CFE Tax Advisers Europe, the European umbrella association of tax institutes and chambers that represent tax advisers, elected a new Executive Board (2019-2020) at the General Assembly on 28 September 2018. The new Executive Board will take up their duties at 1 January 2019.
The General Assembly, the governing body of CFE Tax Advisers Europe, unanimously re-elected Piergiorgio Valente as President (Managing Partner, Valente Associati GEB Partners and Crowe Valente, and Professor at Link Campus University, Rome, Italy). Martin Phelan was elected Secretary- General (Partner Head of William Fry Tax Advisers, Ireland), replacing Andrew Clarke who will remain a delegate to the CFE from the Irish Tax Institute (ITI).
The General Assembly appointed two new Vice-Presidents: Gary Ashford, Partner Harbottle & Lewis, Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, United Kingdom and Anna Misiak, Head of Tax Practice and Advisory, Board Member of the Chamber of Tax Advisers, Poland. Petra Pospíšilová was re-elected as Vice-President (President of the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic), whilst Bruno Gouthière, Partner CMS Francis Lefebvre and member of Institut des Avocats Conseils Fiscaux, France was elected Executive Board Member.
The General Assembly re-appointed Stella Raventós-Calvo as Chair of the Fiscal Committee (Partner Danbury Abogados, Spain), Wim Gohres as Chair of the Professional Affairs Committee (Director PricewaterhouseCoopers, NOB – Dutch Association of Tax Advisers, The Netherlands) and Branislav Kováč as Treasurer (Partner VGD SLOVAKIA, s.r.o., Vice-President Slovak Chamber of Tax Advisers, Slovakia). Ian Hayes, Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT, United Kingdom) was appointed Chair of the newly established Tax Technology Committee.
Commenting, CFE President Piergiorgio Valente said:
“We are delighted with the election of the new Executive Board. The policy priorities of the new Board remain closely related to our vision of drawing EU Member states’ attention to taxpayers’ rights and advancing the rights of tax advisers throughout our Member organisations.
We must however never lose sight of the bigger picture: today’s economy poses multi-sided opportunities and challenges, brought by innovation as a crucial element of a sustainable growth. Digitalisation must be utilised in a way that serves people: facilitating taxpayer and tax administration relations, enhancing tax compliance whilst cutting on the compliance burden. Equally, digitalisation introduces new ways of producing income: online multi-sided platforms give rise to innovative solutions in the value chain which necessitates a fresh perspective. In absence of regulation, digitalisation entails risks too, like every other revolution in history. We are aware of the risks, and we need to manage them accordingly. The opportunities must nevertheless be utilised for the benefit of the many, not the few.
We at CFE Tax Advisers Europe stand ready to address the challenges facing our economies and the tax profession. CFE will make the most out of the new opportunities, for the benefit of our Members, working in close cooperation with our friends and partners at the European Union institutions, the OECD and more globally under the CFE-sponsored Global Tax Advisers Platform (GTAP).”