| Welcome
To The Tax Intelligence Report
"Connections
Are Your Future"
The success of your tax department will
depend upon its ability to create interdependent
partnerships where everyone takes responsibility
for the impact each contributor has
on the organization. The simplicity
of these interdependent business relationships
is what enables organizations to actuate
forward. Present day global business
ventures are contributing to the creation
of emerging business perspectives that
will impact organizations forever! This
month’s issue of the Tax Intelligence
Report will highlight the career of
a prominent French tax executive, Alfred
de Lassence, who is the Vice President
of Tax for Thomson which is headquartered
out of Paris, France. Our other feature
article will explore the business relationships
between French and US companies.
Respectfully,
Kathleen Jennings
President, ET Search, Inc. |
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IN
THIS ISSUE |
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French
and US Management Styles |
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"A
Leader In The Tax Profession"
Alfred de Lassence - Vice President
of Tax
Thompson, Paris, France |
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Verbal
Intelligence |
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Alfred
de Lassence is the Vice President
of Tax for Thomson, headquartered
out of Paris, France. As the Vice
President of Tax, Alfred de Lassence
oversees a team of fifteen tax professionals
based out of locations in France,
United Kingdom, Poland, Asia and
the United States.
Prior to Thomson, Alfred de Lassence
was with Bull, a privately held
information technology company as
the group Director of Tax and Deputy
Director of Mergers and Acquisitions.
Prior to Bull, |
Alfred de Lassence was Controller for
Intel Products Group Europe based out
of the United Kingdom where he had financial
control of three European operations.
He formally held the role of European
Tax Manager for Intel in Paris, from 1986
through 1989. He also worked for France
and Spain in roles as Treasury Manager
and Credit Controller from 1983 through
1989. Alfred de Lassence earned his education
at Saint Louis de Gonzague, Paris, France
where he received his Baccalaureate Degree
in Mathematics in 1977. Then he received
his Masters in Finance from EDHEC Business
School in 1983. Alfred de Lassence fluently
speaks French and English with a good
knowledge of German. He is former Vice
Chairman of the European Computer Industry
Tax Association. He has been married to
his wife, Constance since 1983 and have
four children, Antoine 19, Marie-Aimee
14, Henriette 12 and Bernard 9. As a French
executive overseeing a tax organization
which is spread throughout eight different
countries, I thought it would be interesting
to ask Alfred de Lassence the following
questions.
KJ- What is your view of a successful
tax department?
ADL- I strongly believe that the tax
department must be close to the business
organization in order to influence the
business and they must also anticipate
business while being aware of the tax
rules and constraints. The tax department
must also work closely with the legal
and accounting divisions. Therefore, the
key to success is to be a member of a
global team much larger than tax. Tax
is at the crossing of Legal, Business
and Accounting. In addition, tax is not
only a service provider but it has to
drive the income tax charge line of a
company.
KJ- How do you guide your tax department
to partner successfully throughout the
organization?
ADL- Our tax department is organized by
country. Because of the tax reality there
are tax people in all major countries.
They report centrally to me in order to
keep coherence within the group tax policy.
At the same time, the tax people have
close links to their local business teams
and the feed-back from business people
on tax is taken into account.
KJ- What is the challenge of being a French
parent and overseeing a US company?
ADL- One key challenge is to separate
the legal entity organization from the
business organization. For example, the
goal is to ensure that the US entities
do not own non US entities. The US tax
system is very complex, the most complex
in the world and having a reliable team
is key. Compliance is getting more and
more important in the US. However, tax
compliance can be at the expense of tax
planning and as, US tax teams have a tendency
to put more emphasis on tax compliance
because the Sarbanes Oxley rules and other
tax laws tend to discourage tax planning.
KJ- How do you get people to take responsibility
for their work when you are in France
and your tax department is spread throughout
several locations around the world?
ADL- It is difficult! It is important
to have regular trips and telephone conversations
and meetings with colleagues to get their
feedback. You must also encourage cross
communication and tasks between tax people
of various countries.
KJ- What are the advantages and the disadvantages
of your geographical boundaries when conducting
business?
ADL- While Thomson is in more than twenty-five
countries, the tax team is located throughout
eight countries. The disadvantages of
these geographical boundaries are the
complexities and constraints for the business.
The advantages are some opportunities
to locate profits or losses for the business.
KJ- Can you describe what you have experienced
as different practices between the US
and France?
ADL- The businesses are organized
by divisions independently of the countries.
It creates a complex environment for the
tax team, as the main contacts in finance
organizations do not think anymore by
country. There is an increasing importance
of reporting notices for the SEC or the
French equivalent (AMF). In all countries,
including USA and France, local (by opposition
to Federal) taxes are taking more and
more importance: more complex and more
expensive. The Transfer Pricing documentation
requirements develop everywhere, following
the US model. But it appears that the
level of knowledge on Transfer Pricing
is still higher within the US IRS than
in the other countries. The following
practices differ between the USA and France
or Europe. New International Accounting
Standards are not harmonizing with US
GAAPs in the transition period from Country
specific accounting standards to IFRS.
Tax rules become more and more difficult
against any sort of planning, while tax
rates have gone down in most European
countries, including France, without much
increase of the complexity of the tax
system. The US tax system is probably
the most complex tax system in the world.
There is a competition between European
countries which lead to a reduction of
the various federal tax rates. This is
not the case in the USA. International
tax rules are extremely different between
France and the USA. France can, under
certain conditions, benefit from the foreign
losses, while the USA can double tax the
foreign profits.
KJ- What have you learned about conducting
business between France and the US that
would be helpful knowledge to impact to
colleagues in the tax profession?
ADL-
Probably the most important thing is to
learn how to work with the culture of
the others, and then tax knowledge comes.
Building a credible tax organization drives
it to success!
(KJ) Alfred, I want to personally thank
you for the time you have taken to answer
our questions. Your international tax
prospective is very valuable and we appreciate
the time you have taken to share your
perspectives with us.
Kathleen
Jennings (KJ)
Editor, The Tax Intelligence Report
Alfred
de Lassence (ADL)
Vice President of Tax, Thomson, Paris,
France
We welcome any comments you may have about
this article. Please Contact: kitty@etsearch.com
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| VERBAL
INTELLIGENCE |
Word
of the day :
Métier
1. An occupation, a trade, or a profession.
2.Work or activity for which a person
is particularly suited; one's specialty.
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The
Tax Intelligence Report is published by
ET
Search, Inc. We are an internationally
recognized search firm that specializes
in the placement of tax professionals
with multinational corporations, law firms
and public accounting firms. For more
than 25 years, our organization has been
retained by U.S. multi-nationals to locate
tax professionals in most major cities
around the world. For more information
on our global tax recruitment firm, you
may email us at ets@etsearch.com or visit our website at http://www.etsearch.com.
The
Tax Intelligence Report is published by
ET Search, Inc. We are an internationally
recognized search firm that specializes
in the placement of tax professionals
with multinational corporations, law firms
and
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French
and US
Management Styles
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It
is interesting to observe the distinctively
different attitudes of French and
US business relationships. In order
to understand these differences you
must also be cognizant of the underlying
cultural values on which they are
based. More importantly will be the
opportunity to utilize this knowledge
in order to succeed in these two distinctively
different business environments.
One of the most observable differences
is that the French place a great deal
of emphasis on forming relationships
before business begins! Developing
professional business relationships
prior to the commitment is a very
important aspect of conducting business
with the French. It is imperative
that you understand its importance.
In contrast, American culture tends
to focus more on getting the job done,
now placing less of an emphasis on
developing relationships prior to
committing work. As one could expect,
the distinctively different French
and American approach to these business
meetings can sometimes cause a misreading
of each others' intentions. However,
understanding these different approaches
will go a long way in the success
of your business interactions in these
two environments.
Another observable difference is that
the French workplace tends to be highly
structured and organized as proper
procedures are considered very important
in their culture, and they should
be respected. In addition, French
companies are typically run from the
top down as they tend to have more
formal boss-subordinate relationships.
In contrast, the American workplace
tends to be much less formal and business
relationships tend to be more collaborative
and less autocratic in nature. Often,
the American boss-subordinate relationships
can be considered somewhat casual
as compared to the French. However,
times are changing; the French understand
more and more that in order to be
recognized as a boss, you need to
add value and not only have the title.
One of the more important aspects
of the French and American styles
that should not be overlooked is that
the French business approach emphasizes
courtesy in their business relationships.
You can expect the French to be very
polite in their interactions with
you as this is a very important underlying
cultural value. In contrast, American
business attitudes tend to be much
less formal in their conversations
and interactions with each other!
It is important to understand that
one approach is not to be considered
better than the other but merely to
understand that there are cultural
differences between the two that you
will need to grasp in order for you
to be successful in these two distinctively
different types of business environments.
Kathleen
Jennings
President, CEO, ET Search,Inc.
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