service providers from these jurisdictions:
Austria; Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania); Belgium; Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia); Cyprus; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; Malta; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Russia; South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; UK and Ukraine
can submit three examples of their best work for consideration for the national tax and transfer pricing awards.
The awards for European Tax Firm of the Year, European Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year, US Tax Firm of the Year in Europe and Best Newcomer (international tax practices of <5 years) will be judged from these submissions.
There are separate submission forms for the European regional awards covering tax disputes, the European Court of Justice, indirect tax, tax compliance & reporting, innovation and tax technology.
The awards will be judged according to:
Size (Not conclusive, though it does indicate what a tax team is capable of taking on)
Innovation (Did the advice the firm gave show something more than the straightforward answer that is commonly used? Did the matter address tax issues that were out of the ordinary and what ingenuity did the firm show to solve them?)
Impact (What effect did the matter have on the client's business? Was it transformative? What has the conclusion of the matter enabled the client to achieve?)
If you wish to attend the awards dinner in London on May 21, please get in touch with Andrew Tappin.
