Credits & Debits October, 2007 - Integra International · Credits & Debits October, 2007 - 3 - • MALTA Patrick Camilleri, his wife Antonia and the team of PC Corporate Services

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Credits & Debits

Conferences ..............................New Members and Potential mCurrent membership.................Member Handbook and InternMarketing Integra ......................Global Board News...................International Business DeveloWeb Site .....................................Future Conferences..................Future Meetings and Events ...Thank You ♦ CongratulationBusiness Opportunities for InteThe Last Laugh .........................

(Just click on any line item above a

Integra International® is an interaAccounting and Consulting firms d

advising growing bus

Founded in 1994, Integra now has 88countries worldwide covering Europe

Australia

Abu Dhabi • Adelaide • Albany • Antwerp Bad Segeberg • Baltimore • Barcelona(2)

Bologna • Boston • Bradford • Bratislava • Bd’Italia • Canberra • Cancun • Caracas • Chic• Dallas • Denver • Dubai • Dublin • Düssel

Girona • Gloversville • Grafton • Granollers • • Hamilton • Hartford • Heilbronn • HelsinkIstanbul • Jakarta • Kanpur • Kayseri • K

Lisbon • London • Los Angeles • Luxembourg• Merida • Mexico City • Miami • Milan • MindeMoscow (2) • Mumbai • Munich • Murrieta • N

• Perth(2) • Petaling Jaya • Philadelphia • Prince Rupert • Quito • Riyadh • Rome • SanEl-Jadida • Shanghai • Singapore • Solingen

Sydney(2) • Toronto • Tunis • Valencia

October, 2007

Page No.

......................................................................2 embers “in the works” ..............................3

......................................................................4 ational Directory .........................................5 ......................................................................5 ......................................................................6 pment and Referrals ..................................6 ......................................................................8 ......................................................................8 ......................................................................8 s ♦ Bravo! ..................................................8 gra Members...........................................11

....................................................................11 nd you will be taken directly to that article)

ctive global network of local independent edicated to exchanging information and inesses and professionals.

firms with 134 offices in 125 cities in 43 , North America, South America, India, Asia, /New Zealand

• Asuncion • Athens • Atlanta • Auckland • Aue • • Beirut • Berlin • Bilbao • Birmingham • Bogota • risbane • Bristol • Buenos Aires • Bursa • Campione ago • Cleveland • Copenhagen • Coquitlam Dammam dorf • Enniscorthy • Frederick • Genk • Gersthoven • Guadalajara • Guangzhou • Guayaquil • Hamburg(2) i • Hong Kong • Houston • Huntington • Ilmenau • uala Lumpur(2) • La Paz • Langenlois • Limassol • • Madrid(3) • Manama • Manchester • Melbourne(2) lheim • Mirandola • Modena • Monterrey • Montreal •euquen • New Delhi • New York • Newburgh • Paris Phoenix • Port Louis • Port Macquarie • Prague • Diego • San Francisco • San Gwann • Seattle • Sfax • Springfield • St. Louis • Stevenage • Surabaya • • Vancouver • Vienna • Washington • Zurich

Credits & Debits October, 2007

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Conferences

• HONG KONG

The Global Executive thought everyone should be kept current on the plans for the next World Wide Conference in Hong Kong and the subsequent China Trade Mission.

The latest can be reviewed by clicking on the following link to our web site http://www.integra-international.com/conferences.html#HongKong

There you will find links to the draft business agenda and the trade mission itinerary. The dates are fixed - The conference runs from Thursday Nov 1/07 to Saturday Nov 3/07 and the trade mission starts Sunday Nov 4/07 and ends in Beijing on Thursday Nov 8/07

Our on-line system is accepting registrations. Click on:

https://www.registerpromotions.com/integraHongKong/?CFID=856156&CFTOKEN=92296065

If you are planning on attending, you may want to make airline reservations soon. The hotel rooms in Hong Kong are now on an “as available” basis.

• SAN FRANCISCO We had to increase our room block for the May/07 San Francisco Conference due to the great response. Our hosts and your committee did a wonderful job planning an informative professional program and an entertaining social one too.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of this conference by

Bedford Capital Consulting and the Alliant Group

and

http://www.bedfordcap.com/




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• MALTA

Patrick Camilleri, his wife Antonia and the team of PC Corporate Services did a great job of hosting the EMEIA conference in late June. It was the first conference held at a beach resort and it was a resounding success. Our ABL friends held their conference at the same time and place and a couple of joint events were well done. Our appreciation for this great event cannot be expressed in a better way than our member of Milan has done in an e-mail to Patrick:

“…I would like to thank you for the beautiful experience that we have been living in MALTA. The hotel was a perfect choice and so were the tours and the food. Perfect were also the business sessions, the discussions and the technical and logistic organization of the conference. I remained fascinated about the beauty of your island and its history. I had a very good time … especially the last evening was organized in a warm and exclusive place that allowed everybody to be together in a casual way, surrounded by music, dance, and the joy of living in the light of a red, red moon (was it painted ?) staring us with great charm and an obliging smile …”

New Members and Potential members “in the works” EMEIA • Following a due diligence visit to the offices in Dammam, Saudi Arabia and Manama, Bahrain by Joan Lliteras and Johan DeMey, the firm of AL-GHANEM Certified Public Accountants was admitted to membership. They are a 5 partner, 33 professional, audit and tax firm. • Application form has been received from a firm in Johannesburg, South Africa. Joan Lliteras has followed up and has scheduled a due diligence visit to their office. • A new member’s package has been sent to a firm in Geneva, a contact given to Integra by Baudouin Dunand, the ABL member there. • Päivi Husu and Roger Stigell (Helsinki) contacted the Finnish embassies and the Trade Chambers in Norway and Sweden to see if they can get assistance in finding a member for Integra in those countries.


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AAA • Please welcome K H Goh & Associates in Singapore. They contacted us through our web site during Steve Austin’s fourth trip to Asia. Steve was able to schedule a due diligence visit and immediately recommended the firm for membership. They are a 3 partner, 28 professional firm with extensive audit, tax and consulting expertise. • Please also welcome Estudio Ignacio Carnicero in Neuquen, Argentina. Neuquen is in the fantastically beautiful Patagonia region. Ignacio Carnicero has done work with Oscar Mary in the past. • Just before the San Francisco conference Trainer, Wright & Paterno in Huntington, West Virginia joined our ranks. Todd Williams is the contact there. Attending the Cleveland conference as our guest convinced him of the benefits to be realized from Integra membership. • After attending San Francisco as our guest, Don Saltzman of Leaf Saltzman, Manganelli Pfeil & Tendler in Fairfield, New Jersey (18 mi from Manhattan) convinced his partners that Integra is exactly what they were looking for and the firm joined promptly thereafter. • Oscar Mary is scheduling a due diligence visit to Sao Paulo, Brazil after a firm there helped out Don Saltzman (New Jersey) and expressed a desire to join Integra.

Current membership As at October 1, 2007

Firms

Countries Cities Offices

Partners

Staff Fees - US$

AAA 44 16 64 67 173 1,143 100,210,000

EMEIA 44 27 62 67 139 773 68,766,000

Total 88 43 126 134 312 1,916 168,976,000

This schedule is derived from the database called “Size Statistics” on our intrAnet.

Please review that database to make sure your firm’s data is up to date.


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Member Handbook and International Directory • Our annual publication has been completely revamped and has an emphasis on marketing the network. All firms should have received their annual supply by now. Please let us know your opinion about this new Directory, what you like and especially what you dislike, and tell us how we can improve this marketing tool. Susanne and Richard (Administrators of Integra International) will collect all your comments and suggestions, which will be taken into account during the preparation of the next Directory for 2008/2009. • Please delete BCS Direction of Sydney, Australia. The firm is unable to continue its membership in Integra. • Regrettably, Integra has to accept the withdrawal of the Pittsburg office of Terry & Stephenson effective October 1. They have merged that office in with a much larger regional firm that belongs to another network. Alan Terry remains as our Denver Integra member. Marketing Integra • In March the following e-mail was received from Jay Primack (Springfield) that needed to be shared with everyone:

It may interest our members to know, that our Senior Tax Associate, Maggie (Margaret) Rauh and I are scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow at the invitation of Congressman Richard Neal, to appear before the House Ways & Means Sub-Committee on Select Revenue Measures. Neal is the Chairman of this subcommittee, which has oversight over issues dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, including the Alternative Minimum Tax. Maggie will appear, in order to give personal testimony concerning the effect of the Alternative Minimum Tax on her family, and I will be there to offer Maggie consultation and moral support. Maggie will be one of only two such witnesses, although there will be four other witnesses speaking on behalf of other organizations, such as the AICPA.

This is a terrific, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. We understand there will be significant media coverage. Who knows...maybe we'll be on C-Span? Maggie has also been quoted recently in local publications and in the Wall Street Journal on this matter.


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So here we are, your Integra members working with those who serve at the highest levels of government!

• In a series of seminars in Hong Kong, Simon Cheung (in co-operation with Hong Kong Trade and Development Centre, ABL in Vietnam, and the Baker Mackenzie Law Firm) promoted Integra International to about 400 businessmen. • This summer a lawyer that works with Polan & White (Washington, DC) clients opened an office in Vancouver so a meeting was arranged with him and Richard Purcell to help him familiarize himself with the market. • While visiting New York City in July, Steve Austin visited Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf (the ABL firm there) and offered an introduction to one of his clients in San Diego. Global Board News

• The next Global Board meeting will be held just prior to the Hong Kong conference on November 1, 2007

International Business Development and Referrals • George Hoge (Denver) requested assistance from Jay Primack (Springfield) on a client with international tax reporting issues. Jay is a co-chairman of the Integra AAA Special Interest Tax Group. • In February, Ron Abeles (St. Louis) referred a software start up client to Alan Marks (Newburgh) for ongoing tax compliance work.


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• Moriarty & Primack (Springfield) needed help with an international tax problem so they called on Richard Gimbert – the new tax expert with GrossDukeNelson in Atlanta. • Richard Gimbert was also able to offer help Wayne Day (Newburgh, NY) with a situation in Puerto Rico that involved a US subsidiary of a German company. • Tim Cook (London) needed a quick clarification for a lawyer colleague on Canadian tax rules and turned to Richard Purcell (Coquitlam) for his answer. • Britta Koetteritzsch (Duesseldorf) referred two separate clients (that needed an accountant in each of Hong Kong and Shanghai) to Simon Cheung (Hong Kong). • Franz Schweiger (Vienna) helped one of Dirk Lehmann’s (Berlin) clients with tax matters in Austria. • Aurel Schamp from BF Consulting (Vienna) contacted Dirk Lehmann (Berlin) for help with a German VAT issue. • One of Matthias Piaszinski’s (Berlin) clients is considering outsourcing payroll in France and Matthias referred this client to Olivier Maurin (Paris) who reacted quickly to the enquiry of the client. • One of Mark Saunders’ (London) clients is considering relocating to Barcelona so he was referred to Francesc Bellavista who met with the client and provided the required VAT tax advice. • Tim Cook from Wilder Coe (London) successfully referred a client to Dirk Lehmann (Berlin). The client needs advice regarding his real estate investments in Germany. • Mark Fiato at Caras & Shulman (Boston) has a client who wished to set up a UK subsidiary. Wilder Coe (London) have now been asked to arrange tax registration and undertake bookkeeping, audit and compliance work for the new company. • On July 21 Narendra Rustagi (New Delhi) referred the CFO of one of his clients to K H Goh in Singapore for audit, accounting and other related work. By July 23rd a meeting was arranged in Singapore to take place July 25th. Talk about Integra logistics and teamwork! • In late September, Andrew Tan (Singapore) referred an audit engagement proposal to Chee Yon Long (Malaysia) • In May, Andrew Tan (Singapore) referred a client to Simon Cheung (Hong Kong).The client needed tax services for their Hong Kong branch.


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• A classic advantage of Integra membership: A client of Mark Saunders (London) has been using Integra in London and Dusseldorf, and now will be including the USA after Mark referred them to Bill Lutz (New York).

Mark says: “I think I'll try to get them to open up in another couple of regions and we can really advertise our abilities to service clients globally!”

Web Site • Our web site is constantly being kept up to date. Be sure to have a look at it for “News”, “Conference links”, “Global Update”, “Credits & Debits” Future Conferences Hong Kong November 1 – 3, 2007 Worldwide Conference Atlanta May 15 – 17, 2008 AAA regional conference Luxembourg June 12 - 14, 2008 EMEIA regional conference Athens October 23 – 25, 2008 Worldwide Conference Montreal October 1 – 4, 2009 Worldwide Conference Dublin October, 2010 Worldwide Conference Future Meetings and Events Miami May 13 – 15, 2008 Latam Regional Thank You ♦ Congratulations ♦ Bravo! • Another staff internship has happened. Bethany Friesen (Swenson Advisors in San Diego) worked for Wilder Coe in London this summer. Her engagements took her to Germany as well. You can see her impressions in the latest edition of Global Update. • And yet another – Bettina Lackermayer (BF Consulting in Vienna) worked for Swenson Advisors in San Diego. You can see her impressions also in the September issue of Global Update. • Mark Fowler, who helped facilitate a Global Board planning session last year and who spoke at the San Francisco conference, visited London in April and spent time with Mark Saunders of Wilder Coe.


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• LEVI & SINCLAIR are pleased to announce that Philip C. Levi has been nominated and approved by the Board of Regents of the ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FRAUD EXAMINERS to continue serving as a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the FRAUD MAGAZINE, a bimonthly magazine published by the association, devoted to timely, insightful articles on white-collar crime and fraud examination techniques. • Phil Levi has been selected as the Fraud Examiner of the Year by the 40,000-member Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, based in Texas. The award was presented by the Association’s president, Jim Ratley, at the annual conference held in July in Orlando, Florida.

• After the Malta Conference, Eddy Claesen (Genk, Belgium) came up with the great idea of founding the Integra International Youth Club, an exchange program for the adult children of Integra members. Many of the members have mentioned in San Francisco and in Malta how much their adult children enjoyed the Integra atmosphere and how quickly they made friends. It is therefore not surprising that most Integra members replied positively to Eddy’s idea and offered their help. As Eddy said:

“The Youth are our future and a few amongst them are possible future Integra members”.

• Matthias Piaszinski and his wife (Berlin) have arranged for Ashley Glaw (Houston) to stay with them at their home starting in January as a nanny for their two children. Ashley will stay for at least 6 months and will learn German while helping the children learn English. Ashley will also work in the office of Wagemann + Partner and in the office of their associated law firm Neumann + Dickersbach. Ashley’s stay in Germany is the first reply to Eddy’s Integra International Youth Club. We hope that many others will follow. • In late September, Les Adler (Miami) sought help from other US members on a tricky matter of how to present a non-equity partner in their marketing materials. • Ron Abeles (St. Louis) has been able to negotiate favorable terms for Integra members with SurePrep’s 1040 scan software. He estimates a 25% savings in personal tax return preparation time. Contact Ron for more details.

http://www.acfe.com/

http://www.acfe.com/

http://www.fraud-magazine.com/


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• Annise & Arnie Brokstein will be discussing serious business with Richard & Bertha Purcell at the Purcell Whistler Office during the first week in January. • In Malta, Giuseppe Scibetta (Milan) presented Ombretta Dal Negro from a law firm in Milan to the members of the ABL Network and the firm was accepted as a member of ABL - another example of productive and successful cooperation between Integra and ABL. • Carl Glaw (Houston) visited the Dublin office of Hughes Blake in August and the following photo op was arranged:

• In Late July the UK & Ireland group met in at the office of Wilder Coe in London in their continuing effort to promote Integra in the UK and work together. Four firms attended and plans are to have future meetings in Dublin and Manchester. This was a follow up to a similar meeting held in the office of Barnes Hunter in Bristol in January. • The second Cross Border Tax Workshop was held in Luxembourg, on September 22, 2007. This successful event was hosted by Francis Hoogewerf (Audit Royal S.A.) and his staff. The participants met on Friday for an enjoyable welcome drink and went together for a great and truly Chinese dinner – a first taste of our upcoming Hong Kong conference. The workshop was mainly focused on taxation of cross border real estate transactions. All participants were well prepared and discussions were therefore very interesting and productive. Contributions came from Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic. A special thank you for their interesting contribution goes to the members of the ABL network from the Czech Republic, Germany and Luxembourg, who participated in the workshop. In the evening, Francis arranged a pleasant boat trip with wine tasting and dinner on the Moselle, between Germany and Luxembourg right into France. Many thanks to Francis and his staff for organizing this great weekend.


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Business Opportunities for Integra Members • In early September an international freight company based in Seattle held interviews with Pablo Limon (Mexico) and Andrew Tan (Singapore) to see if Integra could provide accounting services for their branch operations. The potential client discovered Integra from our web site.

• ProfitCents (one of our San Francisco sponsors) were recently rewarded by being named to the Inc 500 list of the 500 fastest growing companies in North America. For a company that has only been in the accounting market for 6 years coming in at #305 is quite an accomplishment and something they are extremely proud of. A few other accomplishments just from 2007:

Named by the Sleeter Group (Top Quickbooks Consulting firm) as one of the Awesome Add-On for Quickbooks for 2007

Named by Inc. Magazine as the best tool for Feedback on Your Finances (March 2007)

• In July, Steve Austin (San Diego) used the broadcast e-mail feature of our intrAnet to quickly find other Integra members with restaurant experience so they could help with an engagement proposal. • On 24 August 2007, Filip Coppieters and Joeri Vits, (Antwerp) visited the offices of Francis Hoogewerf in Luxemburg. Joeri first met Francis and Joao Ferreira during the cross border tax conference in Vienna in April 2007 and again at the EMEIA meeting in Malta in June. During their visit they talked about doing business in Luxemburg and in Belgium and more in particular the scope of work in both offices. Belgium and Luxemburg are neighbouring countries and there are a lot of opportunities to exchange and to refer work between both offices. They explored some interesting challenges to work together. Furthermore, Joao Ferreira gave them a quick tour through the beautiful centre of Luxemburg, where they had a light lunch and a guided visit through the offices in Luxemburg. This was an interesting visit with a lot of opportunities for both offices now and in the future. • Ombretta Dal Negro, the new ABL member in Milan, held a seminar in her office on “Doing Business in Lithuania”. Giuseppe Scibetta (Milan) was one of the participants. The Last Laugh These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of keeping their composure while these exchanges were actually taking place.


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ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth? WITNESS: July 18th. ATTORNEY: What year? WITNESS: Every year. ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks. ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory? WITNESS: I forget. ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot? ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active? WITNESS: No, I just lie there. ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you? WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which. ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you? WITNESS: Forty-five years. ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning? WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?" ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you? WITNESS: My name is Susan. ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam? ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he? WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty-one. ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken? WITNESS: Would you repeat the question? ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time? WITNESS: Duh............. ATTORNEY: She had three children, right? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: How many were boys? WITNESS: None. ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?


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ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated? WITNESS: By death. ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated? ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual? WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard. ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female? ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people? WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? WITNESS: Oral. ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time? WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him! ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample? WITNESS: Huh? And the best for last ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor? WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law. __________________________________________________________________ Credits and Debits is a quarterly publication of Integra International intended to keep its worldwide members informed about what’s happening in business consulting around the globe. The editor is Richard A. Purcell, CA, and he can be contacted at: Integra International Administration Office: 1364 Summit Drive Coquitlam, BC, Canada, V3J 5L8. Tel. +1-604-817-1500; Fax. +1-604-939-1872; North America Toll free tel. +1-877-588-5899

E-Mail:[email protected] Information and news for Europe is also collected by the Integra network coordinator for Europe, Susanne Martius, who can be contacted in Berlin at +49-30-89 38 89-0

E-mail: [email protected] Questions, comments, and additions or suggestions are welcome and encouraged.

Visit our web site at http://www.integra-international.net

http://www.integra-international.net/

Documents

Credits & Debits October, 2007 - Integra International · Credits & Debits October, 2007 - 3 - • MALTA Patrick Camilleri, his wife Antonia and the team of PC Corporate Services