Details about payments of invoices from outside the US: taxes, data privacy, and adjustments

An article in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Feb. 2007 at 31, discusses e-billing at Aon Corporation. Aon has lawyers stationed in 17 countries and supports a truly global operation, so its law department faces a number of compliance issues when it pays the invoices of law firms in many jurisdictions. Its director of operations, David Cambria david_cambria@aon.com points out, “[T]he program had to take into account the different tax requirements at the national, state or provincial level within the countries where we operate” (See my post of July 17, 2 2005 about value added taxes; and Dec. 1, 2006 #4 about US state taxes on law firm services.).

That is far from all. Other compliance issues that arise in the accounts payable process for such an international law department include “data privacy issues in Europe, and local rules concerning the adjustment of final invoices.” The article also mentions the tangle of currency conversion. Aon is not alone in wrestling with these vexing irritants