10 Acquisition International - Accounting, Audit & Tax Awards 2017 Private Client Tax Advisor of the Year - Brazil Battella, Lasmar & Silva Advogados Battella, Lasmar & Silva Advogados is a Brazil based law firm that offers legal services and advice on tax and business law to both domestic and international clients. We invited David Roberto R. Soares da Silva, Founding Partner to tell us more about the firm and the range of services it provides. Company: Battella, Lasmar & Silva Advogados Name: David Roberto R. Soares da Silva Email:
[email protected] Web: www.blslaw.com.br Address: São Paulo: R. Surubim, 577, 22nd floor, São Paulo/SP, Brazil CEP 04571-050 Minas Gerais: Al. Oscar Niemeyer, 119, suite 703, Nova Lima/MG, Brazil, CEP 34000-000 Telephone: +55 11 4085-6200 HF170072 With more than 25 years of experience in tax laws, Mr. David Roberto R. Soares da Silva, Founding Partner of Battella, Lasmar & Silva Advogados, is considered a reference in the market, especially in the areas of international tax planning, estate and succession planning. As such his firm has come to specialise in these areas and has created a formidable reputation for excellence. With offices in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, the firm incorporates a concept of legal services that combines modern infrastructure with a highly qualified and multidisciplinary team of lawyers dedicated to delivering personalized service, aiming at establishing a long lasting relationship with clients based on a partnership spirit. In the tax practice, Battella, Lasmar & Silva Advogados is recognized internationally by its clients, not only for the excellence in the delivery of creative tax solutions, but also for its ability to add significant value to the clients’ business and personal affairs. The firm has been accredited as preferred tax advisor by international private banks, external asset managers, wealth planners, and trade and diplomatic services, such as UK Trade & Investment; Business France, Switzerland Global Enterprise, the US Department of Trade, AUSTRADE. Focused on results and working in a cohesive way with strong partner input, the firm’s top priority is to provide clients with tailor made tax solutions to ensure that clients’ needs are efficiently and effectively addressed. David explains how the firm’s approach ensures that this is achieved. “The key to ensuring a successful process, in my opinion, is to understand the clients’ needs and expectations and gather all the information needed to deliver the work successfully. In the tax field that means knowing all the facts that may affect the assignment. A missing fact may put in jeopardy the entire project. In addition, it is important since the beginning to assess, understand and sometimes adjust the client’s expectations in a given project. Frustrated expectations are half way to a dissatisfied client. “As such, in order to avoid this, my firm’s approach to offering services has been more indirect than direct. Part of the strategy has been to identify “client catalyzers”, both in Brazil and abroad and introduce the firm’s expertise as succession and estate planning have been trend topics in Brazil in the last few years.” In order to provide the very highest standards of service, the firm has always tried to anticipate trends in the tax arena. In the international front Brazil has adhered to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FACTA), the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), not mention the execution of important Tax Information Exchange Agreement, like those with the US, UK and Switzerland. Domestically, taxation and compliance of inheritance and donations have become stricter with rumours that taxation could increase up to five times. A good recent example was Brazil’s 2016 voluntary disclosure program. Since the first bill sent to Congress as early as mid-2015, the firm promoted dozens on meetings and presentations in Switzerland with private bankers, external asset managers, wealth planners and the like to discuss what was about to come. When the program eventually became a reality in early 2016, the firm was already well known in the Swiss banking community that resulted in an extraordinary flow of voluntary disclosure work to the firm for the entire year. Looking ahead, David believes that the firm will continue this innovative, forward thinking approach to providing client focused services as it seeks to work around the upcoming developments he foresees for the Brazilian legal market. “With automatic exchange of information becoming a reality, investments in international markets by Brazilian wealthy clients will become more complex in terms of legal structures and taxation. “The successful work in the 2016 voluntary disclosure program has opened the opportunity to work with many sophisticated wealthy families who now need to rethink onwards their offshore investment in the safest and tax efficient way. “This provides a great opportunity to expand our