The world has witnessed unprecedented political changes in recent years, resulting in the introduction of new global trade policies that have fuelled tensions between countries and impacted investment flows. The complex trade developments will pose daunting challenges to businesses as tax and customs authorities are being forced to rethink how they approach taxation across borders, exacerbated by the acceleration of the digital economy. Our panel of high-profile speakers, including Director Ping Liu from the World Customs Organization will discuss the impact of these disruptive forces on trade policy, trade regulation and trade alliances and how global businesses can respond. Topics will include the United States trade actions, Brexit and the future role of the World Customs Organization.

The Digital revolution is fundamentally reshaping the business strategy and hence operating model of corporations the world over – both for traditional businesses and digitally disruptive companies who are in many cases creating new sectors not seen before. The indirect tax landscape has fundamentally shifted to keep pace with the operating models being implemented today. This session will consider the indirect tax implications of doing business in the digital age, including recent VAT/ GST developments around the world related to digital goods and services, e-commerce and how the new Digital Service Taxes that many governments are introducing or have on their agendas may potentially have broad impact.

Tax authorities are actively modernising the way they engage with tax payers, investing in new processes and compliance requirements which often differ country by country. In certain geographies data files need to be provided, in others VAT returns filed online, in others compulsory e-invoicing requirements create a need for a fundamental shift in your AP and AR processes etc. During this discussion we will provide you with an overview of global developments in digital indirect tax administration and share practical insights on how companies are leveraging technology to meet the ever growing number of digital indirect tax compliances.

In this session we’ll take a look at macro-economic trends and their implications for indirect taxation. Topics will include the evolving geopolitical landscape, trade wars, Brexit, digital tax administrations, and how all of these impact your indirect tax agenda.

In this session EY subject matter professionals from Australia, the GCC, Malaysia and the USA will give an update on any legislation changes and the introduction of VAT/consumption based tax in their respective countries. The legislative updates will be followed by round table discussions focusing on single countries, allowing participants to gain deeper insights and address more detailed questions on the countries that interest them the most.

In the ever-evolving age of digitisation, are you being asked to do more with less resources? Are you being asked to develop new skills? Indirect tax functions are evolving to ensure that they can continue to act as a strategic partner to the business, returning value whilst appropriately managing risk. During this session we will share insights on the key trends in indirect tax function operating models and how are other corporations are responding.

Tax authorities are actively modernising the way they engage with tax payers, investing in new processes and compliance requirements which often differ country by country. In certain geographies data files need to be provided, in others VAT returns filed online, in others compulsory e-invoicing requirements create a need for a fundamental shift in your AP and AR processes etc. During this discussion we will provide you with an overview of global developments in digital indirect tax administration and share practical insights on how companies are leveraging technology to meet the ever growing number of digital indirect tax compliances.

Machine Learning (“ML”) can be set up with embedded tax technical knowledge to deliver highly accurate tax quality assurance on very large data volumes. The key skills to this are embedding indirect tax SME knowledge into the appropriate machine learning models trained to provide an overarching quality verification which can be used to maintain standards and identify any technology, process & data deficiencies. Our experience has shown that there is significant potential for enhancement to tax sensitive data quality, future proofing against evolving taxes and as a solution for future classification requirements.  During this session we will explore ML capability and how it can be used to enhance existing VAT compliance processes.
 
This will be a highly interactive format to develop deeper understanding of the key Machine Learning concepts and gain practical experience of this. In small teams we will guide you through a structured process to put together ML tax solutions from existing components, together in the session with a small group of peers.