Ana ClaudiaAkie Utumi is a PhD in Tax Law, MBA in Finance. She teaches at MBA courses for 20 years. Ana has an intense academic
activity with lectures, seminars, conferences. Ana was a member of the IFA
Permanent Scientific Committee for 8 years. She has about 30 years’ experience
in tax consulting and litigation, 17 of which as tax head of one of the largest
Brazilian full-service law firms. Now she is a name partner of law firm Utumi
Avogados, located in Sao Paulo, Brasil. The Firm was awarded as the Best
Newcomer in the Americas by ITR in 2020. Ana is highly regarded by ITR’s World
Tax rankings and Legal500 places her among the Leading individuals in Brasil.
Brasil and
We started our chat with the travel
destinations in Brasil, and especially one of my favourites – Porto Seguro. Ana
said that after 2 Caipirinha[1]
cocktails anyone can speak Portuguese. Although thinking of Brasil samba may be
the first music style that comes in mind, the fact is that Bosa Nova is much
more popular worldwide. Brasil remains in a strong position as one of the world
leaders in exporting agriculture production and the products of an extraction
industry. Ana also explained how gardening is her meditation. If you at any
time are wondering what flowers Ana likes – here is the answer – orchids.
Moving to Ana’s owe firm
After 17 years if a large law firm she
decided to establish her own. One of the reasons was – too much administrative
work as a partner of a large law firm and coordination of others, rather than a
professional development. After the move Ana thought she would not have work on
transactions anymore, as those normally go to larger firms, but she was invited
as a counsel on the most interesting part of it – structuring.
Taxes as a passion
Ana explained that it means to be much more
than being just a tax professional. One must understand the implications and
the business itself. Ana tries to differentiate its firm with a secure,
conservative advice, not the one to please the client. Ana also kindly explained
her line of thinking behind using different social media for business purposes.
How
Operation Zealotis caused the tax dispute system reform
Around USD 6bn was defrauded over 15 years!
Anna gave more details on the public info of that story. Tax disputes after the
audit investigation go to a tax court that is established with the Ministry of
Economics, of which 50% are elected by the authorities, and the other 50% - by
taxpayers. If a taxpayer wins the tax court, the dispute ends there. If the taxpayer
loses that stage, it is possible to appeal to the administrative court. Administrative
court then suspends the tax assessment. Out of 200 administrative court judges
there were about 10 who were bribed influence the other judges to vote in
favour of certain companies. Following the scandal there was a serious reform
of tax dispute resolution system.
Pillar 1 & 2 predictions
The plan is that the digital economy pays
tax on profits (25% of the residual part of it, over 10% margin) in the country
of consumption. However, the digital economy businesses often work with small
or no margin, but their market value and share grows enormously. So, they
rather need to be taxed on capital gains. They also measure value creation by a
number of users or otherwise, not necessarily by a volume of profits. May of
the unicorns, for example, never see accounting profits in their financial
statements. So, most of the countries may never get anything material out of
this. Finally, not necessarily all the countries may agree to the OECD proposed
global minimum 15% CIT model as well, even if they have agreed to the principle
itself.
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