TEI members appointed to two EU VAT groups.

Tax Executives Institute continues to expand its relationship with the European Commission with appointments of TEI members to two new panels devoted to value-added tax issues. EMEA Chapter members Allard van Ness of FrieslandCampina and Lynne Claire of Sony will represent the Institute on the Commission's VAT Expert Group, and Karl-Heinz Haydl of General Electric Company and Jack Nuijten of Phillip Morris International will hold similar roles on the EU VAT Forum. The EU created these groups earlier this year to provide a forum for receiving advice from stakeholders on proposed European VAT legislation and related initiatives, as well as to informally discuss VAT tax administration issues.

Appointment to these groups provides TEI members with both a window on the development of European-wide VAT policy, and a chance to share the views of TEI members with representatives from the Member States, the Commission staff, and other representatives of other business groups. The overarching goal of the forums is to make the VAT system in Europe more administrable.

These appointments epitomize TEI's growing outreach to and involvement with the European Commission. In recent years, the European Direct and Indirect Tax Committees have filed numerous submissions with the Commission including comments on the VAT Green Paper, the future of Value Added Tax in Europe, and recent German legislation imposing...