From the Partners;
MRT Tax is pleased to announce a strategic collaboration partnership with The Cragus Group, a ITR (World Tax) Top Tier Tax Firm headquartered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Cragus is consistently ranked ahead of the Big 4 in the GCC, and is widely regarded as one of the region’s most trusted tax and transfer pricing firms, with a highly specialised oil and gas practice.
This partnership marks a significant step in our commitment to delivering world-class tax and transfer pricing services to clients operating in East Africa’s emerging oil and gas sector.
East Africa’s Energy Future
As Uganda gears up to first oil, with multi-billion-dollar investments underway across the upstream, midstream, and downstream value chains, our firm is keenly aware of the increasingly complex tax landscape facing investors and developers.
Through this partnership, MRT Tax brings its deep local insight into East African markets, while Cragus contributes globally recognized oil and gas tax structuring expertise developed in the highly sophisticated and competitive GCC region.
“This partnership brings together deep local insight and international oil and gas tax expertise for upstream, midstream and downstream investments currently being undertaken in East Africa’s Oil and Gas sector.” Remarked, Mark Ruhindi, the Managing Partner.
Global Trends in Tax Consulting
We are alive to broader shifts in global tax advisory models which include:
The move away by MNEs from the “one-firm-globally” retainer model.
🔹 Merit-based, jurisdiction-specific tax advice is now the gold standard.
🔹 Local credibility and competence versus the weight of a global firm brand in winning tax and transfer pricing consulting work.
Many multinationals are now cherry-picking specialist firms in each jurisdiction instead of defaulting to global retainers.
This trend is particularly visible in high-stakes sectors like oil and gas where local tax risk and sector expertise outweigh global firm jurisdiction presence.
🔹 The increasing demand for second (and third) opinions on high-stakes tax questions from independent firms.
Especially in disputes and large cross-border structuring; Clients are no longer satisfied with one firm’s view and increasingly value dissenting expert perspectives.
🔹 Tax technology, AI, and the rise of lean and highly specialized boutiques in tax.
Technology and AI are empowering lean, highly specialized boutiques to compete with legacy firms.
The rise of AI and automation has significantly empowered smaller firms. The old model of large pyramidal structures is slowly being displaced by leaner, more agile firm models.
As more Big 4 partners go independent to found and run Independent Boutiques and are able to scale on work using technology and AI, as opposed to reliance on armies of inexperienced junior consultants, a new era of lean, nimble, high-trust tax advisory is taking shape.
We believe that clients today demand agility, independence, and precision — and more partner attention and we remain committed to providing just that, in alliance with trusted partners like Cragus. Ends
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