The Impact of VAT Compliance on the Energy Sector in Qatar

Summary
Mehrdad Talaifar joined EY in 2017
Prior to joining EY as an Associate Partner in Dubai, Mehrdad held various executive positions at Avalara, Ryan, Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting, Sabrix Inc. and Arthur Andersen.

Skills
Mehrdad has a demonstrated history of leading and managing tax technology implementation and transformation projects for multinational and medium sized companies in various industries such as Oil & Gas, Financial, High Technology, Product and Process Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, eCommerce and Services.

Relevant experience
Mehrdad has over 33 years of consulting experience providing clients proven expertise and support in:

• design, implementation and management of global tax compliance processes and procedures
• improvement and transformation of indirect tax, direct tax, and transfer pricing compliance processes
• selection and implementation of tax, business process, operations and compliance automation solutions either on premise or as Software as a service.

Education

• Mehrdad holds an MBA in Finance from Santa Clara University, California
• He has BA degrees in Finance and Accounting from San Francisco State University, California.

Project Role: Tax Performance Advisory (TPA) VAT
Education: Bcom Law. LLB. Senior Certificate Tax. University of Pretoria
Francois has joined EY Dubai in November 2017 and has over 20 years experience in a big 4 VAT consulting environment. He also specializes in ERP VAT configuration setups, VAT technology offerings and VAT process optimization.

Relevant professional experience:

• Previously employed as Tax Business Process Specialist for world wide SAP template implementation by SABMillier (ABInbev). Jurisdictions include South America, Europe, Africa, Australia.
• Prior employment includes Senior manager in tax management consulting at Deloitte as well as EY South Africa. He undertook major ERP VAT implementation projects and consulted various corporates on best tax technology practices.
• He managed various ERP VAT optimization projects and empowered clients to perform in-house VAT analytics.
• He provided VAT accounting and ERP best practice training workshops to various corporates, in respect of VAT principles.
• He also managed various tax technology software implementations.

Background

• Finbarr Sexton is a Partner with Ernst & Young Middle East  and  the Indirect Tax Leader the Middle East and North Africa region.
• A graduate of the University College Cork, in law and accounting, Finbarr is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Chartered Accountants.
• Finbarr has been involved in indirect tax advisory services across the region including general sales tax and value added tax compliance and advisory, customs and international trade and  interpretation of free trade agreements across the region and their impact on international trading transactions between countries in the region.

Professional experience

• His clients operate in a broad range of industries such as oil and gas (both upstream and downstream), power and utilities, engineering procurement and construction, real estate, marine activity and financial services
• He is responsible for the development of indirect tax training for the MENA region and also for thought leadership  contributions  on indirect tax. He has conducted VAT and customs training courses for E&Y offices in the region  and also for multinational clients operating across the region.
• He has advised a number of Governments in the region on tax policy initiatives including VAT, petroleum fiscal regimes and customs and global trade agreements. He has also advised on the trade programmes in the MENA region including the impact of free zones and free trade agreements.

Background

• Jennifer is a Partner with Ernst & Young’s Middle East practice and is based in the Doha office.
• She is a Chartered Tax Consultant, registered under the Association of the Irish Taxation Institute.
• She is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and holds a Bachelor of Law degree.  She also holds a post-graduate diploma in Accounting from Dublin City University.

Professional experience

• Jennifer leads the roll out of GCC VAT across the region working with both public and private sector clients.
• Jennifer has provided international tax advice to Qatari companies investing and expanding their operations outside the State of Qatar, including:
  • Tax efficient structuring; and
  • Due diligence exercises for both company and asset acquisitions.
• Prior to relocating to Qatar she worked on large scale VAT projects with another Big 4 firm including:
  • Leading the EU VAT implementation of a business which had become VATable due to a change in EU VAT Law;
  • Transformation of global telecommunications company to a European VAT Shared Services Centre model;
  • VAT structuring for high value property transactions and mergers.