Provision of Operational Tax Advisory Services for the EIF

Item Description:

The European Investment Fund (hereinafter ‘the EIF’) was established in 1994 and is a specialist provider of risk finance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) across Europe. The EIF has a tri-partite shareholder structure including the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union represented by the European Commission (EC), and 32 banks and financial institutions. The EIF has its own legal personality and financial autonomy among the institutions of the European Union.

By developing and offering targeted financial instruments to its network of selected financial intermediaries, such as venture capital and private equity funds, banks, guarantee and leasing institutions and micro-credit providers, the EIF’s goal is to enhance access to finance for SMEs.

In this respect, the EIF’s mission is twofold:

• fostering EU policy objectives, notably in the field of entrepreneurship, economic growth, innovation, research and development, employment, social cohesion and regional development; and
• generating financial returns for EIF’s shareholders and mandators, through a commercial pricing policy and a balance of fee- and risk-based income model.

Article 28(4) of the EIB’s Statute and Article 36 of the EIF’s Statutes provide that the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union applies to EIF, to the members of its organs and to its staff on the terms and conditions laid down in the Treaty establishing the European Union. The EIF is therefore exempt from taxes to the same extent as its shareholders, the EIB and the European Union represented by the European Commission.

More background information about the EIF may be found on the website http://www.eif.org.

Purpose of the Call for Tenders

The EIF is looking for a maximum of 2 service providers (through a framework agreement with cascading mechanism) for the provision of operational tax advisory services. The services of tax advisors are requested in order to:

• perform operational tax activities on request of the operational tax function, and
• advise on the development of the operational tax function.

In general terms, the first item will include a variety of operational tax work including most predominantly the filing of tax returns and the preparation of withholding tax reclaims. For the second item above the tax advisor is requested to strategically assist in the development of the operational tax function. Activities under both items are further described in Section 4 of terms of reference.

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