As Caribbean jurisdictions seek to encourage further foreign direct investment, the scope for cross-border commercial transactions has widened considerably and will continue to do so. In the last decade taxation has transformed from an almost entirely domestic issue to one which is increasingly impacted by international norms. Increasingly, multinational companies are making acquisitions/disposals in the Caribbean. Likewise, the range of international commercial transactions carried out in the Caribbean has diversified exponentially.
The Faculty is delighted to invite Jivaan Bennett, Attorney-at-Law/Solicitor (England and Wales) and Visiting Lecturer on the King’s College London’s International Tax Law LLM to facilitate the UWI Executive Workshop on International Taxation Law: Taxation Issues in Cross-Border Commercial Transactions.
Theme: Taxation Issues in Cross-Border Commercial Transactions
November 28 - 29, 2019
Hyatt Regency, Trinidad
Course Content
This two-day executive course on Taxation Issues in Cross-Border Commercial Transactions, specifically targeted at Caribbean legal/tax practitioners, aims to provide participants with greater awareness of how to (a) identify tax risks in non-contentious commercial transactions and (b) negotiate and draft contractual protections to mitigate or allocate such tax-related risks.
The workshop will employ a case-study based approach in which the facilitators will rely on examples of business sales related agreements (including NDAs), short-form finance documents, consultancy, sub-licencing, procurement, sponsorship and investment agreements (to name a few). After-lunch panel discussions and Q&A sessions will consider topical tax issues e.g. the proposed TTRA, trends in Caribbean tax practice and developments in international tax law (Brexit, EU tax law developments and BEPS and other OECD initiatives).
Day One: Identification of Tax Issues in International Commercial Transactions
The sessions will equip participants with an understanding of the various domestic and international tax issues arising in a commercial transaction. The facilitators will introduce various case studies to enable participants to understand how to spot risky tax issues in standard cross-border and domestic commercial arrangements.
Day Two: Contractual Drafting—Tax Risk Allocation
Having considered how to identify tax risks in contractual arrangements, Day 2 will reflect on how best standard contracts should be revised to allocate/mitigate tax risks arising in commercial arrangements.