Attribution of profits to PE’s: AOA vs. UN Model

Chair: Richard Vann (Australia)
Now that 13 years have passed since the finalisation of the AOA, it is time to take stock of its impact on tax treaties in general and the effect of the UN rejection of the AOA on treaty negotiation and application. After laying out the background and the current state of play in treaty negotiation of the AOA and the UN rejection, the seminar will look at various aspects of the issue: deemed payments, limitations on the functionally separate enterprise approach under the AOA and their relevant to the UN Model, and the impact of the change in direction under BEPS on both the AOA and UN Model.

Panel Members:
Stéphane Austry (France)
Siddharth Banwat (India)
Liselott Kana (Chile)
Diane Ring (USA)

Secretary:
Fernando Lujan (Mexico)

The use of tax systems to execute non-fiscal policy goals (Companion seminar to Subject 1)

Chair: Armando Lara Yaffar (Mexico)
The seminar has the purpose to discuss the tax policy responses that have emerged after the post-pandemic era, as well as the geopolitical events that have affected economies, for which the creation of windfall taxes, the ways in which green energies have been supported, the responses against tax evasion and the challenges of tax administrations to be able to correctly implement these policies will be discussed, among other topics.

Panel Members:
Ubaldo González de Frutos (IADB)
Alice Pirlot (Switzerland)
Flávio Rubinstein (Brazil)
Gary Sprague (USA)

Secretary:
Roberto Padilla (Mexico)

Tax adjudicators Seminar (Adjudicative forums for deciding international tax disputes - Companion seminar to Subject 2)

Chair: Philippe Martin (France)
Seminar C deals with forums where disputes regarding taxation are adjudicated : courts and international treaty arbitration. The mission and duties of tax adjudicators will be discussed, with an eye on the expectations of the parties and the public. Their methods and legal approach will be studied. The seminar will also discuss some difficult issues tax adjudicators may face, especially regarding tax policies pursued by States.

Panel Members:
Rita da Cunha (United Kingdom)
Juliane Kokott (CJEU)
Noiana Marigo (USA)
Juan Carlos Roa (Mexico)

Secretary:
Cristina Carrasco Briones (Mexico)

Who is winning the race?

Chair: Natalia Quiñones Cruz (Colombia)
This seminar will discuss whether base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) has been fully addressed by the current rules or if mobility, new technologies, and new business strategies make BEPS a persistent challenge for the international tax system. The seminar will additionally address the issue of whether BEPS is the same across the globe or if it has a particular detrimental effect for the developing world. Finally, the seminar explores some options to address the issue of persistent BEPS, which range from continuing with the implementation of current rules to unitary taxation and formulary apportionment.

Panel Members:
Michelle de Niese (Australia)
Itai Grinberg (USA)
Andrea Laura Riccardi Sacchi (Uruguay)
Achim Pross (OECD)

Secretary:
Germán García García (Colombia)

IFA/OECD

Chair: Porus Kaka (India)
The IFA/OECD Seminar focuses on the latest developments in the International Tax arena. The OECD’s new tax leadership will provide an update on the work currently underway at the OECD.
The Panel will bring together experts from Government, academia, business and tax practitioners to discuss major International tax initiatives and developments, with a particular emphasis on OECD work in this area.

Panel Members:
Manal Corwin (OECD)
Liselott Kana (Chile)
Nicole Krenger (Switzerland)
Armando Lara Yaffar (Mexico)
Achim Pross (OECD)
Stef van Weeghel (Netherlands)

Secretary:
Aditya Vora (India)

IFA/EU

Chair: Georg Kofler (Austria)
The IFA/EU seminar will highlight the most recent and pressing developments in international tax law from the specific angle of EU law. Discussions will focus on the corporate tax agenda of the EU Commission (including Pillar Two and BEFIT), measures targeting aggressive tax planning and harmful tax competition (such as „Unshell“ and the Revised Code of Conduct), administrative cooperation and transparency, and the impact of the green transition on European taxation.

Panel Members:
Benjamin Angel (EU)
Pia Dorfmueller (Germany)
María José Garde (EU)
Eric Kemmeren (Netherlands)
Juliane Kokott (CJEU)
Błażej Kuźniacki (Netherlands)

Secretary:
Theres Neumüller (Austria)

Non-discrimination rules (direct and indirect)

Chair: Alexander Rust (Austria)
The core focus of this seminar is the link of tax treaties with regional cooperation and explore these links with “non tax areas” The seminar will revisit the two non-discrimination rules (direct and indirect) and analyse its two constitutive elements (i.e., comparability and the existence of different treatment). Also, whether a domestic measure that is at first deemed discriminatory may be justified on the basis of BEPS and/or EU law, will be discussed.

Panel Members:
Xaver Ditz (Germany)
Angelo Nikolakakis (Canada)
Fadi Shaheen (USA)
Miranda Stewart (Australia)

Secretary:
Marcelo Moura (Austria)

Recent Developments in international taxation

Chair: Jonathan Schwarz (United Kingdom)
This permanent seminar at all IFA Congresses, brings the latest and most important issues that impact international taxation around the world. The main focus of this seminar will be on recent judicial decisions on key international tax topics such as tax treaties, transfer pricing and domestic tax rules with cross-border implications. The final agenda for the seminar is normally decided close to the Congress date to make sure that it is as current as possible.

Panel Members:

Theme 1
Silvia Boiardi (Italy)
Lizelotte De Maeyer (Belgium)
Sunita Doobay (Canada)
Michaela Engel (Germany)
Frédéric Teper (France)

Theme 2
Andreas Bullen (Norway)
Peter Connors (USA)
Kuntal Dave (India)
Rébecca Dorasamy (Switzerland)
Remedios García Gómez de Zamora (Spain)
Charlotte Kies (Netherlands)
Ryan Killoran (South African)
Christopher Steeves (Canada)
Wojciech Sztuba (Poland)
Nora Morales Rodríguez (Mexico)

Secretary:
Gabriela Haro (Peru)

International mobility and remote work: Corporate tax implications

Chair: Ana Claudia Utumi (Brazil)
The purpose of this panel is to examine the international tax implications, especially for multinational enterprises (MNE), to have personnel working at distance, having them relocated to other countries, or even directly hiring people that live in other countries as employees. Many of the MNEs reduced the sizes of their physical offices, showing that remote work came to stay, and not as a temporary measure.
The number of issues related to international relocations/international employees is significant. Characterisation of permanent establishment, interaction with other companies of the group to share costs/functions exercised by certain employees, taxation of cross-border services, impact of tax treaties on remuneration for the services provided by those employees, taxation on the use of digital means to allow the remote work, determination of tax residency etc.

Panel Members:
Sandra Benedetto (Chile)
Karine Halimi-Guez (France)
Victor Jaramillo (USA)
Belema Obuoforido (IBFD)
Juan Carlos Perez-Peña (OECD)
Frank Pötgens (Netherlands)
Tom Roesser (USA)

Secretary:
Doris Canen (Brazil)

Transfer pricing controversial topics - problems and solutions

Chair: Monique van Herksen (Netherlands)

The panel will look at transfer pricing controversy and resolution trends. Based on Court cases considered relevant for any and all jurisdictions - regardless which Court and what country - the challenge to allocate arm’s length income to intangibles, and in particular marketing intangibles, will be discussed.
There is one Arm’s Length principle, yet the increase in transfer pricing controversy shows it has many and at times conflicting interpretations. Therefore, functioning dispute resolution mechanisms are crucial. However, MAP increasingly seems to be suffering setbacks. The alternative to avoid costly surprises traditionally has been to seek advance certainty (APAs, rulings). But is advance certainty - as we know it - still out there?
With the Pillar 2 impact of imposing an additional layer of tax and tax costs, it is urgent that the above two issues: (i) wildly differing and unpredictable positions on (marketing) intangibles and (ii) halting dispute resolution or dispute avoidance mechanisms are addressed and resolved.
A panel of experienced practitioners, government and former government practitioners in the field of transfer pricing, MAP and APAs and an OECD representative will debate the above issues and developments and consider solutions or improvements.

Panel Members:
Mukesh Butani (India)
Stefan Greil (Germany)
Eric Lesprit (France)
Marc Levey (USA)
Mayra Lucas (OECD)
Ricardo Rendón (Mexico)

Secretary:
Carla Herrera Ferez (Mexico)

Consumption taxes and the digital economy: Where are we now?

Chair: Martha Ruelas (Mexico)

Panel Members:
Laura Alarcón Diaz (Netherlands)
Marcel Alcades Theodoro (Brazil)
Ivan Ozai (Canada)
Marta Papis-Almansa (Poland)
Paulson Tseng (Chinese Taipei)

E-invoicing as a means to tackle tax fraud

Chair:
Odile Courjon (France)

Panel Members:
Fabiola Annacondia (IBFD)
Alex Baulf (United Kingdom/USA)
Birgit Jürgensmann (Germany)
Yuri Matsubara (Japan)
Herminia Diaz (Mexico)

Secretary:
Elizabeth Gonzalez (Mexico)

To take place on Monday 23 October 2023 from 15.30-17.00 hours in room: Universal Upper Level

Chair
Juan Carlos Perez-Peña (OECD)

Panel members
Armando Lara Yaffar (Mexico)
Andrea Prieto (Colombia)
Daniel Fuentes Hernández (Mexico)
Pablo Campagnale  (Argentina)
Maria José Garde (Spain)
Andrea Laura Riccardi Sacchi (Uruguay)

This seminar will discuss the impact of the GloBE Rules in Latin America. The first part of the panel will focus on whether Latin American countries need to adopt the GloBE Rules or make other modifications to their legislation in response to the adoption of the GloBE Rules in other countries. It will discuss the key factors that governments need to consider for the adoption of the rules. The second half of the panel will focus on how Latin American MNE Groups that are subject to the GloBE Rules in other jurisdictions, are preparing themselves for the application of the rules, including how are they dealing with specific issues that arise in the region.

To take place on Wednesday 25 October 2023 from 16.00-17.30 hours in room: Arena G.

Chair
Robert Danon (IFA Chair PSC)

Panel members
Natalie Chang (Rio Tinto - Australia)
Marian Eguiarte Morett (Sanchez Devanny - Mexico)
Adolfo Martín Jiménez (IFA Vice Chair PSC)
Porus Kaka (Chambers of Porus Kaka - India)
Guglielmo Maisto (IFA Vice President)
Achim Pross (OECD)
Tom Roesser (Microsoft - USA)
Carine Stoffels (Spotify - UK/Sweden)

This year, the IFA dialogue, organized in cooperation with the ICC, will explore the concrete implementation of the Global Minimum Tax around the various regions of the globe and the latest developments. Panelists, including senior representatives of the industry, will share their perspectives on progress, challenges, business models and concrete issues such as, among others, the relation of the global minimum tax with tax incentives as well as dispute prevention and resolution.
To take part, please register by the email mentioned in the invitation.

To take place on Wednesday 25 October 2023 from 12.15-13.30 hours in room: Universal Upper Level.

Chair
Johann Hattingh (South Africa)

Panel members
Juliane Kokott (CJEU)
Jonathan Schwarz (United Kingdom)
Stef van Weeghel (Netherlands)
Robert Danon (IFA Chair PSC)
Guglielmo Maisto (IFA Vice President)
Adolfo Martín Jiménez (IFA Vice Chair PSC)
Natalia Quiñones Cruz (Colombia)
Daniel Gutmann (France)

In this session, IFA’s current project on tax treaty interpretation will be discussed.

The session will begin with opening presentations by the editors followed by a panel discussion.

To take place on Thursday 26 October 2023 from 12.15-13.30 hours in room: Expocenter 30-39 + Foyer Izquierdo.