Summary:
Progress and New Challenges: European Conference on Company Taxation, Rome 5-6 December 2003. |
Rome, 5-6 December 2003
Introduction
The Italian Council Presidency and the European Commission co-hosted a high-level conference entitled "EU Corporate Tax Reform: Progress and New Challenges" in December 2003.
The conference was opened with key note speeches from:
- Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, and
- Italian Minister of Finance Giulio Tremonti.
High-level tax specialists from the public and private sectors of Europe and beyond considered the recent Commission Communication on Company Taxation and the internal market (COM(2003) 726 of 24/11/2003). In this Communication, the Commission reviewed its current strategy in the field of company taxation, based on two 'tracks' that aim to tackle the tax-related inefficiencies and obstacles within the Internal Market via:
- targeted immediate solutions and
- steps towards a longer-term goal of providing companies with a common consolidated tax base for their EU-wide activities.
The conference programme, along with the text of papers presented at the conference, are presented below.
Background Information
- Conference Press Release (IP/03/1395 ) of 15 October 2003
- Conference Comunicato Stampa, Roma, 2 dicembre 2003
- Commission Communication on Company Taxation:
- An Internal Market without company tax obstacles - achievements, ongoing initiatives and remaining challenges (COM(2003) 726 of 24/11/2003 )
- Commission review progress on removal of cross-border tax obstacles: press release IP/03/1593 , 25 November 2003
- Commission company tax strategy - frequently asked questions MEMO/03/237 , 25 November 2003
Conference Agenda and Papers
Friday, 5 December 2003
Welcome Address
Gen. C.A. Roberto SPECIALE
Commanding General of Guardia di Finanza, Italy
Opening addresses
Giulio TREMONTI
Italian Minister of Economy and Finance
Frits Bolkestein
Member of the European Commission
Session 1 - "Tackling company tax obstacles in the Internal Market"
Chair :
Brigid McManus
Assistant Secretary-General, Department of Finance, Ireland
The role of Community law
The impact of recent and forthcoming ECJ jurisprudence for the Internal Market and on the revenue-protecting features of Member States' corporate tax systems - Is co-ordination of Member States implementation of ECJ decisions via soft law and guidance desirable and feasible?
Speaker :
Melchior Wathelet
Former Judge at the European Court of Justice
Discussant :
Prof. Jörg Manfred Mössner - full text of Prof. Mössner's speech is available here ,
University of Osnabrück
Prof. Francesco TESAURO
University of Milano-Bicocca
Chairman of the European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP)
Consequences for the tax treaty policies of EU Member States
Tax obstacles in the Internal Market due to different Treaty policies and the impact of recent ECJ decisions. The way forward on double taxation conventions of Member States: uncoordinated changes via the ECJ, a gradual co-ordination of treaty policies, a multilateral convention or an agreed EU model treaty?
Panel Discussion
Chair :
Andrea MANZITTI
Ministry of Economy and Finance, Head of Tax Policy Department, Italy
Philip BAKER QC
Gray's Inn Tax Chambers (UK)
Prof. Michael LANG
Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration
Prof. Gugliemo MAISTO
Maisto e Associati & Un iversity of Piacenza
Carl-Gustav FERNLUND
Director-General, Swedish Ministry of Finance
Saturday, 6 December 2003
Session 2 - "Pilot schemes as a concrete way of making progress towards an Internal Market without company tax obstacles"
Chair :
Hubert HAMAEKERS
Chairman of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation,
Amsterdam
Speaker :
Robert VERRUE
Director-General "Taxation And Customs Union", European Commission
The follow-up to the Commission Company Tax Study and Communication of 23 October 2001 - State of Play and way forward
Discussant :
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang SCHÖN
Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law (Munich)
Panel Discussion
Chair :
Bruno GIBERT
Chairman of the EU Joint Transfer Pricing Forum
Chas Roy-Chowdhury
European Association of Craft, Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME) & Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens (FEE)
Stella Raventos Calvo
Chair of the Direct Taxation Committee of the Confédération fiscale européenne
Michael KUTTIN
Director, Austrian Ministry of Finance
Jan van der BIJL
Chairman of UNICE Fiscal Affairs Working Group
'Home State Taxation' for small and medium-sized enterprises - the way forward in practice
A common consolidated EU tax base for the Societas Europaea - the options ; assessment of potential discrimination issues ; the role of accounting harmonisation
The 'comprehensive approaches' for removing the tax obstacles in the Internal Market of 25 Member States - an overall assessment.
Conclusion
Closing remarks
Christa RANDZIO-PLATH
Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
European Parliament
Other papers submitted to the Conference
- Taxation Trends in Europe
by Prof. Dr Hubert Hamaekers - The European Commission's Report on Company Income Taxation: What the EU Can Learn from the Experience of the US States by
- Walter Hellerstein
University of Georgia Law School - Charles E. McLure, Jr.
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
- Walter Hellerstein