World Tax - Home
The comprehensive guide to the world's leading tax firms

The focus for Magisters-Taxand over the past 12 months has been on tax disputes as the downturn in the Ukranian market resulted in fewer M&A deals and less tax advisory work. Vladimir Didenko, the head of the tax department, has coordinated close collaboration ... [more]

The focus for Magisters-Taxand over the past 12 months has been on tax disputes as the downturn in the Ukranian market resulted in fewer M&A deals and less tax advisory work. Vladimir Didenko, the head of the tax department, has coordinated close collaboration with the firm's respected litigation department to lend his extensive knowledge of transfer pricing and indirect tax to client's contentious matters. Indirect tax was central to client Echostar appeal against VAT charges related to an offshore software development company. Points of dispute related to the tax treatment of both particular software developments and taxation of the transfer of intellectual property rights. Magisters also successfully secured the reversal of a decision against software company Sun Microsystems in relation to tax charges under double tax treaties without the need to go to an appeal hearing. Unusually, the same authority who initiated the charge subsequently cancelled the assessment after Magisters submitted the appeal. The firm's focus on litigation may serve them well as Ukrainian practitioners expect the tax authorities to remain aggressive in the coming year.

In July 2011, Magisters announced it would merge with Russian practice Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, which will be the name of the new firm, to create the largest law firm in the Commonwealth of Independent States.