While business managers may be unable or unwilling to go through with a corporate transaction during an economic downturn, the tax compliance burden has to be dealt with and some structuring may be the right thing to do, as long as it generates cash rather than spends it.

Tax directors are focusing on different issues than what may have been the case six months or a year ago. And it is the high-level external advice they receive that will win tax and transfer pricing practitioners the prizes at the European Tax Awards at the Dorchester Hotel in London on May 19.

Transfer pricing features heavily in the awards will be presented to the firms that took part in the most innovative direct and indirect tax transactional, structuring, litigation and transfer-pricing work in Europe between February 2008 and February 2009. The winners and runners-up will also be featured in the June issue of International Tax Review.

Awards will be presented to firms in 24 jurisdictions:

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK and Ukraine.

There will also be 11 pan-European awards to be won for tax, transfer pricing, newcomer, use of the internet, ECJ firm, tax litigation and indirect tax.

Details of how to submit entries for the national awards are listed here: national tax firm of the year; national transfer pricing firm of the year.

Entries should be sent here by March 12.