10:00 UTC
Technology is taking over. Has your legal practice embraced its power?
In this day and age, technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. Many of the current technological advancements are making legal practitioners’ lives a lot cheaper, simpler and efficient.
Take a look at Estonia’s digital economy, which via the bold use of technology has managed to digitize everything but the delivery of pizza.
In this webinar, which was held on May 8th at 15:00 BST, our experts delved into the different applications of technology within the tax and legal world and how these might help the industry take yet another leap forward.
Submit Your Tax Tech Questions
Some of the questions covered included:
- How do you see blockchain technology being incorporated into the field of international taxation? Can it help with, say, data protection?
- How are governments responding to the use of new technologies such as cryptocurrencies in business? How can national tax systems respond to that?
- Considering all the new reports that have to be generated for compliance purposes, there is certainly a role for technology in this specific sector. How do you see this developing forward?
- Are there other types of technology that have captured your attention in terms of their application to international tax?
- Are there any specific challenges you expect from incorporating these technologies to the international tax sector? Do you foresee a role for artificial intelligence in the world of international tax? What will this entail and how will it impact the sector?
- How likely is it for countries to introduce robot taxes following the loss in traditional job posts?
- Can technology help tax authorities in the battle against tax avoidance, tax evasion and fraud?
Do you have any follow-up questions for our panelists?
Speakers
Thomas Jacobsen is the founder of Papilio Services Ltd., and heads the organisation and the firm’s private clients’ department. He is the company’s Money Laundering Reporting Officer and is also the company’s accredited agent with Identity Malta for Malta’s residence and citizenship by investment programmes. After graduating from the University of Oslo with a law degree specialising in International Tax, Thomas spent some time working as a lawyer for the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
Thomas relocated to Malta in 1997 and spent ten years working within the tax and legal department of PwC. He has, over the past years, assisted and advised a number of international and local clients with their tax compliance requirements and on various cross border issues. In 2007, Thomas was a co-founder of a boutique multi-disciplinary organisation that advised international clients and high-net-worth individuals on a variety of compliance, corporate, residence and tax issues. He has extensive experience in advising clients in the setup of complex cross-border structures through the use of Maltese Companies, Trusts, Funds, Partnerships and Foundations.
Besides income tax matters, including international tax optimisation, double tax treaties, capital gains tax and intellectual property structuring, Thomas has a great deal of knowledge about Maltese company law and corporate matters, including corporate governance and management and administration affairs.
Thomas is a fellow of the Malta Institute of Taxation (MIM) and a member of the Malta Institute of Financial Services Practitioners (IFSP), International Bar Association (IBA), the Investment Migration Council (IMC), the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).
Dr. William H. Byrnes,
Executive Professor of Law & Associate Dean for Special Projects,
School of Law,
Texas A&M University, USA
Texas A&M Professor William Byrnes is a highly influential legal authority: his 13 annual Lexis, Kluwer, and Tax Facts books and compendia have sold more than 150,000 print subscriptions and his Lexis books are accessed more than 20,000 times annually by government and private attorneys, as well as Big 4 accountants.
William Byrnes has been called "one of the leading authors and best-selling authors in the professional markets" (Richard Kravitz, Editor-in-Chief, CPA Journal, New York State Society of CPAs). His 1,000+ National Underwriter, Lexis, and Kluwer articles are cited by the mainstream financial press (e.g. Wall Street Journal) and trade sites, and referred to in Congressional hearings. In 2016, he was the 9th most downloaded tax professor on SSRN. A LexisNexis Director of Product Strategy & Development, Ray Camiscioli, stated, “In the field of international tax, Prof. William Byrnes is among LexisNexis’s best-selling authors and a leading authority in the fields of anti-money laundering and FATCA compliance.” In 2015, the FATCA Compliance Guide reached #2 for print/digital revenue for Lexis. Several book chapters and articles are downloadable at SSRN.
As an educational innovator, William Byrnes pioneered online education in the early nineties. His programs received praise for best practices pedagogy and have over 1,000 alumni. After peer review, the Fulbright Board (FFSB) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs elected him a Fulbright Specialist for pedagogy and for comparative taxation.
