Seminar A: The subsidiary as a permanent establishment
Article 5 (7) of the OECD Model Tax Convention states that the parentsubsidiary relationship “shall not of itself constitute either company a permanent establishment of the other”. In order that a subsidiary be regarded as a permanent establishment of the parent, one must therefore go beyond the shareholding relationship, requiring other elements to be examined.
Seminar A will discuss the definition of permanent establishment and the key elements to be considered in its application to a subsidiary company.
Discussions will be conducted through case studies.
Chair: Luis Eduardo Schoueri (Brazil)
Secretary: Oliver-Christoph Günther (Austria)
Panel Members: Valerio Barbantini (Italy),
Xaver Ditz (Germany),
Steven Hannes (USA),
Anita Kapur (India),
Michael Lennard (UN)
Seminar B: The privilege for tax advice
The extent of privilege afforded to tax advice must balance a person’s right to obtain professional advice in confidence and the state’s interest in ensuring that the appropriate amount of tax is paid in accordance with its laws. Privilege extends to certain communications, not because the evidence is irrelevant, but rather because there is an overriding policy to exclude this relevant evidence. This Seminar considers the scope of tax advice privilege in various common law and civil law jurisdictions and, in particular, the circumstances in which such
privilege extends beyond solicitor-client communications. The Seminar will consider whether there is a need for harmonization of the rules concerning tax advice privilege, for example in the EU, in order to avoid “tax advice shopping”.
Chair: Daniel Sandler (Canada)
Secretary: Walter Andreoni (Italy)
Panel Members: Christine Bouvier (France),
Guglielmo Fransoni (Italy)
Don Korb (USA),
Tony Pagone (Australia),
Roman Seer (Germany)
Seminar C: Tax treaty regime of trust income
This Seminar approaches the treatment of trusts under tax treaties both from a theoretical and practical (case studies) perspective. After a general review of the trust concept and its features, the Seminar will examine to what extent a trust is to be regarded as a “person”, a “resident of a contracting State” and the “beneficial owner” for treaty purposes. Finally, the panelists will explore to what extent diverging domestic tax rules governing the attribution of trust income may affect the application of tax treaties and ultimately lead to double taxation or double non-taxation situations.
Chair: Robert Danon (Switzerland)
Secretary: Francisco Zamora (Mexico)
Panel Members: Cecilia Gunne (Sweden),
Sebastian Lopez Sanson (Argentina),
Carlyn McCaffrey (USA) ,
John Prebble (New Zealand),
Joanna Wheeler (Netherlands)
Seminar D: VAT/GST and group companies
VAT and GST, being taxes applied on a transaction-by-transaction basis, may
influence group structures, particularly in exempt sectors (such as banking or
insurance). Tax authorities may also seek to consolidate activities which have
been artificially split in order to enjoy special VAT/GST regimes for small
business. For these reasons, certain States have introduced VAT/GST
grouping regimes. The Seminar analyses such regimes and tries to draw a
comparison between VAT/GST grouping and income tax consolidation.
Chair: Andrea Parolini (Italy)
Secretary: Arnaldo Salvatore (Italy)
Panel Members: Carlos Bechara (Brazil),
Des Kruger (South Africa),
Rebecca Millar (Australia),
Greg Sinfield (UK),
Mariken Van Hilten (Netherlands)
Seminar E: IFA/OECD: red card 17?
After an update on the work of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs, the panel will address a number of practical issues related to Article 17 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. The application of that Article, which allows countries to tax the income derived from the activities that entertainers and sport persons perform on their territory, gives rise to significant practical difficulties which will be discussed through case studies. The panel will also address the policy question of whether the special regime provided for by the Article is justified.
Chair: Richard Vann (Australia)
Secretary: Mario Tenore (Italy)
Panel Members: Mary Bennett (OECD),
Andrew Dawson (UK),
Xavier Oberson (Switzerland),
Jeffrey Owens (OECD),
Michael Pfeifer (USA),
Aart Roelofsen (Netherlands),
Jacques Sasseville (OECD)
Seminar F: Tax havens
This Seminar deals with legal, tax and policy issues arising in the transition from tax havens to co-operative tax jurisdictions in the era of global fiscal transparency. The main focus will be on selected theoretical and practical issues of mutual assistance - such as exchange of information on the basis of tax treaties patterned along Article 26 OECD MTC and other legal instruments
- (including a case-study analysis), and the coordination required to determine the foundations of good international tax governance and the mechanisms for its peer-review. These developments will be examined within the context of the long-standing and continuing concern over tax avoidance and tax evasion through the use of so-called “tax havens”.
Chair: Pasquale Pistone (Italy)
Secretary: Natalia Quinones (Colombia)
Panel Members: Eric Hess (Switzerland),
Jeffrey Owens (OECD),
Bill Sharp (USA),
Miranda Stewart (Australia)
Seminar G: Tax indemnities in m&a and other commercial transactions
This Seminar will explore tax indemnities in a cross-border context, from the standpoint of practitioners. The session will examine a case study involving a cross-border m&a transaction, and focus on aspects that cause negotiating tension, traps and issues that may be overlooked, as well as issues that may have particular importance in certain countries, including as the result of expansive concepts of jurisdiction, privatizations, or a fundamental overhaul of the tax system.
Chair: Peter Blessing (USA)
Secretary: Paolo Ruggiero (Italy)
Panel Members: Stephan Eilers (Germany),
Patrick Mears (UK),
Gabriela Pellon (Mexico),
Eric Roose (Japan)
Seminar H: Recent developments in international taxation
This year’s Seminar will be dedicated to developments in several areas related to the corporate tax compliance in the context of current global economic conditions, including the current status and trend in the relationship between the tax authorities and corporate taxpayers and implications thereof on the corporate tax planning. The Panel will explore recent proposals for enhanced disclosure by taxpayers and the impact this trend will have on corporate tax planning. In addition, the Panel will discuss recent trends in transfer pricing and address the implications of the several recent international tax cases related to the above and other issues of interest.
Chair: Nick Pantaleo (Canada)
Secretary: Tomás Balco (Kazakhstan)
Panel Members: Malcolm Gammie (UK), Theo Keijzer (Netherlands), Eric Solomon (USA)
Special Guest Panellist: David Hartnett (UK, HM Revenue & Customs)
Seminar I: International assistance in the collection of taxes
In order to collect tax on cross-border transactions, the tax authorities need to implement several rules to obtain information and enforce the payment of
tax. This Seminar will discuss some of these rules, their limitations and future
initiatives. As a case study, we will consider practical issues that have arisen
in cross-border enforcement under the US-Canada treaty. The Seminar will
also consider trends in the EU and OECD in the area of mutual assistance in
recovery and administration.
Chair: Liselott Kana (Chile)
Secretary: Lino Lunardi (Italy)
Panel Members: Philip Baker (UK),
Ernst Czakert (Germany),
Maria Amparo Grau Ruiz (Spain),
Arie van Eijsden (Netherlands)
Seminar J: IFA/EU State aid
EU Member States are prevented from granting state aid to enterprises unless
permitted by the European Commission. Tax benefits can be regarded as
state aid. If a tax provision constitutes state aid and it has not been notified to
the Commission, the provision must not be applied by the tax authorities.
European law even demands from the Member States the recovery of
unlawfully granted tax benefits. Tax Assessments may have to be reopened.
Legitimate expectations of the taxpayers have little weight. The unclear scope of the state aid rules leads to a high degree of uncertainty. This Seminar will
deal with the complexity of the state aid regime in Europe, recent trends in
the case law of the ECJ in this area and the consequences for tax planning.
Chair: Michael Lang (Austria)
Secretary: Lisa Paterno (Austria)
Panel Members: Tracy Kaye (USA),
Raymond Luja (Netherlands),
Pierpaolo Rossi-Maccanico (EC), Servaas Van Thiel (Switzerland),
Carsten Zatschler (ECJ)