"Towards a New World Tax Order?" June 28th, 2019 in Munich, Germany - WTS Global

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            International Tax Conference
         “Towards a New World Tax Order?”
        June 28th, 2019 in Munich, Germany
We would like to invite you to our International Tax Conference. In cooperation with ICC,
Business at OECD and BusinessEurope, we will discuss tax policy issues arising from the
­international discussion around the challenges of the Digitalization. In this context and as
 the implementation of BEPS in national jurisdictions as well as in the treaty network is pro-
 gressing, dispute pre­vention and dispute resolution are becoming more crucial and will
 also be discussed. The conference will be divided into four sessions, each being composed
 of an interview and followed by a panel discussion with distinguished speakers.

8:30            Arrival of the participants/Welcome coffee

9:00 – 9:10     Welcome
		              Georg Geberth, Chairman, Tax Committee of the Federation of Bavarian
                ­Industries; Vice Chair, Business at OECD Committee on Taxation and Fiscal
                 Affairs; Director Global Tax Policy, Siemens
		              Russel Mills, Secretary General, Business at OECD

9:10 – 9:45     Opening Speech
		              Pascal Saint-Amans, Director,
		              Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

Session 1 on “Reallocation of Taxing Rights“
Digitilization of the economy is perceived as presenting important challenges for internation-
al taxation, largely related to the question of how taxing rights or income generated from
cross-border activities in the digital age should be allocated among countries. The OECD, with-
in the context of the Inclusive Framework, seeks to work on a consensus-based solution by
2020 to revise the way the digitalised economy is taxed. Two main pillars are being explored
on which member countries will focus their efforts to solve the technical challenges to imple-
mentation. The Pillar One proposals focus on the reallocation of taxing rights among countries
that would modify the rules on profit allocation and nexus based on the concept of user con-
tribution or marketing intangibles. The new rules being considered would give more taxing
rights to « market » countries, where a company’s customers or users reside. Both the user par-
ticipation and marketing intangibles proposals are based on the principle that business profits
should be taxed in the countries in which value is considered to be “created” and argue that the
profit allocation and nexus rules should be amended to better reflect that principle. This panel
will discuss the merits and challenges of these two proposals and also consider the proposed
approaches for exploration by the OECD in its Work Plan, including a modified residual profit
split (MRPS) method, a fractional apportionment method and distribution-based approaches.

9:45 – 10:10   Introduction by Krister Andersson, representing BusinessEurope and
		             Interview with Valère Moutarlier, EU-Commission

10:10 – 11:05 Panel discussion
              Gabriele Rautenstrauch, Partner, WTS (Moderator)
              Krister Andersson, Chairman of the Tax Committee, BusinessEurope
              Valère Moutarlier, Director Direct Taxation, EU-Commission
              Jesper Barenfeld, Head of Group Taxation, Volvo
              Bill Sample, Chairman, USCIB Tax Committee; Tax Policy Advisor, Microsoft
              Amy Roberti, Global Tax & Fiscal Policy Director, Procter & Gamble

11:05 – 11:30 Coffee Break

Session 2 on “Significant Economic Presence and Transfer Pricing”
The third proposal under Pillar One brings in the concept of Significant Economic Presence
as the nexus rule to address tax challenges relating to digitalization. Under this proposal, a
taxable presence in a country would be created when a non-resident enterprise has a sig-
nificant economic presence on the basis of factors that are evidence of purposeful and sus-
tained interaction with the economy of that country, via technology and other automated
means. Some countries consider that these factors should be taken into account to develop
a concrete design of the new rule based on significant economic presence that would allow
the market jurisdiction to exercise taxing rights where there is evidence of sustained and
significant involvement in a market jurisdiction’s economy. This panel will discuss possible
options including amendment to the OECD Model Convention Articles 5 and 7 to deem a
permanent establishment (PE) to exist where an MNE exhibits a remote yet sustained and
significant involvement in the economy or a standalone provision to identify new non-phys-
ical taxable presence separate from the PE concept. Panellists will also explore how the
current options interrelate with existing Transfer Pricing Guidelines to minimise disputes as
well as achieve certainty and administrability.

11:30 – 11:55 Introduction by Christian Kaeser, representing ICC and
		 Interview with Michael Lennard, United Nations

11:55 – 12:50 Panel discussion
               Axel Nientimp, Partner, WTS (Moderator)
		            Christian Kaeser, Chairman, ICC Commission on Taxation;
		 Global Head of Taxes, Siemens; Vienna University of Economics and Business
		            Michael Lennard, Chief, International Tax Cooperation Section in the
              ­Financing for Sustainable Development Office (FfSDO) of the United Nations
               Pascal Saint-Amans, Director,
		 Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
		             Clive Baxter, Chief Tax Counsel, Maersk

12:50 – 14:10 Lunch Break

Session 3 on “Minimum Taxation”
Under the Pillar Two proposals, the Inclusive Framework is exploring the introduction of a
minimum tax regime. The approach considers the right of other jurisdictions to apply rules
where income is taxed at an (effective) tax rate below a minimum rate and is envisioned
as a means to stop a perceived “race to the bottom” on tax rates. The proposal would be
composed of two interrelated rules, i.e. an income inclusion rule and a tax on base eroding
payments. Design features such as rule coordination, simplification, thresholds and com-
patibility with international obligations will need more research. This panel will discuss
the existing proposals and how the introduction of minimum tax rules would materially
increase the taxes collected and/or materially increase the global effective tax rates of mul-
tinational companies as well as the possible implications as a result of an increase in cost
of capital, ensuing investment decisions and the economic trade-offs that may need to be
considered. Other points of discussion will be how to avoid unintended consequences, like
a highly taxed entity becoming subject to the minimum tax rules, and consider how to de-
termine when income is subject to an effective minimum rate, whether to include carve-
outs for regimes that otherwise comply with the OECD’s standards preventing harmful tax
practices, whether to let taxpayers “blend” high- and low-tax income to achieve an effec-
tive rate that meets the minimum threshold, and how to coordinate these rules with with-
holding taxes and transfer pricing, or transactions between related companies.

14:10 – 14:35 Introduction by Wolfgang Schön, representing MPI and
              Interview with Martin Kreienbaum, German Ministry of Finance

14:35 – 15:30 Panel discussion
              Franz zu Hohenlohe, Member of the Board, WTS (Moderator)
		            Wolfgang Schön, Managing Director Max-Planck-Institute (MPI), Munich;
		 Honorary Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
		            Martin Kreienbaum, Director General of International Taxation, German
              Ministry of Finance; Chair of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs (CFA), OECD
		            Laurence Jaton, Head of Group Tax, Engie
		            Jos Beerepoot, Head of Tax, ABN AMRO

15:30 – 15:50 Coffee Break

Session 4 on “Dispute Avoidance and Dispute Resolution”
The fundamental changes to the international tax framework that are being considered in
the context of addressing the tax challenges arising from digitalisation, will not be limited
to “digital companies”. Therefore, the importance of improving dispute prevention and dis-
pute resolution mechanisms is ever more relevant. New concepts of taxing companies and
allocating profits to countries may be subject to different interpretations and the business
community will be confronted with increasing instances of double taxation. Any potential
solutions should embed measures against double taxation for compliant taxpayers, failing
which the consequences could hinder global trade in the digital era. It is imperative that
robust dispute prevention and dispute resolution procedures are in place to reduce double
taxation disputes. Dispute prevention instruments – such as cooperative compliance pro-
grammes or joint audits – aim at reaching an agreement, before disputes arise. Dispute pre-
vention will obviously not always be possible. It is therefore crucial to make the next level,
dispute resolution, more effective. Instruments such as the Mutual Agreement Procedure
and Mandatory Binding Arbitration could play an important role in reducing double taxa-
tion. This session discusses how to make dispute prevention and dispute resolution more
effective, thus encouraging domestic and international investment and trade.

15:50 – 16:15 Introduction by Will Morris, representing Business at OECD and
		 Interview with Pascal Saint-Amans, Director,
		 Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

16:15 – 17:10 Panel discussion
              Bernard Peeters, Partner, Tiberghien (Moderator)
              Will Morris, Chairman, Business at OECD Committee on Taxation
              and Fiscal Affairs; Deputy Global Tax Policy Leader, PwC
		 Pascal Saint-Amans, Director,
		 Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
              Thomas Eisgruber, Head of Department, International Taxation,
              Bavarian Ministry of Finance
              Monika Wünnemann, Head of Tax Department, BDI
              Bob Stack, Managing Director, International Tax, Deloitte Tax LLP

17:10 – 17:15 Wrap Up

Venue, Date and Time
→ Friday, June 28th, 2019 from 9.00 a.m. to 5.15 p.m.
→ Please note the new venue: Hotel Hilton Munich Park | Am Tucherpark 7 | 80538 Munich
→ The conference will be held in English.

Participation and Registration
Your participation is free. To register please click here.
Please understand that in the case of a no-show we have to charge a processing fee of € 100.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Heidi Jackelsberger
heidi.jackelsberger@wts.de

If you need an overnight stay, please contact:
Eden Hotel Wolff | Arnulfstrasse 4 | 80335 Munich, Germany | www.eden-hotel-wolff.de
Phone +49 (0) 89 55 11 5-0 | info@ehw.de
The quota can be accessed until May 30, 2019. Single room EUR 146,00 incl. breakfast.
Keyword: ITC Munich

Some more hotels in the centre of Munich: anna Hotel, www.annahotel.de
Platzl Hotel, www.platzl.de | LOUIS Hotel, www.louis-hotel.com
Please note, there is no quota for these hotels.

For your leisure time please visit the website of “Explore Munich” with some sights and
attractions: www.muenchen.de/int/en.html

We look forward to welcoming you.

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