The Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service, [private]Mr Oupa Magashula, was elected unanimously as the chairperson of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) at its inaugural conference in Kampala, Uganda.
The conference also unanimously voted for South Africa to host the secretariat of the new African tax body.
ATAF’s goal is to become the central platform for African tax administrators to articulate African tax priorities, develop and share best practices in the region and further afield, and build capacity in African tax policy and administration.
Mr Magashula will head up a 10-member general council comprising of the heads of tax administrations of the elected countries. The council was elected by the 28 members of ATAF. Each of the five geographical regions of Africa (north, south, east, west and central) elected a regional representative. The remaining four positions on the general council were filled by a majority vote by ATAF members.
The regional members of the general council are:
South: Botswana
East: Rwanda
West: Nigeria
Central: Gabon
The northern region, comprising Morocco, Chad, Sudan, Egypt and Mauritania requested to postpone the election of a representative from that region.
The four other members who were voted onto the council are: Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
“I am both humbled by your vote of confidence and excited about the challenges and opportunities before us. I would also like to congratulate the members of the first ATAF Council on their appointment,” Mr Magashula said.
He said it was appropriate to remind delegates again of ATAF’s objectives of improving the performance of tax administration in Africa so that they can more effectively mobilise domestic resources.
“This forum will allow us to pursue stronger cooperation and build a united approach in the field of tax policy and revenue realisation among African countries,” he said. The countries of Africa should join hands and overcome the challenges of language, diversity and culture to build effective and efficient tax administrations that can contribute to the development of the continent.
This would help contribute to economic growth and increase the accountability of the state to its citizens, he added.
28 African countries have already signed up for membership. Mr Magashula, said that though this is an impressive number for a new organisation ATAF wanted more African countries to join.
“I urge each and every one of you here today, to speak to your African partners that have yet to commit to ATAF, in order for this organisation to be truly representative and become the central platform for African administrators to discuss and develop tax priorities and policy on the African continent,” he said.
The 28 members of ATAF are: Botswana, Benin, Cameroon, Coite d’Ivoire, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Lesotho, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. [/private]
Background Information about ATAF
The idea of establishing ATAF is the result of deliberations at a conference attended by African tax commissioners from 30 countries and representatives of international organisations and donors who met in Pretoria, South Africa in August 2008 to discuss Taxation, State Building and Capacity Development.
During deliberations at the Pretoria conference it became clear that a new way of thinking about tax collection in Africa was required. Delegates increasingly became aware of the need to think beyond tax collection as a purely technical or administrative exercise, and rather to understand that the broader role of domestic resource mobilisation is support of social and economic development. In addition delegates realised that the efficient and effective administration of tax collection had wide-ranging political significance in entrenching accountability, promoting democratic governance and state building as it focuses on the relationship between the taxpayer and the government.
The conference mandated a steering group of seven countries (Botswana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda) to work towards the establishment of the forum. In the build-up to the launch, several ATAF technical events have been held and projects begun in collaboration with ATAF’s development partners, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the International Tax Dialogue (ITD).
National law firm McGrigors has appointed [private]Jeremy Maynes and David Barron, both former senior KPMG partners, as Senior Advisers to their market leading Tax Disputes & Investigations practice.
This brings the total number of tax specialists who have joined McGrigors from accountancy firms to six, including a team of three who joined from Tenon in July.
Jeremy Maynes was a Senior Adviser at KPMG (having left the partnership at in September 2006). Before this he was head of the London Corporate Tax Practice at KPMG, becoming a Lead Client Relationship Tax Partner working in Consumer and Industrial Markets (CIM) tax with specialist expertise in the energy sector.
David Barron was a KPMG partner for 20 years before becoming a Senior Adviser to KPMG’s Practice Protection Department. Before leaving the partnership David was Head of Specialist Tax Services, a role which covered all specialist tax functions.
James Bullock, Head of the Risk Advisory Solutions Business Group at McGrigors comments: “Having Jeremy and David join our Tax practice in senior counsel roles is a great coup for us. Both David and Jeremy are among the most experienced individuals in the tax world and are very well respected in the sector. At the present time we are actively looking at alternative dispute resolution playing a much larger role in the tax area and David and Jeremy will be key to helping us develop that specialism.”
“Not only will Jeremy and David will bring their years of expertise but they will provide us with some fresh insights on how we can keep raising our service standards for clients.”
“The scale of the tax team is now such that we thought it could really benefit from some extra senior level counsel with an independent perspective.”[/private]
President Barroso has appointed [private]Algirdas Semeta as the new Commissioner designate for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud.[/private]
Windes & McClaughry Accountancy Corporation, a leading Southern California accounting and consulting firm with 83 years in business, has announced that [private]Brian Yacker will serve as the Chair for the Office of Professional Responsibility Subgroup (OPR) for the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC).
“This appointment by the IRSAC is a testament to Brian’s expertise and to his commitment to maintaining and improving the professional standards of the tax practitioner community,” says John Di Carlo, managing partner of Windes & McClaughry. “We are very pleased that Brian will help guide our government with policy, process, and procedural improvements.”
The fundamental purpose of IRSAC is to provide an organized public forum for IRS officials and representatives of the public to discuss relevant tax administration issues. The OPR’s goal is to provide feedback from the practitioner community on a range of issues designed to increase ethical standards. The OPR meets in Washington, D.C. five times per year; thus, being on the committee requires a commitment from the individual and the firm that supports the objectives of the committee.
“I am honored to chair the OPR and look forward to providing the Internal Revenue Service with timely and effective recommendations for implementing policies that relate to maintaining high ethical and professional standards,” says Yacker. “We have very experienced committee members who work well together and have made a substantial impact for the IRSAC, so this is an honor to help continue the significant work that the OPR provides.”
Brian’s practice includes federal, state, and international tax consulting, as well as tax structuring and complex tax research. He works closely with clients on choice of entity analysis; identifying tax savings opportunities; managing federal, state, and international tax audits; and creating effective and efficient tax structures. He has extensive experience in tax consulting and compliance for tax-exempt organizations. In addition, Brian is a frequent lecturer on tax-exempt organization topics, including board governance, the new Form 990, reasonable compensation for tax-exempt organizations, private foundations, intermediate sanctions, and special event fundraising activities.
Brian is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and holds a Juris Doctorate from the Indiana University School of Law. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the Tax-Exempt Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section.[/private]
About Windes & McClaughry
With 83 years in business, Windes & McClaughry has 19 partners, and more than 140 employees in two offices located in Long Beach and Irvine. The firm offers a full range of services, including: audit and assurance, cost segregation, employee benefits, estate and trust planning, human resources recruiting and consulting, and tax planning,
Latham & Watkins has announced just 2 new tax partners in its round of promotions this year.
The tax attorneys elected to the partnership are:[private]
CHICAGO
Julie Marion is a tax attorney with a diverse practice advising companies on business acquisitions, joint ventures, insolvency and restructurings, tax planning and international tax matters. She devotes a significant amount of her practice to advising on partnership and related tax matters in connection with the formation of joint ventures and investments using pass-through structures, and has special expertise relating to energy tax credit partnerships. She received a JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 2001.
LOS ANGELES
Laurence Seymour is a tax attorney specializing in executive compensation and employee benefits matters. He represents public and private companies and compensation committees in structuring and implementing executive compensation, incentive and benefit plan agreements and arrangements, as well as in matters pertaining to corporate governance. He also counsels these entities on all executive compensation and employee benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions, financings, IPOs and other corporate transactions, including matters pertaining to golden parachutes, deferred compensation and pension and welfare benefit plan issues. He received a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2001.
[/private]
Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel, a leading Northern California law firm, today announced that [private]David S. Howard, JD, CPA has joined the firm. Howard, dual licensed as a CPA and attorney for nearly 40 years, recently returned to the practice of law after completing a 20+ year career as a Tax Partner with Deloitte Tax LLP. He will be based in the firm’s Silicon Valley office.
Before reaching the mandatory retirement age at Deloitte, Howard held many leadership positions and worked at developing tax strategies for large multinational corporations, Silicon Valley start-up companies, family businesses, corporate executives, and wealthy individuals. His former clients and colleagues value his wise counsel, and have encouraged Howard to continue advising them. He looks forward to being able to provide this service, as well as a broad range of additional services, from his new law firm platform.
Howard’s specific areas of expertise include handling income tax controversies in all jurisdictions for large corporations to wealthy individuals; untangling domestic and international tax strategies and compensation plans which have misfired; assisting high net worth and high profile clients with sophisticated strategies to help them protect their wealth and minimize taxes on transfers; individual and business income tax planning; business succession planning, particularly for closely held and family owned companies; and acting as gatekeeper for his clients’ teams of professional advisors to coordinate services and minimize duplication of efforts and cost.
“Hoge Fenton is a perfect match for me, and I am thrilled to be here,” said Howard. This relationship allows me to continue in professional practice as a lawyer, and gives me the opportunity to collaborate with my valued CPA colleagues without competing with them. I’m excited about embarking on this new phase of my career.”
Steven D. Siner, the firm’s Managing Shareholder, added, “Dave is one of the best known and respected tax experts in Silicon Valley. Both our business clients and individual high net worth clients will benefit enormously from his deep knowledge and expertise, and we welcome him to the team.”
Howard is a graduate of University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development, and University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He is licensed to practice in all California courts, the U.S. District Court, and U.S. Tax Court. Howard is fluent in English and Spanish.[/private]
About Hoge Fenton:
Since 1952 Hoge Fenton has been synonymous with excellence in advocacy representation. Today we provide a single source of outstanding legal service to businesses and individuals for their most important needs, including business formation and transactions, bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, real estate and land use, labor and employment law, estate planning and wealth management, complex family law matters, and pretrial, trial, and appellate representation in all areas of law.
