New Head of Tax Intelligence at CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre

Daniel Gutmann, a tax partner at CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, has recently been appointed the firm’s Head of Tax Intelligence. This position has been held since 1991 by Jean-Yves Mercier, who is retiring on 30 September.

Daniel Gutmann, 44, joined CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre as Of Counsel in 2007. He was made a partner in 2011.

A graduate of HEC (Higher Education for Business Administration) (1990), he holds a PhD in private law (1996) and is a Professor at the Sorbonne Law School (University of Paris-1) where he lectures in domestic, international, European and comparative tax law. Daniel Gutmann is trilingual and also teaches courses in English and Italian at the request of foreign universities.

In 2010, he was a member of the Franco-German Taxation Working Group set up by the French Court of Auditors. He has previously been adviser to the Legal Department of the IMF (2006) and a member of the panel of experts at the European Commission regarding the relationship between tax treaties and EU tax law.

He is the author of a book on corporate tax law which has won awards from the French Constitutional Court and the Club des Juristes (Lextenso, 4th ed. 2013) and regularly writes for technical publications and the economic press. A member of the Cercle des Fiscalistes, he is also a tax expert for the Club des Juristes, a member of the scientific committee of the French branch of the IFA (International Fiscal Association) and a member of the MEDEF’s "European tax policy and techniques" working group.

About the CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre Tax Intelligence Department

The main role of this department, founded in the 1950s, is to analyse changes to tax regulations and contribute to the elaboration of the firm’s positions on the most complex technical questions. It is in permanent contact with the tax authorities, other French and European public bodies, corporate representative bodies and the academic world.

Daniel Gutmann will run the department together with two partners, Elisabeth Ashworth, who mainly focuses on VAT, and Stéphane Austry, a specialist in major tax disputes. The team also comprises four other lawyers.