OECD updates TEI's European Chapter.

Carol S. Schapira, President of TEI's European Chapter, welcomed more than 80 members and guests to the fall 2006 chapter meeting on October 11, 2006, at the Paris Rive Gauche Hotel. Among the guests were David L. Bernard, 2006-2007 Institute President, and Jeffery P. Rasmussen, TEI Tax Counsel who serves as liaison to TEI's European Tax Committee. Mr. Bernard updated the registrants on the Institute's goals and objectives for the year, especially in increasing the scope and breadth of the Institute's advocacy agenda. Ms. Schapira followed with a summary of the Chapter's goals, including efforts to recruit members from underrepresented areas from within Europe.

Mary Bennett, Head of the Tax Treaty, Transfer Pricing, and Financial Transactions Division of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, kicked off the chapter meeting technical sessions, reviewing key developments in the OECD's business tax agenda, including the attribution of profits to permanent establishments, business restructurings, comparability issues in transfer pricing, nondiscrimination issues, dispute resolution mechanisms, and cross-border services.

Keith Miller, Chair of the Chapter's Indirect Tax Committee, and Will Morris, Chair of the European Tax Committee, respectively, followed Ms Bennett, summarizing the committees' activities in monitoring VAT and direct tax developments as well as updating attendees on currently pending advocacy projects. Among other projects, the Indirect Tax Committee is reviewing the invoicing requirements of the European Union's Member States and will hold informal discussions with representatives from the European Commission about the Member States' adherence to EU VAT Directives. The committee is also undertaking a review of issues surrounding joint and several liability for VAT fraud in the supply chain. The European Tax Committee is exploring a number of topics for submissions, including comments to the European Commission on proposals for a common corporate consolidated tax base and OECD projects on transfer pricing and business restructuring. The first day concluded with concurrent roundtable discussions of indirect tax issues, transfer pricing matters, and PE developments in Europe and Asia.

During a day-long educational session on Thursday, October 12, meeting sponsor Landwell & Associes, a correspondent law firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, discussed Hot Topics in Acquisitions and Divestitures across Europe, including due diligence and pre-transaction planning from the buyer's and seller's perspectives, designing a deal to add value to the purchase and sale, avoiding traps for the unwary (including the treatment of acquisition costs and ensuring VAT cost recovery), post-acquisition integration (including harmonising buyer and seller transfer-pricing methods, integrating systems for VAT costs and recovery, and optimisation of the tax structure for intellectual property), real estate strategies, and accounting considerations.

Doctor Claus Staringer, a Professor at Vienna University in Vienna, Austria, delivered a keynote luncheon speech discussing the effect of recent decisions of the European Court of Justice in Marks & Spencer, Ritter-Coulais, and REWE Zentralfinanz on foreign loss utilization in Europe.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Ms. Shapira announced that the winter and spring meetings of the European Chapter will be held February 1-2, 2007, in Brussels, Belgium, and May 15-16, in Dusseldorf, Germany. The educational program at the meeting in Brussels will focus on pan-European developments, she said, and will likely include a number of representatives from the European Commission. The educational sessions at the meeting in Dusseldorf will address transfer-pricing matters. Information about both programs, she added, including the conference hotel and registration information, will be posted on the Institute's and chapter's websites when it becomes available.