Lawrence Grant On The International Scene

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The last couple of months have seen us highly active on the cross-border trail. Firstly, in regard to our active membership of GGI (formerly Geneva Group International), in March we were represented at the GGI “Easymeet”, a bi-annual conference for young professionals held on this occasion in Dusseldorf. Partner Ben Korklin and senior staff members Prodipta Patel and Timon Witschi flew the LG flag high and were all highly active in the various technical discussions.

Also in March, partner Graham Busch and senior staff member Sonal Shah attended the GGI International Tax Practice Group’s annual winter meeting in Milan.  Graham is the global vice-chairman of the ITPG and in this capacity he chaired a 5 delegate panel discussion on the topical subject of Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (think Google, Amazon, Starbucks etc.).  Sonal was one of the panellists and delivered a paper on UK aspects of BEPS.

Lastly in March, clearly a busy month on the international front, Prodipta participated in a United Kingdom Trade & Investment mission to India. She presented papers in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar on “Indian Companies Doing Business in the UK” and participated in a panel discussion at a seminar in Cochin. The key themes of discussion in the seminar were the UK’s attractiveness as an investment destination and the market opportunities in different sectors.

Then in April, partners Paul Levy, Alan Rajah and Kassim Harunani represented LG at GGI’s annual European Conference in Edinburgh. All were involved in various technical workshops, whilst Alan chaired a high-level workshop on “The Nine Characteristics of Successful Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs’.

We take our involvement with GGI and with UKTI very seriously. Whilst of course there are networking and social opportunities at such events, we also view these as vital to the development of our firm and to the provision of ever-expanding services to our clients. These benefits include:

For our UK based clients:

The development of close relationships with trusted professionals abroad who are ready and willing to assist you in the event you decide to set up operations abroad.

The acquisition of sufficient knowledge about operating in various countries abroad to be able to identify suitable opportunities for you in these countries.

For our overseas based clients:

Access to trusted professionals in countries where you may wish to operate but don’t at present.The acquisition of knowledge about operating in your home country and in countries where you don’t (yet) have operations. This will allow us to better advise you in the UK. We always say it is easy to give you UK advice but the hard part is ensuring that the advice works well for you in your home country and elsewhere if relevant. The more we learn about other countries’ laws, regulations and systems, the easier it is for us to assist in optimising your global business affairs. This ensures that what we advise you to do in the UK “fits in” with your international presence.

We at Lawrence Grant are immensely proud of our ability to provide an international service to our clients, typically the domain of larger accountancy firms, whilst retaining the personal touch which we know clients value so much. It is very much a case of “big enough to know, small enough to care”.

Why not visit the International Business section of our website to find out more, or call Graham Busch on +44 (0) 208 861 7575 to arrange a FREE initial consultation to discuss your plans for International growth here in the UK.

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