TEI EMEA Chapter meets in Amsterdam: in early October, TEI's EMEA Chapter held its annual fall meeting in Amsterdam. More than 50 European tax professionals attended the two-day event, which featured insightful presentations, engaging committee meetings, and an enjoyable evening of networking with colleagues.

• Position: Chapter News - Conference news

The October conference began with Chapter Day: a day of committee meetings, chapter updates, and other presentations. After an introduction to TEI for new members, the chapter's committees discussed various updates and advocacy opportunities in indirect tax, transfer pricing, permanent establishments, and European corporate income taxes. As part of its meeting, the European Indirect Tax Committee invited a representative from the Dutch Ministry of Finance to discuss the Netherlands' views on the European Commission's Green Paper consultation entitled "On the future of VAT: Towards a simpler, more robust and efficient VAT system." TEI submitted comments on that document earlier this year, and the committee greatly valued the insight shared by Cab Schutte from the Ministry.

After lunch, the EMEA Chapter's new President, Lluis M. Fargas, of Alcoa Europe, S.A. in Geneva, welcomed the audience and provided a general overview of recent tax changes in Europe. He summarized recent rate changes for the both VAT and corporate income taxes, as well as provided an overview of other tax developments in Europe such as the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, proposed financial transactions taxes, carbon taxes, and energy taxes on utilities. The afternoon continued with updates from each of the chapter committee chairs who briefed registrants on issues affecting taxpayers in their areas of focus including recent and future advocacy projects. Next, Theo Keijzer, Head of the International Chamber of Commerce Tax Committee, shared his views on a Sustainable Tax Strategy.

After a short break, Monica Sada, the 2010 TEI EMEA Chapter's scholarship award winner, presented a session on Tax Treaty Interpretation. The session provided an opportunity for chapter members to interact with a past award recipient deepening the chapter's relationship with up-and-coming tax professionals in Europe. The day concluded with committee roundtable sessions at which members discussed different topics, exchanged information, received ad vice from their peers, and shared their experiences with tax issues and tax administrations around Europe. From the free-flowing discussions, chapter members clearly...