Ernst & Young has moved its top tax advisers to Beijing and Shanghai to exploit growing opportunities in China.
The company's tax services chairman Stephen Lau Sing-hung left Hong Kong to live in Beijing on Friday and his deputy Alfred Shum Yuk-man will move to Shanghai to head the company's tax office there.
The two most senior tax advisers in the accounting firm's SAR office will still take care of local operations.
Mr Shum said the move was aimed at building strong leadership for an expansion of the company's tax team in the mainland amid growing demand for tax services. It also planned to introduce tax experts from Germany, France, Japan and the United States.
An increasing number of multi-national companies were setting up business in China following its admission to the World Trade Organisation.
'These companies like to have tax services to ensure they are complying with all the tax laws in the mainland,' he said.
Other reasons for the increased demand were that more companies in China were making profits, and some were emerging from a five-year tax exemption granted as an incentive for early set-ups, Mr Shum said.
