PublicationsRound Table Talk on Taxation
18 June 2004
The informal roundtable talk focused on current issues and trends in Asia Pacific Taxation. As an experience tax practitioner with a strong academic background, Mr Michael Velten also provided useful insights into the career options, opportunities and challenges that exist in taxation.
Speaker : Mr Michael Velten
No. of Participants : 19
Seminar – Legal Challenges in Modern Banking Practice
6 April 2004
This seminar sought to provide an update on the legal implications arising from some of the recent major developments in banking practice. It covered areas like developments in local and international regulatory policies, private banking and trusts, money laundering, bank secrecy etc. Leading speakers from regulatory bodies, academia and legal practice delivered papers on these key areas. This half-day seminar was designed for lawyers, in-house counsels of financial institutions and multi-national corporations, lawyers in offshore law firms, and academics as well as legal officers in statutory boards and government bodies.
Speakers : Mr Alvin Yeo S.C, Emeritus Professor Peter Ellinger, Mr Ian Wong
No. of Participants : 44
Seminar – Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act
2 March 2004
The introduction of the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act is a major development in consumer laws in Singapore. When the Act came into force on 1st March 2004, it had a significant impact on the way businesses are conducted. The Act is principally designed to accord better protection to consumers by allowing them to seek civil redress against traders engaging in unfair practices.
The speakers covered the policy considerations that underpined the Act, provided an overview of the Act and the potential impact of the Act. Legal advisers had an opportunity to benefit from a commentary of the provisions. With a better understanding of the Act, legal advisers could play a part in helping businesses review their business practices and prepare for the coming into force of the Act. The seminar was co-organised with the Law Society of Singapore.
Speaker : Ms Chen Xin Yi, Mr Stephen Loke & Mrs Joyce Chao Su Ling
No. of Participants : 83
Seminar – Is Securitization Legitimate?
17 February 2004
This seminar examined, in the post-Enron economic and regulatory environment, what, if anything, differentiated questionable uses of off-balance-sheet special purpose entities, or SPEs, from the trillions of dollars of supposedly "legitimate" securitization and other structured finance transactions that use SPEs. The inquiry is important because the absence of meaningful differences would call all these transactions into question, whereas the presence of meaningful differences may inform regulatory schemes by providing a basis to distinguish which transactions should be allowed. The seminar also explored, as a normative matter, whether securitization is economically efficient, and also whether it is fair to third-parties, including unsecured creditors.
Speaker : Professor Steven L. Schwarcz
No. of Participants : 137
Lunchtime Seminar on Australian-China DTA
9 March 2005
The seminar presented the findings of a paper to be published by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in their April Bulletin. It dealt with differences in the taxpayer definitions employed in the Income Tax Laws of Australia and China and how these operate in the context of the Double Tax Agreement. The impact of the differences in creating tax arbitrage opportunities and incongruent tax outcomes were investigated. The findings would be relevant to Singapore and any other jurisdiction that adopts standard international income tax definitions such as Australia.
Speaker : Mr Nolan Sharkey
No. of Participants : 10
Asia Excise Taxation Conference
2 – 4 March 2005
The Asia Excise Taxation Conference was organised by the Centre for Commercial Law, Maastricht University of The Netherlands and the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) of Washington, DC in Singapore from 2-4 March 2005. The aim of the conference was to engage scholars, policy makers and other stakeholders in an open debate on excise tax policy and administration in Asia. The honorable Mr Teo Eng Cheong, Director-General of Singapore Customs addresssed the conference as the Guest of Honour.
It attracted over 100 delegates and speakers from 17 different countries. The Conference brought together leading public finance scholars from Asia, Europe, North America and Australia to discuss these timely issues with senior Government officials charged with the responsibility for excise tax policy and administration in their countries. Representatives from Asia-based academic institutes, experts from the IMF and World Bank and the various industries also participated at the Conference. The Conference included the presentation of the just published Oxford University Press book, "Theory and Practice of Excise Taxation: Smoking, Drinking, Gambling, Polluting and Driving", edited by Professor Sijbren Cnossen, who also served as the Conference Co-Chairman. Specifically commissioned papers on excise taxes affecting alcohol, tobacco, and petroleum products were presented and these issues were discussed from an Asian perspective.
The proceedings of this conference, the third in the series, will be published as a book by end 2005. The conference co-chairman, Associate Prof Stephen Phua will serve as the editor.
Speakers & Commentators : Professor Joosung Jun, Mr. Adrian Cooper, Professor Somchai Richupan, Dr. Milwida Guevara, Professor Seong-Lin Na, Dr Audrey Tan, Dr. Suthad Setboonsarng, Dr. Sutapa Amornvivat, Dr Munidasa Winslow, Mr. Warwick Ryan, Dr. Somchai Sujjapongse, Mr Yatin Premchand, Associate Professor Matthias Roth
Chairpersons : Assoc Prof Stephen Phua, Mr Daniel Witt, Prof Sijbren Cnossen, Dr. Emil Sunley
No. of Participants : 113
