European chapter reports on successful year: the following is excerpted from the annual report submitted by Carol Shapira, 2006-2007 president of TEI's European Chapter.

• Position: Chapter News

The 2006-2007 year was yet another success story for the European Chapter. The Officers and Directors of the Chapter, the Committee Chairmen and the Education Committee members who participated in the planning of the three major conferences held in 2006-2007 each contributed to delivering a year of achievements for the Chapter. The large attendance at our conferences, coupled with our active committee and discussion group events, underscores the important role that the European Chapter serves for in-house business tax executives based in Europe.

Education

The European Chapter continued its pattern of holding three conferences during the year, each one and one-half days in length. As our members are based throughout Europe, the formula of less frequent but longer meetings is the most satisfactory. Some committees--such as the Indirect Tax Committee, the European Tax Committee, and the Permanent Establishment Discussion Group --schedule half-day face-to-face meetings adjacent to one or more of the conferences, to take advantage of the fact that many members will be together.

The Fall Conference was held in October in Paris, hosted by Danone and attended by some 80 members. The opening day of the conference featured a presentation by Mary Bennett, Head of the Tax Treaty, Transfer Pricing and Financial Transactions Division of the OECD, on "The OECD's Agenda: Tax Treaties and Transfer Pricing." Both TEI President Dave Bernard and TE! Tax Counsel Jeff Rasmussen attended the meeting, with Dave speaking to the Chapter about "TEI's Global Vision for 2006-2007." The second day of the conference was a full-day educational program presented by Landwell, the correspondent law firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, on "Acquisitions & Divestments--Hot Topics." Over lunch, the group listened to a thought-provoking speech by Professor Claus Staringer of Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration on the future of foreign loss utilization as well as a number of landmark European Court of Justice cases. Landwell hosted for our group a champagne reception and dinner at an elegant Parisian restaurant just off the Champs-Elysees.

The Winter Conference took place in Brussels in February, hosted by International Paper and attended by more than 90 Chapter members with Jeff Rasmussen joining us again. The Citco Group, specialists in providing corporate and trust services, opened the first day's program with a presentation on "Holding Company Structures in...