2015 Mazars International Tax Conference Closed with Great Success

The conference has attracted more than 200 experts coming from 23 countries, which includes senior level Tax experts from Mazars Group in different offices, and professionals from universities, fortune 500 companies, and governmental organizations. The theme of the conference this year --- HOW THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, OECD AND UN ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL TAX POLICY, features the depth discussion in areas of G20, OECD, and UN.

Pre-conference networking party, cruise on Thames

On the evening of 23 September, Mazars hosted a networking dinner on board the Millennium Diamond river liner. The cruise started and ended at Tower Pier, next to Mazars’ London offices and the Tower of London. Guests enjoyed the beautiful London skyline and communicated well with each other.

Keynote speech given by experts from Mazars and well-known organizations

The conference began with the welcome speech given by Ton Tuinie, Global Head of Tax, Mazars (Netherlands), followed by the opening remarks of David Sayers who is the International Tax Partner Mazars (UK).

The 1st keynote speech was given by Timothy Woodthorpe, Head of UK Tax and Tax Policy, GlaxoSmithKline (UK) on the topic of BEPS and beyond – practical challenges in a changing world.

After the keynote speech, the conference came to the Panel session. The 1st Panel was about “The European Commission’s role in changing the international tax landscape in Europe”, which was chaired by David Sayers, International Tax Partner of Mazars (UK). It was followed by the 2ndpanel discussion on “OECD, G20 and UN role in changing the international tax landscape”, chaired by Erik Stroeve, International Tax Partner, Mazars (Netherlands). During the 2nd panel, a few experts shared their views on these topics, featuring different angles, which are ‘The UK view on OECD and G20 initiatives’ given by Fergus Harradence, Deputy Director of Corporate Tax at HM Treasury (UK), ‘What lies beyond the OECD; a UN perspective on tax treaties and transfer pricing’ given by Tomas Balco, General State Tax Counsel at the Ministry of Finance (Slovakia), and ‘Does harmful tax competition still exist? (17 years on from the first OECD report)’, given by Professor Dr Patricia Lampreave, Complutense University of Madrid, International Tax Lawyer Belgium).

Panel discussion

In the afternoon, 4 break-out panel discussions was held on topics of Transfer pricing solutions post-BEPS in the UK, the US and China BEPS, Tax trends for global financial services in 2015/16, VAT challenges for the financial services, and Tax and social security considerations in short term assignments.

The conference ended at about 4:30pm, with the closing speech given by David Sayers. We congratulate the successful completion of 2015 Tax Conference, and looking forward to meeting our entire guests next year.