Peter Kurjanowicz Grant Thornton

Peter is a Partner of Grant Thornton's Canadian transfer pricing practice. He has earned a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen's University, a Masters Degree in Taxation (Mtax) from the University of Waterloo and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. Peter's practice focuses on transfer pricing consulting for public and privately held businesses in Canada. Peter has developed an expertise in transfer pricing policy determination and implementation, financial transaction transfer pricing, and intangible valuation.

What attracted you to Grant Thornton?

I have now been with Grant Thornton for over seven years. Having learned the trade at another big firm, I have realized that the transfer pricing practice here operates in the sweet-spot of the market: large enough to offer a full suite of services to our global clients, but small enough to provide a personalized and highly-collaborative client experience. That balance is critical for our clients and our people- particularly those who are early in their careers and need to develop both technical and client service skills. We are widely recognized as an employer of choice- in fact we have won the Great Place to Work Institute's Best Workplaces in Canada award for the tenth consecutive year!

What makes you and Grant Thornton different from your competition?

Since I joined the practice, we have been on a very deliberate path to differentiate our services. We focus on serving rapidly growing businesses, and these tend to be smaller to mid-size private and public companies. Generally, such organisations employ limited in-house tax capability. Rarely will our clients have a tax department, let alone employ dedicated sub-specialty tax professionals. A technical transfer pricing memo or 100-page report is generally of limited value to our clients. What is truly valued is a transfer pricing education, assistance with "operationalizing" a practical transfer pricing policy, and help with administering that policy.

Our clients are interested in an advisor who works with them to co-manage the business. We form long-lasting partnerships and have discovered how to "plug into" our clients' businesses to drive value through the tax function, and we have had great success with our approach. I am excited to announce that on the strength of our client service we have been shortlisted by the International Tax Review's Transfer Pricing Practice of the Year publication for three years in a row!

Thank you Peter. Any final remarks?

I have to make a quick plug- due to the OECD's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) work, including in particular the Country-by-Country Reporting and Master File / Local File documentation requirements, the transfer pricing world is changing, and very rapidly. Make sure to contact your transfer pricing advisor before closing your books for the year to learn more about how this may impact your business.