Friday 20 June 2008 - Tuesday 24 June 2008

Venue: Said Business School

Organised by Taxation Law

The 2008 CBT Summer Conference will address three current and fundamental issues in the taxation of business. Two issues focus on European developments. The conference will discuss proposals from the European Commission to introduce a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) in the European Union. The Commission intends to produce a draft Directive later this year, taking into account an economic evaluation currently being undertaken by the Centre for Business Taxation. Centre researchers will present some initial research. Tom Neale of the European Commission will report on the current state of the proposals. Representatives from European business will give a practical perspective; there will also be a round table discussion. The second European issue on the agenda is to take stock of the current state of European Court of Justice case law on corporate taxation, the likely direction of future developments and the implications for national governments. Speakers include: Richard Lyal, Legal Adviser at the European Commission, Mark Blythe of HM Treasury, Julian Ghosh, QC, who represented the taxpayer companies in the Cadbury Schweppes case and Philip Gillett, recently departed from ICI. The third issue is principles-based legislation, and other generic approaches to anti-avoidance legislation, such as TAARs, currently the subject of HMRC’s anti-avoidance simplification review. The recent HMRC consultation document on financial products suggested a move towards principles-based taxation. Whilst the responses to this were mixed, and this technique was not adopted in the Finance Act 2008, there appears to be some appetite from Government and others for more generic legislative approaches to counter tax-avoidance in the future. The debate on the way forward continues, with a new consultation to be published shortly. Similar debates continue in other jurisdictions, notably Australia. Centre researchers will report on a programme of interviews with tax directors and others, in which opinions on various issues including principle-based drafting, are being sought. Again, leading speakers from business and government will present their views, including Richard Thomas (HMRC), Brenda Berkeley (Australian Treasury), Roger Adams (Aviva), Brian Drummond ( KPMG), John Avery Jones CBE and Rupert Shiers (McGrigors). Lord Hoffmann will address this issue at the conference dinner on June 20.