Important information: Dr Janusz Fiszer

It is with our deepest regret to announce that Dr Janusz Fiszer passed away on 2 September 2019. He had been a valued member of GESSEL’s team and will always be remembered.

The memorial service will be held on 9 September (Monday) at 13:00 in the church of St. Stanisław Kostka (ul. Hozjusza 2, Warsaw), and followed by the procession to the family grave at the Stare Powązki cemetery (VI gate).

Dr Fiszer was a partner, attorney and certified tax advisor, who joined GESSEL in January 2014. He was leading GESSEL’s TAX LAW PRACTICE and specialized in international tax law and in tax aspects of M&A transactions.

He was a graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw, held a doctorate in law. Since 1980, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Warsaw, and an associate professor. Since the early 1990s, associated with the international law firm White & Case, from 1998 through 2011 as partner. In 2012-2013, partner in the Tax & Legal Department of the international advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 1990-1991, Dr Fiszer served as an expert to the Polish Parliamentary Commission for Economic Policy, Budget, and Finance, advising on the draft legislative Act regarding Personal Income Tax and the draft VAT Act. In 1991-1993, Dr Fiszer was an advisor to the Minister of Finance, working as co-negotiator of numerous international double taxation treaties.

Dr Fiszer was a co-author of the draft legislative Acts regarding National Investment Funds and their Privatization and regarding commodities exchanges; he also contributed as a consultant to work on the draft legislative Acts regarding investment funds and regarding industrial funds. As part of his legal practice, Dr Fiszer had advised on tax disputes and on a number of high-profile M&A transactions in Poland involving publicly listed as well as privately held companies.

Dr Fiszer was the author of over 1,100 publications on legal, tax, and financial matters published in Polish professional journals (“Finanse”, “Państwo i Prawo”, “Przegląd Podatkowy”, “Monitor Podatkowy”) and in international journals (“Tax Notes International”, “Tax News Service”, “East European Business Law”,“European Taxation”, “Intertax”, “Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa”). He was the co-author of the Commentary on the Law on National Investment Funds and their Privatization. Dr Fiszer was a long-time correspondent of professional tax journals such as “Tax Notes International”, “Tax News Service”, or “East European Business Law”. Dr Janusz Fiszer sat on the editorial board of the monthly professional journal “Monitor Podatkowy” and regularly contributed commentary on tax issues to the “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” daily.

In 1982-1983, Dr Fiszer was a scholar at the University of Kansas School of Business in Lawrence; in 1988-1989, he was a research scholar of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, and in 1990 – of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung to the International and Foreign Tax Law Center at the University of Munich.

Dr Fiszer was a co-founder and president of the Management Board of the Polish branch of the International Fiscal Association (IFA). He also sat on the Supervisory Board of the Polish branch of the International Fiscal Association and belonged to the International Tax Planning Association (ITPA). He had participated in numerous Polish and international conferences and seminars focusing on tax matters. In the early 1990s, at the request of the OECD, Dr Fiszer taught specialized courses concerning international tax law and double taxation treaties organized by the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs for senior tax administration officials from Central and Eastern European countries. He was a member of the first and third compositions of the State Examination Board for Tax Advisors, and he was a member of the fifth State Examination Board for Tax Advisors. Dr Fiszer was an elected member of the National Board of Tax Advisors (KRDP) during its first and second terms; in this capacity, he contributed to the activities of the Confédération Fiscal Européene (CFE).

Dr Fiszer was consistently listed in international and Polish directories of law firms and lawyers – “Chambers Global”, “Chambers Europe”, “PLC Which Lawyer?”, “World Tax – Ranking of Tax Advisory Firms and Tax Advisors”, ” Who’s Who Legal – The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers”, “Rzeczpospolita”, “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, and “Forbes”.

Dr Fiszer was a lecturer in international tax law at the postgraduate programme of tax and tax law studies at the University of Warsaw and at the postgraduate international tax strategies programme at the Warsaw School of Economics.