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Dear colleagues,

I am writing this letter after my return from the AGN International meeting in Montreal.

Besides the pleasure of visiting again that big and beautiful French speaking city where I had a chance to stay for two months as a trainee in my younger days, I was very impressed by the attendance in terms of numbers and quality.

Since 2002, I have had the opportunity to attend these meetings in Berlin, Cancun, Madrid and Beijing, where many countries of our association were represented, but this time many US firms were present and furthermore we all felt the very warm welcome and commitment of the firms from Canada. For the first time there were many more faces of members I did not know than ones I knew.

It makes me feel, from Europe, how strong our association is worldwide
and how much we can rely on the members to refer business and get advice
for our clients who wish to expand internationally.

As for strictly news from Europe, two new board members replacing two who are leaving, were elected: Liam MacQuaid from Duignan Carthy O’Neill in Ireland and Franz Meller from BFJM in Germany. Congratulations to both of them and many thanks for their commitment to AGN Europe for at least three years.

The next European Board meeting will be held on November 30 in Stuttgart in Germany, the homeland of our friend and board member Werner Kleinle.

Among other topics we will prepare the budget for 2007, hopefully refraining from inflation. “Value for money” remains our guideline.

The five committees as described in the previous letter are active after the holiday break and also preparing further action for 2007.

AGN Europe has received enquiries from firms wishing to join in countries such as Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and other smaller places.  These of course have to be screened but it shows the good image and attraction of the AGN association.

Finally as a practical way of improving relationships among members and responses to the questions raised, I would suggest the following:

In respect of any request of quotation for audit (or specific work) managed by one AGN firm and involving other local firms in Europe: ensure a prompt reply so that the managing firm can succeed in the contest;

In respect of any general questions (tax, law, accounting, etc):
a. quick answer, not billed, giving a general guideline without commitment,
b. if required by the member, a more detailed answer, with commitment, necessitating knowledge of full background, possible contact with the client, resulting in invoicing according to the time spent.

It may seem obvious or too simple, but I believe from what I have heard speaking with members, this is an efficient way to save time and develop business and confidence among members of AGN Europe.

How to work efficiently together can be one of the topics of our next European meeting in Athens, the ancient city of Greek philosophy.

In the meantime as you will read these lines in December, please receive all my thanks for your support during the past year and my best wishes for a peaceful Christmas and a successful New Year.

François Martin
Caderas Martin
Paris, France
francois.martin@caderas-martin.com

Introducing the new European Board members

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Liam McQuaid
Duignan Carthy O’Neill
Ireland

Professional qualification:
Managing Partner Tax adviser and certified public accountant Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland	30 years experience of audit, accounting and business consulting specialising in auditing and insolvency speciality industries include security, building development, leisure, printing, wholesale grocery trade, pension funds and charities
AGN Activity:
AGN member since 2002, and a TAG member almost since inception (1970); long-time knowledge of many of the members Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Dublin	Heavily involved in the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (The Institute): member of the Accounting Committee; a member of the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) Committee on Accounting for smaller entities

Franz Meller
BJFM
Germany
Employed at BJFM since October, 1990; Partner since 1999

Professional qualification:
Tax law	ongoing advice concerning tax returns and defensive tax counselling, corporate restructuring, acquisitions, international tax law, turnover tax
AGN Activity:
Regular visits to the European and International congresses Degree in management science --University of Cologne, 1990	member of the Taxation Task Force, coordinator for inheritance tax, contact at BFJM for AGN.  BJFM has experienced intensified international contacts and cooperation with AGN partners, facilitating a clear understanding of the importance of membership in order to be able to give the best service available to domestic clientele

Other members of the European Board are: Werner Kleinle (Wirtschaftstreuhand, Germany), Manuel Satorra (AGN Satorra, Spain), François Martin (Caderas Martin, France), Karl Horsburgh (AGN Horsburgh, Luxembourg) and David Nelson (Dixon Wilson, UK).

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Frejs Revisonsbyrå expands into Stockholm
Beginning November, 2006, the services of Frejs Revisionsbyrå AB will be available also in the capital of Sweden, since the firm is setting up a local office in central Stockholm at Bollhusgränd 3A.

The purpose of the new premises, apart from extending services to local clients, is to meet future increased client demands.

Contact details for the Stockholm office will be communicated in November. In the meantime, contact can be made through the head office in Gothenburg. Please find contact details for the Gothenburg office below:

Frejs Revisionsbyrå AB
Ph: +46 31 778 00 40
Fax: 031- 18 49 15
E-mail: info@frejs.se

Schaffer & Partner rated “Top tax advisor” in Germany.
FOCUS MONEY, the leading German business magazine, made a ranking of German tax advisors. Criteria for the ranking were quality of work, employee training, size and specializations. Quality of work was measured with a questionnaire checking highly complicated tax questions.

FOCUS MONEY wrote to about 9000 tax advisory firms which were assumed to be larger than one-person- or few-person-firms (out of about 70,000 tax advisors in Germany) and asked for remittance of information and the questionnaire.

40 large firms (to FOCUS MONEY standards) were rated “TOP TAX ADVISORS” and Schaffer & Partner was among these 40 large firms.

Altogether, only 123 firms (out of 9000 written to!) in Germany got the top rating.

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