cee tax management
tax efficient structuring of business in central and eastern europe

Current and recent work of Henk at cee tax management includes:

• Advising a consortium of investors on the acquisition in privatisation of a major Czech telecoms operator;
• Designing an innovative multinational financing structure for a hotel project in Bulgaria for a major international hotel chain;
• Assisting an international private equity group with their acquisition of a Slovak engineering company;
• Advising the Kazakh government on a new Kazakh Tax Code, and the design of a Kazakh International Financial Services Centre;
• Establishment of a Private Equity Fund for Middle Eastern investments into Central and Eastern Europe;
• Analysing European Union legislation on its application to a Czech client in the financial services sector;
• Advising on the first cross-border insolvency proceedings based on EU COMI Regulation in the Czech and Slovak Republics;
• Arranging the global restructuring of clients in the telecom and services sectors;
• Assisting clients in various CEE countries with obtaining investment incentives, performing transfer-pricing and tax-compliance work, negotiating tax rulings;
• Assisting investors from The Netherlands, UK, USA, Ireland, South Africa on real estate investment projects into central Europe;
• Advising on the establishment of a Czech-Slovak-Polish-Hungarian-Romanian-Bulgarian-Ukranian joint venture in the services sector;
• Carrying out various projects that involved structuring of real estate investment funds in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria;
• Performing corporate-finance and structured-finance work related to Dutch, Italian, Austrian and German investment projects;
• Advising on a Dutch-Austrian finance structure in Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain;
• Providing tax and social security planning for expatriates in various CEE countries;
• Assisting with the acquisition of a number of hypermarket galleries in Poland, at the time the largest real estate deal in central and eastern Europe.

From 2001 to May 2004 Henk was a global equity partner at the law firm Linklaters and head of its central and eastern European tax practices, based in Prague, and from May 2003 to April 2004 in Budapest. At Linklaters, Henk was responsible for the central and eastern European tax practices and established the tax practices in Prague, Bratislava and Bucharest. Tax advisory work comprised advice to clients on greenfield investments and privatisations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and real-estate and capital-market transactions.

Between 1993 and 2001, Henk was a tax partner at the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Prague, the Czech Republic. At PwC, Henk mainly advised clients on inward investments, privatisations, and corporate restructurings. He was also responsible for all tax work for clients in a variety of industries: telecoms and IT, real estate; financial services; automotive; FMCG. Henk supervised the establishment of a legal practice at PwC Czech Republic, and for 8 years provided trainings in PwC's in-house international tax-training program.

From 1990 to 1993, before coming to Prague, Henk was a tax associate in the international tax department of Coopers & Lybrand in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

From 1985 to 1989, Henk was an associate professor in tax law at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Henk started his career in tax law in 1984 with the accounting firm Paardekooper, Hoogendoorn, Meeuwsen in The Hague, The Netherlands, as a tax associate.

Education

• L.L.M. study in US international tax law at Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, U.S.A.
• Postgraduate degree in Dutch tax law at the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands
• Graduated in Dutch civil law at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Membership in professional bodies

• Member of the Dutch Chamber of Tax lawyers
• Member of the International Fiscal Association
• Member of the international Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Publications

Publications in The Netherlands, U.S.A., and the Czech Republic include:

• Belastingplicht in de vennootschapsbelasting
  FED fiscale brochures; ISBN 90-6002-460-5;
• U.S.-The Netherlands Qualification Differences for Dutch C.V.s
  The International Tax Journal, volume 18, number 3; ISSN 0097-7341
• Taxation & Investment in Central and East European Countries Guide V
  Czech Republic International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, loose-leaf; ISBN 90-76078-12-2
• Limiting Treaty Benefits
  The International Tax Journal, volume 20, number 1; ISSN 0097-7341
• Tax Talk
  Bi-weekly column in The Prague Post, between 1994 and 1997.