Taxation and Double Tax Treaties

Our lawyers advise clients in Lebanon and abroad on the whole range of taxation, customs duties and other fiscal matters. Our clients comprise corporate businesses, financial institutions, institutional and private investors, partnerships and individuals. We offer our clients a comprehensive business tax advisery service. In particular, we provide advice relating to general business and transaction structuring, both domestically and cross-border. It is rare for any transaction to have no tax implications and our tax specialists are involved in virtually every transaction undertaken by the firm, with a particular emphasis on international taxation and Bilateral Tax Treaties. We also assist our clients in connection with employee and executive compensation, fiscal residence planning, including immigration and re-domiciliation of businesses and private individuals, estate planning, charities, gift and inheritance taxes, transfer taxes on real estate and securities, VAT and other indirect taxes, and other matters such as social security contributions. Our firm also represents clients in a wide range of procedures, such as advance tax ruling requests, fiscal audits and tax litigation.

Examples of our lawyers’ experience include:

• Acting as legal experts in the commission on the VAT draft law in Lebanon. Task included participating to the drafting of the VAT legislation and its application decrees and provided legal advice on issues in connection with the implementation of the VAT law.
• Advising on cross-border taxation issues including the application of the provisions of Double-taxation treaties.
• Advising on FATCA and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) issues.
• Advising French companies on issues related to the French-Lebanese Tax Treaty in the course of tax audits and appeals in France.
• Acting for the heirs in a challenge against succession taxes related to a cross border succession.