At GlobeTax we are very proud of our history. It demonstrates our commitment to continually developing and improving our services.
GlobeTax was founded in January 1992 by Martin S. Foont who continues today as President and CEO. The mission of the firm is to service the market need to recover taxes over-withheld by foreign governments. Operations began supporting primarily US-based clients. From day one, we have viewed our clients as partners. We strive to provide the best services and solutions for their requirements in how they choose to run their businesses.
In 1994, GlobeTax expanded into servicing depositaries. This put the firm in the unique position of being able to further develop its excellent working relationships with foreign tax authorities and foreign issuers, as well as virtually every bank, broker and registered shareholder holding ADRs. Depositary Services is headed up by Harold S. Shapero, Managing Director.
In 1996, GlobeTax acquired its first UK client, and the following year began work for continental European clients, strengthening its increasingly global reach.
Between 1997 and 2002, GlobeTax further extended both its geographical coverage
and its support to the numerous elements of the investment management chain. New clients included high net worth investors, custodians, mutual funds, investment managers, depositaries and private banks, all happy to outsource this labor intensive and complex technical area.
In 2003, as part of a strategic move to consolidate success in Europe, GlobeTax opened its first non-US office, in London, England and hired withholding tax expert Ross McGill to spearhead the firm's marketing and sales effort as Marketing Director.
In 2003, GlobeTax also took the lead in providing corporate and institutional investors with guidelines on best practice and proxy voting after increased concerns over transparency and best practice in corporate governance.
In
2003 and 2004 the firm increased its contribution to helping the investment community understand the importance of withholding tax to investment strategies, by authoring two books on the subject. Published by Euromoney Books plc, both reference guides have been applauded as major contributions and "active reference" material for institutional investors. The marketing effort was also increased with the hiring of Len Lipton as VP of Marketing, based out of New York.
By mid 2004, GlobeTax reached a record processing volume of one million tax reclaims during the prior 12-month period out of its New York based processing center, leveraging many years of continuing investment into state-of-the-art information technology systems. GlobeTax's close relationships with tax authorities around the globe enable the firm
to achieve these volumes.
In September of 2005, GlobeTax officially launched the Tax Reclaim Service Bureau (TRSB) on the SWIFT network (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transaction).
TRSB is the first and only service bureau dedicated to providing an outsource for tax reclamation operations on the SWIFT network as an approved and licensed Service Bureau. The mission of the service bureau is to assist
SWIFT member banks achieve full - STP (Straight Through Processing) even with the predominantly onerous and manual process of filing tax reclaims on behalf of their clients.
In 2006, GlobeTax launched a subsidiary company, Globe Tax Data Services Inc. This business unit packages the tax reference data used by its parent and makes it available as the primary global market reference data source on withholding tax. The firm markets two products: e-TaxData Online and e-TaxData Distribution. The first is a web-based
tax research application; the second, a data feed made available through the SWIFT Data Distribution Service.
In 2007, GlobeTax announced the implementation of V-STP. Prior to this revolutionary concept, certain corporate actions have been impossible to automate. V-STP uses elements of classical STP from the front office and combines them with connectivity and ISO 15022 / FileAct messaging to create Virtual STP. The manual elements of the corporate action are performed remotely, but still under supervision of the financial institution (FI). The connectivity available allows data about the manual processes to flow electronically. The net result is a process for the FI that is completely STP. In September, William D. Treut
joined GlobeTax as VP of Marketing, to provide additional strength to the firm’s
business development in the
Americas.
In 2008 GlobeTax expanded its global presence with the opening of a new office
in Milan, Italy. Andrea Mrakic, Regional Manager, relocated from GlobeTax's New
York headquarters to his native Italy to coordinate the company’s intra-European
tax research as well as its sales efforts from the Milan office. GlobeTax was also
pleased to welcome Bob Davies, former Managing Director of the Securities Industry
Division in North America at SWIFT, as Senior Advisor, to provide expertise in continuing
our efforts to develop our position as the securities market infrastructure for
global withholding tax processing.
