Bruno Gibert, a partner at CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, has been reappointed Chairman of the European Transfer Pricing Forum

Bruno Gibert, a partner at CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, was first named Chairman of the European Transfer Pricing Forum when it was established in 2002 and has already been reappointed once. The Forum, which is comprised of one expert from each of the 27 Member States and 16 business experts, was initially set up to devise a strategy for reducing compliance costs and eliminating tax obstacles to cross-border intra-group transactions within the European Union. As an advisory body, its role is to provide transfer-pricing solutions that do not necessarily involve legislative initiatives. Since its creation, the Forum has devised European procedures concerning arbitration, advance agreements, documentation and corporate overheads, all of which were subsequently adopted by the European Commission and the Council of Finance Ministers. New transfer-pricing documentation rules were introduced in France last year as a direct result of these proceedings.

Mr. Gibert holds a degree from l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (1979), a master’s in corporate and tax law from Université Paris II (1980) and a degree from Ecole Nationale d’Administration (1985). A high-ranking civil servant, he started his career at France’s Economics, Finance and Budget Ministry, where he occupied various positions, in particular as head of one of the international tax relations units (1988-1990) and head of the corporate tax unit (1992-1993). He then served as Tax Adviser to the office of Nicolas Sarkozy, Budget Minister (1993-1995). After serving as Director of international relations division in the tax policy department of the Ministry (1995-2001), Mr. Gibert became a CMS Bureau Lefebvre partner in 2001.