Tax planning & strategy
Tax planning is most valuable when it is both compliant and operationally realistic. The best strategy improves cash flow and reduces risk without creating structures that are hard to maintain, hard to explain, or likely to be challenged.
Oceans designs tax strategies using a CFO mindset: we start with your business model, ownership structure and cross-border activity, then model scenarios and build a roadmap that management can implement and maintain.
The result is clarity: what you can do, what you should avoid, what the numbers look like under different options, and what actions to take next—without aggressive, high-risk structures.
What’s included
✔️ Tax structure review: assess current setup, entity structure, flows and compliance posture
✔️ Scenario modelling: compare options with cash, profit, and risk impacts (base vs alternatives)
✔️ Profit repatriation / distribution planning with documentation and timing considerations
✔️ Transfer pricing alignment support (high-level) and coordination where specialized work is required
✔️ Cross-border activity review: risks, documentation expectations, and operational requirements
✔️ Implementation roadmap: steps, owners, timelines, and required documentation
✔️ Ongoing advisory: periodic reviews as the business grows or expands to new markets
What we need from you
✔️ Financial statements and/or recent management accounts
✔️ Ownership structure and shareholder details (incl. group structure where applicable)
✔️ Business model description: revenue streams, cost drivers, markets served
✔️ Cross-border activity details: customers, suppliers, services performed, people location, and invoicing flows
✔️ Existing tax positions/assumptions and any known pain points (audits, authority questions, inefficiencies)
How it works
1. Discovery: understand your business model, ownership and transaction flows.
2. Current-state analysis: identify risks, inefficiencies and quick wins within compliance.
3. Scenario modelling: quantify outcomes of alternative structures and decisions.
4. Strategy design: select the most suitable approach (balance of cash benefit, risk, complexity).
5. Implementation plan: define steps, documentation, and governance to execute safely.
6. Review cycle: revisit strategy when rules, markets or business structure changes.
Typical timeline
Initial strategy: usually 2–3 weeks depending on complexity and availability of information.
Scenario modelling pack: often delivered alongside the strategy or within a few days after.
Ongoing review cadence: quarterly or semi-annually is common for growing businesses.
Common pitfalls we prevent
✔️ Aggressive structures that create audit exposure and reputational risk
✔️ Strategies that ignore operational reality (people, contracts, and delivery don’t match the structure)
✔️ Missing documentation for cross-border flows, increasing challenge risk
✔️ Cash leakage due to poor planning of profit distribution timing and obligations
✔️ Transfer pricing misalignment between how value is created and how profits are allocated
✔️ One-time planning with no review cycle - strategy becomes outdated as business changes