Sarah Afker

Sarah is a Partner and Head of Tax Services of BDO Partners. She has extensive experience in the field of taxation including direct and indirect tax compliance, tax advisory, revenue authority assistance and handling tax appeals, tax planning and structuring for investments, mergers and acquisitions, due diligences, research and development, transfer pricing, trade and customs taxes. Prior to joining BDO, she served at KPMG Sri Lanka. She has also served as Knowledge Manager for various local and international networks of the firm and has attended regional trainings on taxation in Asia Pacific, Middle East-South Asia and Europe.

Sarah is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (SL), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK), Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (UK) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Sarah served as a member of the CASL Tax Faculty, CASL Tax Committee since 2018 and the CASL Transfer Pricing Task Force in 2017. She currently serves as the Chairperson of the CASL  Faculty of Taxation.
 
In addition to her specialism in the field of taxation, she obtained the Islamic Finance Qualification from the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (UK). She has been involved in various Islamic finance initiatives and was part of the team that made representations to the local regulatory authorities to create a level playing field for Islamic Finance instruments over its conventional counterparts; this effort led to the amendment of Tax Statutes. She won the “Rising Islamic Finance Personality of the year” silver award at the Islamic Finance Forum of South Asia in 2016.
 
Sarah interned at the United Nations Development Programme and has been part of a number of projects  of the United Nations Volunteers. She participated in the World Bank –IAB survey in 2009 as a Local Partner for Sri Lanka. Sarah is a lecturer, writer and has authored various Thought Leadership articles to local and international journals.

Areas of Expertise

• Tax compliance and advisory
• Transfer Pricing
• Due diligences
• Investment advisory
• Revenue Authority Assistance
• Islamic Finance

Education

• FCA 

• FCMA(UK)

• CGMA

• MCSI (UK)