CFE Forum 2013; Tax Planning: what is (un)acceptable?

Date: Thursday 21 March 2013
Time: 9.00 - 17.15 hrs
Venue: Representation of the State Saxony-Anhalt, Boulevard Saint-Michel 80, B-1040 Brussels

Governments, supported by the OECD and the EU, have identified “aggressive” tax planning or “tax arbitrage” as a major risk to the tax bases of countries.

Seemingly opposed to this view is the businesses´ perspective that planning is an integral part of business activity and, as tax is a cost to the business, tax planning is a legitimate business activity and is not necessarily aggressive.

The past decades have been witnessing a constant increase in the level of sophistication in the structuring of cross-border transactions. These arrangements, even if not set up with aggressive intention, pose significant challenges to tax authorities and policy makers who need to identify risk areas promptly and decide whether and how to counteract these.

Countries have developed a number of strategies to ensure timely, targeted and comprehensive information which traditional audits cannot provide, like complementary disclosure initiatives to fill the gap between the creation/promotion of tax planning schemes and their identification by tax authorities, arguing that this would benefit both taxpayers and governments alike, in terms of increased transparency and positive impact on tax compliance.

An important challenge for tax advisers is to ensure that such measures do not produce unintended and distortive effects on cross-border trade and investment. Although countries may choose how to design their tax systems, in a world where economies are increasingly integrated, it is essential to consider how tax systems interact, within a context of fair tax competition and an ever-increasing need for transparency on both sides.

The CFE Forum 2013 will address specific difficulties for practitioners involved in cross-border tax planning and point out practical solutions.

More information and registration form are available on
www.cfe-eutax.org.