Your

Questions

We firmly believe that taxation is a major strategic issue for a company’s development.

By interacting with other legal and accounting professions, our experience has shown that tax advice is sought at too late a stage in a project.

Although they play a structuring role right from the start of the project, tax issues are often postponed until later. It is however very difficult, if not impossible, to deconstruct the growth model already in place.

We have created PARHELIE to help companies deal with their tax issues as early as possible.

PARHELIE was born, a few years ago, from our need to get closer to companies and to reposition our tax advice.

The idea behind PARHELIE was built on the findings made in our practice. A practice where tax is too often a one-off service in support of other advice and with insufficient concern for operational matters.

We have therefore spent time defining a range of services whereby we become part of the company as a partner, adapting to its activities, its stage of development and its tax needs.

I will admit that tax professionals are often portrayed as solo experts who are used to handling complex regulations. This perception makes me smile, even though we strive to deconstruct it on a daily basis.

However, deconstructing requires making taxation accessible. And to do so, it is essential to practice our skills in a collective spirit, i.e. to work in interaction with the parties involved in order to build relevant solutions with them.

In our opinion, practicing tax law means sharing our knowledge, interacting with our clients and working alongside them.

If we work as a team, it is primarily because we enjoy discussing new issues.

Taxation is not an exact science. Our analysis is sometimes based on subjective concepts and situations that can be interpreted in many different ways.

Working with a team of experts allows us to question established models, to develop new and secure solutions to address the changing tax environment and practices.

The reason why we have created this firm together is because we are convinced that tax issues are best dealt with through the assurance of a dual perspective on the most complex problems.

To provide pragmatic advice, tax specialists must be familiar with their clients’ business models and have an understanding of the operational issues they face.

Understanding the technology behind the model is also a tremendous advantage. For instance, in order to anticipate the tax consequences of using a smart contract on the blockchain, it is necessary to understand how it works.

We therefore place a great deal of importance on the development of a sectoral expertise and we are committed to maintaining a connection to the company, to its economic and operational realities.

Cédric and I have been working together for over six years. Based on our experience, we strongly feel that our methodological approach to cases is a major factor in the efficiency of our advice.

I believe that it is probably our early career in a Big Four structure that has given us a keen interest in working methods and tools.

Regularly questioning the way in which we collect and analyze tax data, follow the stages of a project, and facilitate exchanges with our clients, is a guarantee that our technical expertise is at the service of our projects.

Knowledge of tax tools is now a prerequisite for tax professionals.

What I love most about my job as a tax specialist is being a local expert with a constant look beyond our borders.

In fact, there is a need to compare our French rules and practices with other tax systems in an environment that has long been governed by a large body of international rules (OECD, EU).

I would go so far as to say that this taste for international affairs has become a requirement for our clients as it would be a mistake to consider that international taxation is only of interest to large international groups.

Quite the opposite, in a globalized environment and a digitized economy, conquering the international market often forms part of our clients’ priorities, sometimes even before they have reached a significant size on the French market.

Our French tax expertise is supported by those of trusted partners.

We have both practiced in international firms (in particular Big Four) and abroad. These backgrounds have provided us with the best learning experience in terms of technical exchanges and collaborative work with experts from other countries.

We mobilize our network for our clients, ensuring the coordination of teams and the provision of a pragmatic solution to multi-country issues requiring general or specialized experts (VAT, customs, …).

Within PARHELIE, our aim is to support the implementation of our clients’ international strategy through a collective response combining technical excellence in different countries.

Regarding the financial aspect of our work, I was lucky enough at the beginning of my career to have spent nine months in London as part of a project management team specialized in offering outsourcing of tax services to large international groups.

What was the main lesson learned from this experience? I believe that it is impossible to assist a client in the long term without working with them on the scope of the assignment and the budgetary approach.

In practice, this means taking the time to identify the tax needs, defining client expectations, costing the work by integrating the concept of the value of the tax services to be performed and agreeing on the relevant deliverables.

Our services are directed to diverse types of clients, from entrepreneurs to groups with international reach.

We are therefore agile, flexible and creative in suggesting methods of determining fees for each client profile.

For recurring services, we use alternative billing methods based on time spent (fixed price, hourly rate, man-day, result-based fees, variable rate) taking into account the added value of the services.

Our terms of service must always be in line with the client’s needs.