Finance Monthly M&A Awards 2019 - Winners Edition

FINANCE MONTHLY M&A AWARDS 2019 71 AREAS OF EXPERTISE • Taiwan and international tax planning, investment structures, tax risk assessment and tax cost minimization for cross-border transactions, tax ruling application and consultation for corporations. • Tax appeal consultation and filings, transfer pricing, profit repatriation, exit strategy, mergers and acquisition, and reorganizations of said industry segments. • Tax administrative remedy procedure. • Family business and succession plan. TRANSACTION HISTORY The Client is a well-known multinational chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturer. With several entities in Taiwan, the Client was seeking to consolidate these entities through an internal integration procedure. Considering KPMG’s expertise and reputation of excellence made us the clear choice for this transaction. As part of the engagement, we assisted the client in structuring the proposed internal group restructuring/consolidation and evaluated on the feasibility and implication of the proposed restructuring option as well as provided a recommendation on the most tax efficient structure. More importantly, in addition to the aforementioned structuring analysis, KPMG provided the client with an innovative solution by suggesting that the client consider seeking an advance ruling from the tax authority, which would allow the client to be exempted from the relevant withholding tax process associate with the restructuring process. Such advance ruling, while available to the tax payers under the current tax law, is rarely sought by the taxpayers due to various practical difficulties involved in the ruling application process. This was a solution that not only set us apart from the other firms in terms of innovative out-of-the-box thinking, but also offered our client the biggest chance of successfully acquiring a tax refund. As KPMG Taiwan had previously successfully assisted another client in obtaining a similar ruling, we were able to leverage off such experience and assist our client to obtain a preliminary affirmation from the tax authority in the granting of such withholding tax exemption. ABOUT STEPHEN HSU Prior to joining KPMG, Stephen served as an experienced tax officer at the Taipei National Tax Administration, Ministry of Finance, and he remains extensively involved in the field of taxation in both the public and private sector. Stephen has over 23 years of experience in assisting multi-national corporations in M&A tax advisory services, international tax planning and tax planning services for corporate investment and operational structures as well as tax controversy resolution. He has also assisted MNCs in tax ruling applications in relation to tax treaty and secured significant tax refund. Stephen was also a member of the Tax Policy and Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Finance, the Certified Public Accountants Association of Taipei City, and serves as Project Advisor for the Taiwan Insurance Institute. In addition, Stephen is often invited by the tax authorities to lecture and discuss matters regarding the development of Taiwan’s tax system, and serves as an Adjunct Professor Rank Specialist at National Taiwan University. ABOUT LYNN CHEN Lynn has been with KPMG for 16 years. Her key area of focus is tax advisory. She is responsible for servicing the international/ multi-national financial services clients. Her expertise includes Taiwan and international tax planning, investment structures, tax cost minimization for cross-border transactions, and tax ruling application. Lynn has worked on many tax due diligence and tax structuring projects relating to mergers and acquisitions of multi-national companies of various transaction sizes and industry sector. Recently, Lynn assisted with a buy- side tax due diligence and tax structuring transaction involving the acquisition of a Taiwan beverage company (which has operation in Taiwan, China and South Korea) by private equity fund. In addition, Lynn is also a guest lecturer in the National Taiwan University on topics such as international tax and financial institution tax disputes.