A landmark annual event in tax evasion and tax avoidance policy, the event sought to review past developments, study new evidence, and project policy to the future. By bringing together policymakers from national administrations and international organizations, academics and researchers working on tax evasion and tax avoidance, members of the civil society, journalists, and the general public, the event offered a common space for dialogue, exchange of ideas, and formulation of novel solutions.
Entitled “Tax Avoidance and Offshore Wealth: Policies for Tomorrow”, the conference focused on two timely thematic areas: New forms of tax competition in the EU and offshore wealth and identification of beneficial owners. A detailed summary of the different panels can be found in the summary below.
In his welcoming address, Gabriel Zucman (Director of the EU Tax Observatory) celebrated the great work achieved by the Observatory since its creation in June 2021. He continued by stating the high ambitions the Observatory has for the future, as the tax system of the 21st century is still to be invented. Zucman indeed reminded us that the current tax system is still the brainchild of the 1950s, a time when it made sense to exempt savings and tax consumption and wages because capital stocks and inequality of revenues were low. The dramatic change in this picture since the 1950s, said Zucman, makes the transformation of the EU tax system a necessity to face the inequality and ecological challenges.
Mentioning the COVID crisis, the war in Ukraine, climate change, technological transformations, and growing inequality, Gerassimos Thomas (Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission) welcomed a conference that comes at the right time since governments need to strengthen fiscal revenues to tackle these issues. He also pointed out the need for more such medium and long-term debates on tax policy as coming challenges imply reforms of the EU tax mix that can no longer primarily rely on labour- and consumption-based taxes. According to Thomas, we are at one of these once-in-a-while big steps where tax systems have to readjust to face current challenges.
The first policy-academic mixtape focused on the question “Will The Global Minimum Tax Suffice?”. It started with a keynote speech given by Michael Keen (Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo). His presentation focused on the economics of Pillar 2 of the OECD global minimum corporate tax agreement, both on the technical aspects of its implementation and its potential consequences. The following panel discussion with Alex Cobham, Michael Devereux, Kira Peter-Hansen, and Pascal Saint-Amans, moderated by Sam Fleming (Brussels Bureau Chief at Financial Times), focused on the current adoption by countries of Pillar 2, a tax reform that would guarantee an effective minimum tax rate of 15% paid by firms on profits.
The panel “New Forms of Tax Competition” with Benjamin Angel, Sarah Godar, Nadine Riedel, and Paul Tang, chaired by Panayiotis Nicolaides (Director of Research at the EU Tax Observatory) focused on the new preferential tax schemes EU countries have implemented to attract companies and high-income earners. Panelists discussed to which extent tax competition through these schemes is harmful to the EU.
The afternoon session “The Case for the Global Asset Registry” started with a keynote given by Matthew Collin (World Bank). His presentation was titled: Are we ready for a global asset registry? The following Policy Discussion, moderated by Ana Matos Neves (reporter for LUSA), saw the participation of Elisa Casi-Eberhard, Luis Garicano, Andres Knobel, and Theresa Neef. It focused on the need for a comprehensive global asset registry to tackle illicit financial flows and tax evasion, its building blocks at the EU and global level, and its implementability in the next decade.
During the conference “Tax Avoidance and Offshore Wealth: Policies for Tomorrow”, the EU Tax Observatory awarded its first Young Researcher Award. The two winning papers of this year’s award were “Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market” co-authored by Jeanne Bomare and Ségal Le Guern, and “Profit Shifting, Employee Pay, and Inequalities: Evidence from US-Listed Companies” by Baptiste Souillard. The authors gave short presentations during the conference presenting their papers.
The conference finished with concluding remarks by Gabriel Zucman.