Methodology Tax Controversy Leaders is a guide to the leading tax dispute resolution lawyers and advisers in the world. In addition to highlighting tax professionals, the guide also includes litigators and barristers who may not practise tax on a day-to-day basis. Inclusion in this guide is based on a minimum number of nominations received. Besides the required number of nominations, entrants must also possess evidence of outstanding success in the past year and consistently positive feedback from peers and clients. Firms and individuals cannot pay to be recommended in Tax Controversy Leaders. |
Tax litigation experts are increasingly in demand as authorities around the world get more and more aggressive in their use of anti-avoidance measures at national level. Global trends, of course, centre on developments coming out of the Paris-based OECD as its project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) approaches its resolution. A great deal of uncertainty still hangs over the project, but stakeholders agree on one thing: whatever form the final recommendations take, the most immediate tangible impact will be a surge in the number of disputes that arise as taxpayers and authorities adjust to new standards and mechanisms.
In Europe, state aid investigations show that even structures that were agreed upon with national authorities are coming under retrospective scrutiny from higher powers, again raising the importance of quality advice that will stand up to investigation for years to come.
In the US, in the face of declining resources, the IRS is attempting to re-engineer the way it chooses taxpayers for examination, as well as the way in which it conducts audits, with taxpayers and advisers reporting new challenges which disrupt certainty.
With all of this in mind, it is clear that taxpayers need access to lawyers and advisers with experience in all stages of tax controversy. Far from being confined to the courtroom walls, the remit of tax controversy advisers now extends further than it has ever done. Taxpayers are seeking advisers with expertise that encompasses tax dispute prevention techniques; tax audit management practices; global strategic planning of tax audits and disputes; tax risk management, analysis and disclosure; and alternative tax dispute resolution.
We hope that this fifth edition of the Tax Controversy Leaders guide will provide you with the confidence to obtain sound advice in each of the areas highlighted above, in each of the 50 jurisdictions covered.
Matthew Gilleard,
Editor, International Tax Review
