WTS continues to achieve strong growth: New partners appointed

Munich, July 02, 2019 - WTS Germany expands its partnership by nine additional partners with the start of the new fiscal year 2019/2020. With these appointments, WTS – the largest German tax consulting firm with international orientation after the Big 4 – is continuing its strong growth of recent years.

"From our beginnings, we have been able to achieve new sales records year after year. With the new financial year 2019/2020, we want to continue this outstanding development and therefore have strengthened our position in main consulting areas with nine additional partners," comments Fritz Esterer, CEO of WTS. "It is particularly gratifying that the ratio of women as new partners is almost 50% and that nearly all of the newly appointed partners come from our own ranks. The promotion and development of our own junior staff is very important for us at WTS".

The new partners:

StB Daniela Angelini joined WTS in 2006. She is specialized in advising national and international companies on income tax issues. She also counsels on restructurings and reorganizations as well as on corporate acquisitions and disposals. Her particular focus is on Italian inbound mandates.

StB Christiane Harwardt-Linde came to WTS in 2014. She advises national and international companies on the optimization and structuring of turnover taxes. Her area of expertise also includes supply chain restructurings, process audits, auditing and support of ERP implementations as well as IT-supported risk analyses.

StB Roland Holz moved to WTS from KPMG in 2018. In particular, he specializes in tax structuring of company acquisitions, sales and reorganizations. He also advises on financing issues, IPOs and restructurings. In addition, Roland Holz has extensive experience in cross-border issues and complex transactions.

StB Lars Klevermann began his professional career at PwC in the International Reporting Group. From 2011 to 2017 he helped to establish the software provider AMANA Consulting GmbH to be the market leader in the area of income tax software. Since 2017, he has been working for WTS in the Digital Partnering service line. He supports tax functions in the digitalization and automation of end-to-end tax processes.

StB Andreas Masuch moved from EY to WTS in 2006. Since 2016, the sales tax expert held the position of Director at the Düsseldorf office. His range of activities includes comprehensive VAT consulting, in particular process-oriented consulting and international VAT compliance. As a WTS partner, he will continue to expand VAT process and technology consulting and will continue to enlarge the client base especially in the "Ruhr" area.

StB Prof. Dr. Axel Nientimp came to WTS from KPMG in May 2019. His consulting activities focus on the structuring of transfer pricing systems, the defense of multinational companies in transfer pricing audits and MAP procedures, the negotiation of APAs as well as the creation and implementation of planning and documentation solutions.

StB Dr. Gabriele Rautenstrauch moved from KPMG to WTS in 2018. Her main areas of practice are group tax law and international tax law. In particular, she focuses on cross-border restructurings and financing structures. She also consults on international developments in the field of BEPS and EU tax law.

Andreas Riedl has been part of the WTS transfer pricing team since February 2009. In July 2018, he assumed responsibility for the TP Technology consulting sector. Since then he has been focusing on the digitization of transfer pricing functions, supports companies in the automation of transfer pricing processes and controls the introduction of TP tools. Furthermore, Andreas Riedl assists clients concerning all transfer pricing issues.

RA StB Christiane Schönbach has been with WTS since 2009 and specializes in the tax support of highly complex investment structures as well as tax compliance in asset management – in particular private equity funds and open-ended real estate funds. She also focuses on tax consulting for credit institutions and investment funds. In her role as partner, she will continue to expand WTS' market positioning in this advisory field.