The Market Center Blog

Center for Freedom and Prosperity

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org

Center for Freedom and Prosperity Co-Hosts
Tax Competition Roundtable in Berlin
*** Panel of International Experts Announced ***

Washington, DC (May 19, 2004) – Today, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity announced the speakers for a Tax Competition Conference to be held in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday, June 2nd at 3 p.m. in the Saphir room of the Radisson SAS hotel followed by a reception. The conference is being co-sponsored by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation of Germany, and it will discuss the virtues of tax competition and explore the adverse consequences of EU and OECD tax harmonization schemes. The Conference deliberately precedes the OECD's Global Forum on International Tax Policy that starts the next day.

The Conference is designed to exchange views with European audiences about tax competition issues -- particularly the implications and desirability of corporate tax rate harmonization, the EU savings tax directive, tax reform in Eastern Europe, and voting rules for tax policy in the EU Constitution. The conference also will discuss the OECD's persecution of low-tax jurisdictions and give non-OECD policy makers useful information as they prepare to meet with the OECD.

The Conference is bringing together leading international tax experts from the United States, Germany, Belgium and Slovakia to discuss how best to preserve tax competition, financial privacy, and fiscal sovereignty. An OECD representative has been invited to participate in the event.

The OECD has convened their Global Forum to convince targeted non-OECD jurisdictions that there is a "level playing field" between them and the 30 OECD countries, notwithstanding the fact that numerous OECD member nations do not share information with foreign tax authorities.

The Conference will consist of two panels with the speakers and topics listed below:

 Event:         Berlin Tax Competition Conference

 Date:           Wednesday, June 2, 2004

 Location:     Radisson SAS Hotel Berlin, Saphir Conference Room
                         Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 3, Berlin, Germany 10178
                         www.berlin.radissonsas.com

 Time:           3 p.m. to 5 p.m. (reception to follow)

 RSVP:         rsvp@freedomandprosperity.org

 Speakers:   Listed below…

_________________

Panel 1: The Economics of Tax Competition

Moderator:
Dr. Karen Horn
Economics Editor
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"Taxation and the EU Constitution"
Dr. Gerhard Schick
Stiftung Marktwirtschaft

"Tax Competition and Fundamental Tax Reform"
Dr. Daniel J. Mitchell
Senior Fellow
The Heritage Foundation

"The Taxation of Capital Income: Is Harmonization Desirable?"
 Dr. Alfred Boss
Director of Public Finance
Institute of World Economy, Kiel

 "Financial Privacy, Individual Liberty, and Civil Society "
Dr. Richard W. Rahn
Senior Fellow
The Discovery Institute

Panel 2: Tax Competition vs. Tax Harmonization

Moderator:
Dr. Detmar Doering
Director of the Liberal Institute
Friedrich Naumann Stiftung

 "The Fight for Tax Competition:
The Battle Against EU and OECD Tax Proposals "
Mr. Andrew F. Quinlan
President
Center for Freedom and Prosperity

"Should Europe Have a Minimum Tax Rate"
Dr. Charles B. Blankart
Professor
Humboldt University, Berlin

"Slovakia's Right to Compete in the Global Economy"
Mr. Martin Chren
Research Fellow
Hayek Foundation, Slovakia

"What Level Playing Field? How OECD Proposals
Discriminate Against Developing Nations"
Mr. Mark A. A. Warner
Partner
Stanbrook & Hooper, Brussels

_______________________________

Center for Freedom and Prosperity
P.O. Box 10882
Alexandria, Virginia 22310
Phone: 202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
cfp@freedomandprosperity.org

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