ICAEW is delighted to invite you to the second seminar in our series on ‘A Better International Tax System: EU Perspectives’ on 8 April focused on taxation for innovation.

In a globalised world, innovation is a key driver of competitiveness and plays a critical role in the rapid growth of emerging economies and the sustained growth of mature economies. Creating the right tax environment to encourage innovation and economic growth has assumed high importance on the international political agenda. R&D tax incentives, for instance, are an increasingly popular tool used by governments to influence investment decisions of innovative businesses and patent box regimes are being introduced to provide tax incentives for the exploitation of patents in particular jurisdictions.

On the other hand it is critical that a diverse landscape of national tax policies does not create an unlevel playing field for businesses operating across borders as well as for smaller entrepreneurs versus larger multinational companies, which can use cross-border tax planning strategies to reduce their overall tax burden. Creating a better international tax system will be important to enable governments to incentivise innovation without causing unintended market distortions.

A coherent and co-ordinated approach to promoting innovation through favourable tax frameworks needs to both protect domestic companies and prevent a global race to the bottom. This can be achieved by finding the right balance between fair tax competition, particularly in the innovative sector, and agreed common rules at the EU and international level. Supporting and exploiting the strength of new technology-driven and high value-added industries is at the heart of the EU's strategy to foster economic growth.

At the same time the OECD BEPS project is seeking to ensure that intellectual property is taxed more fairly and where it creates value. Other countries are also introducing tax incentives to stimulate growth through innovation.

Keynote speaker:

• Heinz Zourek – Director General, DG TAXUD, European Commission

Panellists include:

• Stephen Dale – Partner, Landwell & Associate, Member of the PwC international network
• Georg Geberth – Director Global Tax Policy, Siemens AG
• Grace Perez-Navarro, Deputy Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
• Fergus Harradence – Deputy Director, Corporate Tax, HM Treasury
• Moderated by Robert Hodgkinson – Executive Director, ICAEW

Lunch will be served from 12 noon onwards. The seminar will take place from 12.30 to 14.30. If you would like to attend this event please RSVP to: europe@icaew.com.