University of Oxford Saïd Business School

Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Munich

Following the public and political outcry at the tax planning practices of some well-known multinationals, the OECD set up its BEPS project in 2013; this has now reported and proposed a raft of reforms. However, the limitations of the project were clear from the start. The project lacked any serious analysis of the fundamental aims and rationale for the taxation of multinationals’ profit, and in particular where profit should be taxed. The BEPS proposals address specific issues, or loopholes, but the fundamental structural weaknesses in the system will remain. For this reason, it is unlikely that such an approach can generate a stable international tax system.

Towards the end of 2013 an international group of economists and lawyers met to reconsider the fundamentals of the system, and to propose more considered reforms. The group, which has been working and meeting together since then, has two main goals. The first is to set out and examine fundamental issues of principle and practice in the taxation of business profit and the allocation of taxing rights over such profit amongst countries, paying attention to the interests and circumstances of advanced and developing countries. The second is to evaluate the existing system and potential reform options.

The group has considered a number of reform options, ranging from those requiring relatively marginal change to radically different systems. It has considered two options in some detail: (i) a Residual Profit Allocation system and (ii) a Destination Based Cash-Flow Tax. A common feature is that they assign taxing rights partly or fully to the location of relatively immobile factors: shareholders or consumers.

The Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation’s annual summer conference, held on 27 June, will discuss these issues. Members of the group will present the group’s ideas to date, and leading figures from government, business, academia and the media will respond and give their own views on the future development of international corporation tax.

Speakers from the group:

    Michael Devereux, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation
    Michael Graetz, Columbia University and Yale University
    Michael Keen, International Monetary Fund
    Paul Oosterhuis, Skadden Arps LLP
    Wolfgang Schön, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Munich
    John Vella, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation

Confirmed commentators include:

    Reuven Avi-Yonah, University of Michigan
    Jennifer Blouin, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania
    Ian Brimicombe, AstraZeneca
    Alex Cobham, Tax Justice Network
    Steve Edge, Slaughter and May
    Malcolm Gammie QC, One Essex Court
    Rachel Griffith, Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Manchester
    Vanessa Houlder, Financial Times
    John Kay, Financial Times

Registration

Free to attend. Register

Programme

09:00-09:30     Registration
09:30-17:30     Conference
17:30-18:30     Drinks reception

The full programme will be announced soon.

Location

Saïd Business School - Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HP, United Kingdom


Queries?

Please contact Clare Ruthven-Stuart by emailing cbtevents@sbs.ox.ac.uk