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Texas-based Fulbright & Jaworski has announced the election of Stephen Pfeiffer as its new chairman. Pfeiffer was previously partner-in-charge of both the Washington DC and London offices, and head of the firm's international department. Pfeiffer replaces Gus Blackshear, who has served 10 years as chairman and will return to practising law as a tax partner in Fulbright's Houston office.

Professional services firm Ernst & Young has hired a former director, Matthew Taylor from KPMG to join its tax group. Taylor is joining as a tax partner on March 24 2003. Taylor has been actively involved in insurance demutualizations and mergers. He has been a director with KPMG since 1996.

Jones Day Reavis & Pogue in Paris has hired a tax and real estate partner from HSD Ernst & Young. Emmanuel Chauve is joining the firm in early February from the merged Ernst & Young and Andersen Legal team, which has lost teams to firms including Deloitte & Touche, Bird & Bird, Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Baker & McKenzie since its September union.

Julian Robertson-Kellie has joined Ernst & Young in London as a director in the international transfer pricing and tax-effective supply chain management group. Robertson-Kellie was previously working in Zurich and was responsible for the company's European transfer pricing issues for more than four years.

KPMG has hired Sean Foley, former director of the US Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) advanced pricing agreement (APA) programme. Foley will split his time between New York and Washington.

The US firm has boosted its tax group with a former principal from KPMG. David Wunder has joined the firm as a partner and will be splitting his time between the firm's Detroit and Washington DC offices. Wunder claimed that the Sarbanes Oxley legislation would prevent him from working with his biggest clients, including Wells Fargo.

By KPMG's Harry L Gutman, former head of the US Joint Committee on Taxation

A new circular, issued by the State Administration of Taxation and effective from January 1 2003, clarifies the application of enterprise income tax (EIT) and business tax (BT) in relation to the provision of services by a holding company to its investee companies. In particular, the circular provides that the service fee charged by the holding company may be determined by contract and be based on the particular criteria set out in the contract; and by allocating fees calculated on the actual expenses incurred by the holding company.

In its decision of January 22 2003 in what is known as the Pirelli case, the UK High Court rejected a claim by the Inland Revenue that companies that would otherwise be entitled to compensation in respect of advance corporation tax (ACT) paid on dividends to the parent companies in the EU on the basis of the European Court of Justice decision in the Hoechst case, should be denied such compensation or be subject to an offsetting reduction if the group was entitled to a tax credit refund under a double tax treaty between the UK and the country in which the parent company was resident. The court also decided that it was not necessary at this stage to refer to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) the issue as to whether ACT was a withholding tax. This decision is subject to appeal.

On December 3 2002 the Auditor General released her report, which targets international transactions. Chapter4 entitled "Taxing International Transactions of Canadian Residents", indicates that the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) needs to be more effective in carrying out audits of international issues. Specifically, CCRA needs to perform better risk assessment to determine what compliance work should be undertaken in each tax services office and on a national basis. Second, CCRA must find ways to improve its staffing and training of auditors. Third, CCRA needs to be more effective in carrying out audits of international issues. Finally, CCRA must focus more on small-and-medium-sized businesses to ensure that their international related-party transactions are scrutinized. To achieve these objectives, the Auditor General makes a number of specific recommendations all of which CCRA has undertaken that it will adopt.