On October 20, members of the ISET community attended a guest lecture on international taxation from Ms. Femke van der Zeijden from PricewaterhouseCoopers Netherlands’ office. Ms. Zeijdenhas introduced issues of international taxation from a legal perspective. This was particularly useful and interesting for the audience as it primarily consisted of economists, for whom the legal aspects and problems of different taxation policies are not well known.

Ms. Zeijden tailored her lecture to show the challenges in international taxation coming from the development of information technologies. Specifically, the lecture touched upon the following four important directions which present the most significant challenges: (i) Globalization, (ii) Digitalization, (iii) Transparency, and (iv) Multinational corporations.

The lecturer explained how taxation can influence the flow of firms among countries, while the mobility of different industries can influence tax policy in a country. Furthermore, the lecture addressed issues of tax avoidance strategies, base erosion, and profit shifting (BEPS). EU directives aiming to address these challenges without limiting free trade were also discussed.

The audience actively participated in discussions during the lecture, coming to terms with the economic rationale of some of the legal principles introduced.