On October 2, the Tax and Competitiveness Foundation held the third of conferences on “Analyzing the tax reform from the company perspective and the aim of competitiveness” at the Madrid headquarters of the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organizations (“CEOE”).
The conference, titled “Tax Reform Assessment,” enabled the foundation to give its assessment of the different tax reform projects under way, acting with its usual moderation while being firm in its social commitment to contributing to the tax debate. The foundation was moderately positive about the tax reform as a whole, believing that the parliamentary processing could improve the positive aspects of the reform and moderate or eliminate those it considers questionable.
Opening the act together with Mr. Alejandro Escoda Montal, the foundation’s chair Ms. Pilar González de Frutos CEOE vice chair and head of tax affairs, welcomed the act’s organizers and conveyed the employers’ organizations wish that the reform benefits business activity. Mr. Escoda Montalspoke about the foundation’s general approach and its strong implication in the current reform process. He referred to its positive assessment of the reform, although not without reservations, and regretted that the reform had not included capital tax, inheritance and gift tax, and other taxes established by the autonomous communities, whose current dispersal is a constant source of complaint by individuals, as well as by companies who consider that certain aspects for a desirable market unity have been eroded.
Eight speakers, representing each of the entities on the foundation’s board of trustees, covered the contents of the reform projects in depth, with particular emphasis on company tax: Doing so according to the following detail
RESIDENT AND NON-RESIDENT INCOME TAX Speaker: Mr. Javier Ragué, Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira
VALUE ADDED TAX Speaker: Mr. Javier Sánchez Gallardo, KPMG
COMPANY TAX
“Outline of the company tax reform. Main changes to the taxable base” Speakers: Mr. Juan Cobo de Guzmán, EY Abogados, and Mr. Eduardo Abad, Garrigues
“International taxation, correcting double taxation, and international tax transparency” Speakers: Mr. Rodrigo Ogea, Baker&Mckenzie, and Mr. Ignacio García Alonso, Deloitte Abogados
“Special regimes; related-party transactions, tax consolidation, restructuring transactions”, Speaker: Mr. Jesús López Tello, Uría y Menéndez
“Deductions. Tax incentives. The small and medium-sized enterprise regime” Speaker: Mr. Ignacio Quintana, PwC.
As usual, and to help disseminate the studies and research the foundation sponsors, it has made available copies of the conference’s PowerPoint presentations and may issue transcriptions of the talks later. The foundation hopes that social partners with a leading role in the reform process, and other individuals or entities interested in tax matters receive this work with the same interest with which it has been drafted, thus contributing to the pertinent debate and exchange of ideas to favor the most suitable tax reform possible in the present climate. The foundation emphasizes its board of trustees’ opinion that any progress in tax safety will be a core element for successfully accomplishing the process under way.
Annexes: