IFSA offers its clients a broad range of tax planning advice and compliance services. Working closely with clients’ tax counsel and accountants and its own comprehensive network of tax advisors from around the world, IFSA tax experts regularly craft tax planning strategies that meet and advance business objectives consistent with the requirements of domestic and international tax law.

The interstate and cross border business transactions and capital markets financings that are regularly undertaken by companies in the normal course of their business require careful planning to ensure that tax efficiency and tax compliance are fully achieved for the planned activity. Multiple jurisdiction issues in respect of income tax, sales tax, value added tax, customs and excise duties, capital taxes are inevitable consequences of many business transactions. Recognition of the need to plan for both direct and indirect taxes is a hallmark of each IFSA proposal.

Underlying IFSA tax planning is the conviction that business structures must have sufficient economic substance to withstand questions and audit by tax authorities charged with maintaining national interests and revenues. Business transactions should be supported by written contracts and meet the arm’s length standard mandated by domestic and international law. This principle requires that the terms and conditions of transactions between connected parties, including companies under common ownership, are the same as those that would be agreed between independent parties. IFSA experts are experienced in constructing, reviewing and maintaining the necessary structures and evidencing that transactions are carried out in compliance with tax law and regulations.

Businesses and the tax laws and framework within which they operate change over time. Recognizing that the environment is not static, built into the IFSA proposals and structures is the flexibility to accommodate expansion and reorganization of the business operations and processes.

Anchored in the approach that tax is a cost of doing business that can be managed like any other cost, fundamental to IFSA proposals is a careful cost/ benefit analysis of each tax component in a strategy or structure.

The result of the IFSA approach is well founded, defensible tax planning that will achieve ongoing demonstrable benefit for clients.