'European Union Taxation: Latest Insights and Debates' the ninth annual Tax Students Conference took place on 13-14 March 2014. Each year the event, hosted by the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London, provides an opportunity for LLM students and early career scholars to establish links with other tax law scholars and professionals from across the world.
Students from universities across Europe took part in this year's conference, presenting the results of their research and networking with eminent scholars, experts and practitioners in tax law.
The event closed with an awards ceremony hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, London. Awards were given for: Best presentation (Bastiaan Didden, Maastricht University), Best Team presentation (Marta Donderis and Ana Prosper, University of Valencia), Best Poster (Ninni Svensson, Lund University) and Best podcast (University of Valencia).
As well as academic events participants also took part in a range of special activities organised by Queen Mary students. These included a walk around the legal district of Lincoln Inn Fields, a visit to the British Museum, a cruise on the River Thames, a trip to Hampton Court and an informal students-only closing ceremony overlooking St Paul's Cathedral.
Iwona Golab, LLM in Tax Law student at Queen Mary, delivered a presentation on the deductibility of social security and health insurance contributions. She said she hopes that the event will continue to serve as a platform for sharing knowledge, allowing the meeting of the leading academic minds in the field of taxation and above all: "establishing closer bonds between universities and students across Europe".
Iwona added: "The humour injected into some of the presentations serves as proof that although studying EU tax law may be challenging at times, it is certainly not unexciting."
Anne-Marie Folquet, LLM in Tax Law at Queen Mary and student coordinator of the conference, said: "the conference is a great initiative which gives a new dynamic to the Tax LLM course and requires active student involvement, thus breaking the routine of everyday classes and long hours in the library!"
The event was organised by Dr Tom O'Shea, Senior Lecturer in Tax Law at Queen Mary and Dr Renata Ardous and chaired by Professor Dr Gerard Meussen, Radboud University, Nijmegen.
Dr Tom O'Shea said: "The conference is a credit to all involved, all the visiting professors, speakers, and sponsors of the conference and everyone who contributed. Anne-Marie Folquet deserves a special mention for her role in organising this year's event; her infectious enthusiasm and commitment made the event a tremendous success."
The event is sponsored by Key Haven Publications, publishers of EC Tax Journal; LexisNexis (Tolley); CIOT/ADIT; Olga Vysotskaya and the PwC World Experience Programme team and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs team, Eleni Giannopoulou & Partners (Greece).