Conferences

Charities and VAT in a Europe of Twenty Five (March 2005)

ECCVAT held a one-day meeting on Tuesday, 15 March 2005 at the International Association Centre in Brussels. The meeting, entitled Charities and VAT in a Europe of Twenty Five, was held to address a number of key issues:

  1. The transitional VAT regime is due to end in December 2005 with a new VAT system to be in place from 1 January 2006. It is vital that the new VAT system provides for fair and equitable treatment for charities across the EU.
  2. A new Commission and a new Parliament are in place and we need to build support with them for ECCVAT's objectives.
  3. In the light of an expanding Europe, we feel it is important to exchange information and share best practice on the VAT situation for charities, particularly those in the new Member States. It is clear to ECCVAT that a comprehensive and unified approach to improving the VAT regime in Europe will work best.

Unlike a traditional conference, this meeting took the form of a facilitated brain-storming meeting and speakers were invited to lead discussions rather than give formal presentations. The participants took an active part in the discussions and in the process raised awareness of the difficulties encountered in each member state of the EU. There were also a number of scene-setting presentations.

Conference publications:

  • Conference Programme [PDF]

Presentations delivered at the conference are available below:

  • Peter Jenkins (Ernst & Young): Introduction [PDF]
  • Malte Schwab (Bucerius Law School): German Experience of VAT in relation to Charities [PDF]
  • Dragan Golubovic (European Center for Not-for-profit Law): VAT Regime in new member states as it concerns NGOs [PDF]
  • Poul Moeller (Danish Cancer Society) & Sheila Nordon (Irish Charities Tax Research Ltd): VAT Refund Schemes [PDF]

 

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