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. International Tax Services : corporate income tax, transfer pricing, taxes on multi-national investments
. Cross-border indirect tax management : VAT/GST…, Customs & Excise duties
. Executive tax affairs
Overview
LightHouse LHLF is a law firm.
LightHouse LHLF is a different law
firm.
It was created in early 2008 by
'major league' lawyers, and has been built for the
new business environment.
In fact, the founders had a vision
that the business world was facing major and never encountered
challenges. The vision has proved to be true in the
fall of 2008 — but let's admit it, beyond what any
of us expected.
As new times call for new companies,
law firms must fundamentally change, pretty much as
any other company —somewhat a contradiction in the
conservative legal world.
As a matter of fact, LightHouse
LHLF has specifically been incepted to help businesses
adjust to the range of possible futures —which has
never been so unpredictable- from a tax, Customs and
legal perspective.
LightHouse LHLF shares a slice of
reality with its clients, despite the complexity, confusion
and uncertainty of the current time:
- Our services are aimed at making
our clients life easier —from both a corporate
and a human perspective. We know that numbers are
critical to corporations —so we provide technical
solutions improving corporate performance (See
Client Benefits & Value Proposition). But
we are in the people business —so we ensure that
our clients are empowered while working with us (See
Core Values). This is key to our clients' satisfaction.
- We focus on the real world tax
and legal issues. Our clients' real world is in
relation to supply chain (purchases of goods and services),
production (of goods or services), and channel distribution
(sales of… goods and services). This is where our
clients spend money, and make money… Well, that
is where our expertise lies. And we have a particular
know-how on global trade related tax issues
as we provide comprehensive, expert and real time
advisory solutions to companies
doing business across borders.
(See Services)
- LightHouse LHLF is a truly global law firm –after just a year of existence, it has a presence in Europe, the US (Silicon Valley – San Francisco) and South America (Buenos Aires – Argentina). We will soon serve our clients from Asia-Pac as well.
Details?
•
What we do? 
Our main area of expertise relates to international tax issues. We provide services in relation to VAT (and equivalent transaction taxes such a GST), Customs law (Customs duties, environment related taxes) and Excise duties (specific taxes on alcohol, tobacco and energy products), Corporate Income Tax, Transfer Pricing, and Executives Tax affairs.
LightHouse LHLF's mission is to enable real-time business throughout the world by:
- being the leading provider of tax solutions offering state-of-the-art tax content (in particular, concerning the improvement of the supply-chain cf. Services);
- being innovative leaders setting industry standard: LightHouse LHLF's on-demand solutions and services make tax determination, calculation and reporting easier than ever.
This is made possible thanks to LightHouse LHLF's founders' background: having advised clients of all size from various industries, having worked and lived around the world, they have built on their personal and professional background to create a client oriented firm offering unmatchable solutions.
In addition, LightHouse LHLF has developed a specific know-how in relation to indirect taxes issues (VAT/GST, excise duties) and Customs regulation. In fact, managing indirect taxation has become a 'mission critical' issue for businesses. Tax risks, financial performance, e-business & e-billing strategy, improvement of the supply-chain, and customer satisfaction are on the line. — See below 'Why a focus on a niche expertise?'.
• Now,
why LightHouse LHLF?
LHLF is quite straight forward:
LightHouse Law Firm.
LightHouse?
In two words, it relates to sea
lighthouses, to the professional background of one of
the founders (as a lawyer, not a seaman), and to a surfing
spot in California, USA. We will be quite happy to tell
you the full story —if you ever ask.
All in all, what counts is what
we do for our clients. But, still, we are a people firm,
so why not having a name closely linked to our founders'
personal and professional background, rather than call
us John & John Partners? This is another reason
why LightHouse LHLF is different to its competitors.
• Why
LightHouse LHLF’s focus on VAT and GST advisory
solutions
Enterprises worldwide have major
and increasing challenges in managing VAT & GST
risks related to VAT/GST and other indirect taxes within the five continents (e.g. excise and environment related taxes in Europe, domestic or specific taxes in South-America, Goods & Services Tax in Canada, Sales Tax in the US, or Business Tax in China). Internal barriers or difficulties (lack of time
and resource), external threats (customer disputes,
tax audits) and regulatory requirements (e.g. Section
404 of Sarbanes Oxley) are increasing in number, speed
and complexity.
There are more than 18,000 VAT &
GST codes across 190 countries. Average rate is above
15%. Profit margins are often lower than VAT rates.
VAT applies to virtually every single cross border transaction,
worldwide. VAT calculation can be extremely complex:
one must consider many transaction attributes, many
authorities, many tax policies per authority.
Contrary to VAT, excise duties are not recoverable. Despite their harmonization within the EU, businesses usually face national differences in terms of rate and local implementation, which prevents one single treatment from being applicable to all the EU member States. In addition, as rates are usually speaking significant, any default triggers a critical financial risk for the company, its clients and sometimes its sub-contractors.
Thus risks of non compliance are high: penalties & audits, customer relationship disputes, tax provisions. Costs of compliance are even higher: tax resources and consulting costs, IT resources and systems costs.
Current answers are inadequate to
solve the urgency. They address global 500 corporations
only:
- Existing consulting services
—delivered mainly by major accounting firms or local
law firms serving local market on local issues:
- Very expensive,
- Recurring, not automated, non
transferable, do not scale.
- In-house customized VAT IT systems
-built internally or outsourced:
- Require manual management,
- IT & Tax resources,
- Local software purchase &
custom-built IT components,
- High investment costs.
As a result, pretty much all but
the global 500 businesses are left out between cost
of compliance (current answers expensive and inadequate)
and risks of non compliance (high tax penalties and
customer relationship disputes).
As enterprise financial infrastructures
(ERPs: SAP, Oracle) evolve to support more complex and
demanding business requirements, LightHouse LHLF is
pioneering ground-breaking solutions that overcome the
scalability, availability, reliability, and performance
problems inherent in these infrastructures.
LightHouse LHLF specific solutions
are designed to mitigate the risks of non compliance,
make the cost of compliance affordable, and lower the
need for manual management. (See
Services) |
