A hard day’s work

As national president, I attend a number of conventions and professional development forums during the year. First off the block was the Financial Services Taxation Conference in Queensland.

I have to take my hat off to the presenters, the convention organising committee and, of course, our conference staff.

It was an impressive conference, and full credit must go to the presenters. How many times have you volunteered your time to deliver a presentation, written the paper in time for it to be printed, completed your PowerPoint presentation, then arrived at the conference only to find out that the subject you are talking on has just had a major update? Well, the Financial Services Taxation Conference was one of those times.

As the speakers were arriving at the conference, the Assistant Treasurer, the Hon. David Bradbury, MP, was introducing the Tax Laws Amendment (Countering Tax Avoidance and Multinational Profit Shifting) Bill 2013 into the House of Representatives, containing amendments to Pt IVA and the transfer pricing rules. At about the same time, the OECD released its Addressing base erosion and profit shifting report.

The outcome: presenters were reviewing legislation and releases and amending PowerPoint presentations.

The response: high-quality presentations delivering up-to-the-minute informed consideration of issues at hand.

Thank you, you were all amazing.

In the meantime, I hope to see you in Perth at the National Convention. Please introduce yourself to me. I’d love to hear your views.

Stephen
Westaway

Stephen Westaway is President of the National Council at The Tax Institute.

The Tax Institute is Australia's leading professional association in tax. Its 13,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia.

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