Author Archives: Darren Marchal

The Danish model

The events that led to the landmark judgment unfolded in the local authority of Vaxholm, Sweden. There, a Latvian construction company Laval un Partneri had won a contract to refurbish a school and posted a team of Latvian workers to Sweden. But the work deadlocked as the Swedish building workers union demanded the same rates…

Dancing legislation

PricewaterhouseCoopers is and has been the leading accounting firm in Mexico not only because it is the oldest, established 103 years ago, but also because of its expertise, innovative approach and professionalism. The tax line of service has always stood out for its dynamism and ability to resolve issues. This is reflected in its size…

Cloud storage

The IT world stands at the threshold of a paradigmatic shift to cloud computing. According to industry consultancy Gartner: “[C]loud computing [is] begin[ning] to move beyond the pure hype stage and into the beginning of mainstream adoption.” The prospect of storing business critical transaction data in the cloud – a massive centralised and virtualised third…

Environmental liability

Businesses that have operations with the EU are now being required to take a more proactive approach to environmental risk management in order to comply with the requirements of the EU’s Environmental Liability Directive (ELD). Companies are now required to prevent significant environmental damage from occurring wherever possible, and they will be held liable for…

Best method analysis

Although some may consider transfer pricing a “black box,” the shared adage among most finance professionals is that transfer pricing is comprised of both art and science. The science of transfer pricing is grounded in financial data and the relevant tax laws while the art of transfer pricing is based upon an intuitive sense of…

Credit in Africa: the way forward?

By the summer of 2008, the risks associated with the credit crunch were becoming apparent in the market. Years of ‘easy’ money coming out of the US and funded by China meant that the market place was flooded with credit. Assets had become over-inflated, trades had become crowded and investors were highly leveraged. Too many…

Sustaining success

For a number of years, Cyprus has been considered a popular location for foreign investment. Its status as a former British colony and its stable tax system has proved to be an attractive opportunity for overseas investors, but there’s much more to this island than investment opportunities. An array of important factors contribute to the…

Obama sees climate deal as summit deadline nears

US President Barack Obama has expressed confidence a climate deal can be clinched as dozens of world leaders gather on Wednesday to try to break a deadlock at UN climate talks. “The president believes that we can get an operational agreement that makes sense in Copenhagen,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a briefing in…

Towards a milder tax climate

Meteorologists see global warming as a threat. Tax practitioners in Germany see it as beneficial, certainly in the light of its effects on the tax climate. Traditionally, Germany has been ranked as a country with high direct, but relatively low indirect, taxation. That changed, however, in 2008 with a cut in the corporation tax rate…