Global Answers to Local Questions

Global clients need local support. One of the world’s largest financial services companies has worked with KPMG LLP (KPMG) for a remarkable seven decades—across geographic markets, functional specialties, divisional lines and assignment types. This time, the company’s asset management arm asked for tax guidance in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where rapid deregulation has opened new opportunities for foreign firms.

We assembled tax specialists from KPMG International’s network of member firms around the world to help the company navigate a series of important decisions about its PRC presence. Our tax advisers helped the company achieve clarity in a quickly changing marketplace.

With KPMG’s help, the company has gained the tax-regulation guidance it needs to support potential expansion in China. Specific benefits include:

• Tax-regulation due-diligence completed and decision framework established to help the company structure its PRC operations, as China’s financial services sector opens fully to foreign firms by 2021
• Updated assessments of a complex, rapidly evolving PRC tax policy climate delivered, including cross-border tax implications of great interest to the company’s global client base
• Company’s profile raised among relevant PRC tax authorities, including multiple regional entities
• Tax-compliance framework established for the company’s wholly-owned PRC subsidiary, pending full approval of its Qualified Domestic Limited Partners application
• Tax due-diligence in place for potential direct participation PRC real-estate projects and the nonperforming loans sector.

Leveraging the understanding of the client gained in almost 70 years of work together, KPMG combined specialized China and a global tax perspective from KPMG International’s network of member firms to help its client navigate a complex, rapidly evolving PRC tax environment. KPMG: 

• Advised the client on potential partnership with a local investment management firm, to open access to regulated asset classes, including nonperforming real estate loans
• Helped steer the client’s Qualified Domestic Limited Partners application to establish a wholly owned PRC subsidiary, coordinating through PRC’s designated Shanghai Financial Services Office
• Assembled an engagement team from more than 20 of KPMG International’s network of member firms around the world to bring market-specific perspective to the client’s methodology
• Provided advisory assistance on highly technical tax matters—deed tax, land-use tax, stamp duty, VAT, corporate income tax, withholding tax, repatriation of both principal and profit—all as they are interpreted and administered at both national and regional levels.

We help clients navigate regulatory change.

For organizations that face compliance demands from multiple regulatory authorities, we provide leading compliance practices, while helping them build the anticipatory capabilities they need for “regulatory change as the new normal.”

We understand international tax.

Decades of tax advisory work gives us the global and regional insight to address specialized issues such as cross-border tax planning, on-shore and off-shore entities, VAT, corporate income tax, and repatriation of financial assets or profits.

We know the challenges global organizations face are qualitatively different.

As their priorities change, KPMG is built to quickly and flexibly deliver service teams and advice to support them, wherever needed.