Synopsis

The centre of gravity of the world's economy has been moving to Asia. When investing in Asia, taxation is an important  issue. How do we invest, which business form can and should we use, how should we hold the investment (the holding structure) and how should we fund the investment (the capitalization structure).

Until recently, the holding structure involved the use of holding companies located in tax havens or companies located in a country which has many favourable tax treaties. Often, investors used single purpose holding companies whose purpose is to hold one single investment only, as opposed to a number of investments, so that the investor could sell the shares of the foreign holding company instead of the shares of the investment if they want to dispose of the investment.

That has now changed with China, Indonesia and India following Japan and Korea, implementing laws and issuing rulings which require the structure to satisfy certain conditions. This results in a fundamental change in tax strategy for internationally operating companies.

Similar developments are happening with respect to the question as to how to finance or license the investment. Furthermore, where related party transactions are concerned (services, sales of product, financing, licensing), most countries in Asia have now implemented transfer pricing legislation and disclosure requirements in their domestic tax legislation, prompting investors to carefully analyse the build-up of their group transactions to ensure that they meet the arm's length condition, failing which their transactions may be subject to adjustments. 

Mr Pieter de Ridder will discuss the various choices of business forms and their relevance from a tax point of view, and discuss the important  issues  for establishing a proper tax strategy for international  businesses when setting up a holding and financing structure for their investments and how the transfer pricing developments impact on their  international transactions.

The seminar is conducted in an interactive manner and participants are welcomed and encouraged to ask questions, comment and discuss.

About the Speaker

Mr Pieter de Ridder (1960), tax lawyer, is a partner of Loyens & Loeff and has been based in Asia since 1991. He has worked in Jakarta as a local tax expert and in Hong Kong as a Greater China tax expert from 1990 through 1995 and has been based in Singapore since 1996. He specialises in Asian tax planning and covers a wide variety of business sectors, ranging from funds structuring, financial institutions, venture capital businesses, investment fund managers, real property developers and investors, oil and gas and mining projects, to construction companies and retail businesses operating in one or more Asian countries. In this context, he works closely with local tax and legal experts in the various Asia Pacific countries. He is a guest lecturer on international tax law at the Flemish Business School in Brussels, where he teaches Asian Tax Law. Pieter is a member of the Executive Committee of the Singapore branch of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and vice chair of the tax committee of the Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA). He has written widely on Asian tax matters and is a member of the board of editors of the Asia Pacific Tax Bulletin, a publication of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD).