Asia Tax Forum 2020

Matt Andrew

Head of the tax treaty, transfer pricing, ,and financial transactions division, OECD

Matt Andrew is the Head of the Tax Treaty, Transfer Pricing, and Financial Transactions Division at the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. In this capacity, he is focused on leading the development of tax policy in relation to the digitalization of the economy - primarily in relation to Pillar One. He has been engaged in International Tax and Transfer Pricing for 14 years, with 23 years in this profession. He has been a Partner at EY in Auckland, Chicago, Singapore, Sydney and Wellington. He has published on transfer pricing issues and a member of numerous professional associations. In 2019, he became an Adjunct lecturer at the Auckland University. Andrew is a Barrister & Solicitor of the New Zealand High Court and a registered Tax Professional with Inland Revenue Service (U.S.A).

 Speaking session 

An update from the OECD on BEPS 2.0

Tuesday, August 25 - 9.30-10.00 HKT/SGT/CST

Adnan Begic

Transfer pricing, Michelin

Adnan Begic leads Michelin’s APAC Transfer Pricing (TP) practice and is responsible for all aspects of TP including TP compliance, TP planning, implementation of TP policies, managing audits & dispute resolutions, APAs and operational TP across Asia Pacific. Begic has over 13 years (10 years in Asia) of experience in TP and international tax and has previously worked in Big 4 firms in New Zealand and Singapore.

Begic is also the Singapore Vice President of Tax Executives Institute (TEI) Asia Chapter, Board member of TEI Asia Chapter and is a frequent speaker on regional tax and TP conferences.

 Speaking session 

Key challenges with transfer pricing

Wednesday, August 26 - 14.50-15.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Umang Dhingra

Head of tax, GlaxoSmithKline Asia

Umang, a Chartered Accountant by qualification, and a seasoned tax professional, holds more than 15 years of hands-on experience dealing with a wide variety of complex tax issues in India, including at some of the top Fortune 500 companies. He has held critical positions with Samsung, Walmart and Discovery prior to joining GSK where he currently heads the Tax department. His ever- growing passion for taxes in last 15 years makes him a forerunner in the list of Next Gen Tax Leaders who are young, dynamic, innovative and disruptive.

Umang has handled and successfully led a variety of projects relating to M&A, APA, MAP, GST implementation, litigation settlement, export incentives etc. during his career. Besides imparting internal trainings to business leaders and support functions at his organization, he has been an eminent speaker on both Direct and Indirect Taxes at various tax / industry / educational platforms, in India and abroad. He is currently an active member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee on Taxation.

In succession to winning “CA Professional Achiever Award for the year 2016” conferred by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to top performing Chartered Accountants employed in varied industries pan India,Umang has been also recognized as “Asia in-house Tax Director of the year 2018” bestowed by International Tax Review at Asia Tax Awards, 2018 (Singapore).

 Speaking session 

Lessons Learned from Covid-19 and managing an in-house tax department

Wednesday, August 26 - 16.10-17.10 HKT/SGT/CST

Amit Gupta

Director of tax, Dell Technologies

Amit Gupta is currently the Director – Tax for Dell Technologies (including legacy EMC) – Indian subcontinent based in Bengaluru (India). Amit is responsible for all the tax matters of Dell Technologies (including legacy EMC) in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Mauritius. Amit reports directly to the Global Head of Tax (Sr. VP, Tax) of Dell Technologies (including legacy EMC) based in Austin, US.

Prior to relocating to Bengaluru, Amit was based in Singapore managing taxes for Dell in the Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) region. In this role, Amit was responsible for all the tax matters across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, India and Singapore.

Prior to joining Dell, Amit was the Tax Leader (VP) at GE Capital in India where his responsibilities included managing taxes (corporate and indirect) for various legal entities and advising/implementing tax efficient structures for equity investments, cross-border funding/loans, leases, joint ventures and acquisitions. Amit has also worked as South Asia Tax Manager for Intel and inter alia managed transfer pricing audits, negotiations with Government on tax holidays, duty/tariff reductions and exemptions. Prior to joining Intel, Amit has worked as Senior Consultant at Arthur Andersen/E&Y and was advising clients on various indirect tax and corporate tax matters and started his career with Kellogg in India as Financial Analyst. In his career spanning more than 23 years, Amit has managed tax functions end-to-end i.e. from tax planning to tax controllership/compliance.

Amit is a qualified Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary, Grad. Cost & Works Accountant (CWA), Bachelor of Law (Law Graduate) from KSLU and Bachelor of Commerce (Honours).

Amit has been a regular speaker for many years at regional and worldwide reputed tax conferences/seminars held in places like Sydney (Australia), London, Paris, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, etc.

 Speaking session 

Hot topics in Asia-Pacific taxation

Tuesday, August 25 - 11.20-12.20 HKT/SGT/CST

Ajay Rotti

Partner, Dhruva Advisors

Ajay Rotti is a Partner with Dhruva and is based in Bengaluru. With more than fifteen years of experience, Rotti is seasoned in corporate tax, transfer pricing and international tax areas; advising many multi – national companies on direct taxes, regulatory issues, and representing them before the regulatory authorities. Rotti specializes in information technology (IT) and real estate sectors.

He has advised various technology firms on setting up SEZ units and has also worked with SEZ developers on their strategy and approvals; advised realty funds on matters such as entry strategy, FDI in real estate, investment structuring and exit strategies.

Rotti is a member the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and holds an Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, United Kingdom. He is a gold medalist in bachelor of commerce (B.Com).

He is a member of the Expert Committee on Direct taxes of the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Fiscal Association – Bangalore Sub-chapter.

 Speaking session 

India tax insights on recent trends in digital taxation

Tuesday, August 25 - 14.00-15.00 HKT/SGT/CST

Megha Khandelwal

senior manager, taxation - Asia, Rio Tinto

Megha Khandelwal is a seasoned tax professional with over 15 years of experience across multiple industries including mining, trading, financial services, and consulting. At Rio Tinto, she is responsible for all tax matters in Asia.

Khandelwal is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and accredited member of the Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals

Khandelwal has extensive experience across the region including cross border taxation, tax compliance and controversy, incentive planning and restructuring

 Speaking session 

Lessons Learned from Covid-19 and managing an in-house tax department

Wednesday, August 26 - 16.10-17.10 HKT/SGT/CST

Benchi Klaver

head of transfer pricing, Kulicke & Soffa

Benchi Klaver is responsible for transfer pricing for Kulicke & Soffa (NASDAQ: KLIC) globally. His work includes transfer pricing design, implementation, compliance and risk management and disputes with a focus on the group’s operations across Asia and in the US.

Klaver is a lawyer and admitted to practice tax law in the Netherlands. He has almost ten years of experience in international tax and transfer pricing. Prior to joining K&S, Klaver practiced law with US law firm Baker McKenzie in the Netherlands and Singapore. Klaver has authored various articles on Dutch, European and international tax and transfer pricing policies and developments.

 Speaking session 

Key challenges with transfer pricing

Wednesday, August 26 - 14.50-15.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Barbara Voskamp

Partner ASEAN, Loyens & Loeff

Barbara Voskamp is Partner ASEAN, she is heading up the Singapore office and responsible for the ASEAN region. Voskamp, is admitted to the Dutch Bar and a member of the Netherlands Association for Tax advisors (NOB). She is specialised in international tax. She is a registered foreign lawyer in Singapore since 2006 and has been advising international operating corporate clients on the structuring of their cross border investments..

Voskamp frequently lectures on international tax at, amongst others, the Singapore Management University. She has been on the board of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Singapore and the Malaysian Dutch Business Council in Kuala Lumpur, is active in the regional trade committee of the European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore and currently a member of the executive board of the International Fiscal Association (IFA), Singapore branch..

 Speaking session 

Tax transparency in practice

Wednesday, August 26 - 13.30-14.30 HKT/SGT/CST

Michael Muncaster

executive director, APAC product head – regulatory compliance, IHS Markit

Michael Muncaster is an Executive Director with IHS Markit and has specialised in banking and financial services for the past 15 years, working with banks and financial institutions in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, UK and Europe. Muncaster’s areas of focus include FATCA, CRS, QI reviews and remediation, mergers and acquisitions, structuring, advising on the taxation of financial arrangements including foreign exchange transactions and capital instruments, as well as the audit of taxation and tax reporting..

Prior to joining IHS Markit, Muncaster was with PwC Singapore. Australia and UK. Mr Muncaster has worked extensively with financial institutions in both Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong on the implementation of FATCA and CRS programs and has extensive experience in conducting QI reviews.

 Speaking session 

Tax transparency in practice

Wednesday, August 26 - 13.30-14.30 HKT/SGT/CST

Charles Oetomo

tax partner advisor, GNV Consulting Services

Since January 2014, Charles Oetomo has been a Partner Advisor at GNV Consulting Services providing various types of tax & customs consultation, as well as in the transfer pricing & trade regulatory issues..

Prior to joining GNV Consulting, Oetomo has spent 12 years with Deloitte. He was a Partner in Deloitte Southeast Asia, based in Jakarta, Indonesia (Deloitte Tax Solutions). During his service, Oetomo headed several industry/service lines in the areas of banking and financial, indirect taxation and customs, as well as BMO (Business Model Optimization – supply chain rationalization) projects. As part of the firm’s development initiative, Oetomo was also the tax learning leader in Deloitte.

Oetomo formerly served other Big Four accounting and consulting firms as an external auditor, which gave him relevant knowledge in the financial accounting area to lead the tax team of IFRS tax-related matters in Deloitte.

As a summary of his portfolio as a tax advisor, Oetomo has extensive experience in serving multinational and large national clients in a broad range of industries. Oetomo has been involved in various tax advisory, restructuring, merger and acquisition, and strategic planning projects, as well as dispute resolution and compliance cases. His advisory roles have covered a broad range of tax issues in areas from Indonesian domestic to cross-border tax issues.

Oetomo is a Licensed Indonesian Tax Consultant (Brevet A, B, C Level), a Registered Tax Court Attorney, having graduated with a Bachelor of Finance and Accountancy degree. He is also a member of the Indonesian Tax Consultant Association.

 Speaking session 

Case study: Negotiating with an aggressive tax authority

Tuesday, August 25 - 15.20-16.20 HKT/SGT/CST

Kari Pahlman

vice president global tax, Techtronics Industries

Kari Pahlman works as Vice President, Global Tax and Treasury in Techtronics Industries (TTI). His primary area of work is related to the overall tax strategy of the Group, involving strategic management of tax, restructurings and value chain transformations, management and resolution of significant disputes and APAs, financing strategy and finance/treasury/tax/IT integration. He also has oversight of the global transfer pricing strategies and policies of the Group. Prior to joining TTI, Pahlman was for several years a partner and regional Asia-Pacific transfer pricing leader at KPMG..

 Speaking session 

What does BEPS 2.0 mean for your business?

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.05-11.05 HKT/SGT/CST

Bhavin Shroff

Head of South East Asia and India tax, Nomura Singapore

Bhavin Shroff is currently the Head of Tax, South East Asia and India, Nomura Singapore Ltd. In his current role he is responsible for all the tax matters of Nomura. He has more than 20 years of experience in handling tax matters for banks and investment banks. His expertise lies is handling direct tax, indirect tax, transfer pricing and international tax matters. Prior to joining Nomura, Shroff was handling tax matters at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and ICICI Bank Ltd. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India..

 Speaking session 

Lessons Learned from Covid-19 and managing an in-house tax department

Wednesday, August 26 - 16.10-17.10 HKT/SGT/CST

Sowmya Varadharajan

Director, tansfer pricing, Crowe Singapore

Somwya Varadharajan is the Director of Transfer Pricing at Crowe Singapore and has more than 15 years of experiences in designing, documenting and defending intercompany transactions.            Sowmya is an economist with a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University

Having been trained in the U.S. on international tax and transfer pricing issues through blue-chip corporations, Sowmya now applies her transfer pricing training to transfer pricing issues in the Asia Pacific region. With the growth in transfer pricing related audits in the Asia Pacific region, Varadharajan has assisted clients in India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in defending their transfer pricing arrangements with tax authorities.

Varadharajan has significant experience in implementing and managing large-scale transfer pricing system design and documentation projects in Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific.

 Speaking session 

Key challenges with transfer pricing

Wednesday, August 26 - 14.50-15.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Vijayashree Ranganathan

Head - taxation, VFS Global

Vijayashree Ranganathan, is currently the Head, taxation with VFS Global for more than 7 years now. Her role at VFS Global includes to lead the Taxation function for global operations that includes optimising corporate / tax structures across the world to minimise the group tax cost, devising tax efficient mechanism for funds repatriation, transfer pricing policies and assessment, assessing and managing overall tax risks, owning of tax assessments, & other aspects of international taxation end to end and overall Indirect tax compliance globally.  Additionally, her role includes putting in processes and systems to ensure correct and timely compliance with all the direct and indirect tax laws, rules, procedures and regulations and dealing with the tax authorities globally in connection with the assessment proceedings in coordination with the local consultants. VFS Global is one of the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. As on date, VFS Global is serving 64​ client governments in 144 countries with 3,399 Application Centres worldwide.​​ Ranganathan has an experience of about 21 years in International taxation with stints across Big4 firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte. Ranganathan has received several awards and accolades for her leadership skills. Ranganathan has been a speaker in several seminars and conferences on global transfer pricing topics.

 Speaking session 

Key challenges with transfer pricing

Wednesday, August 26 - 14.50-15.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Greg Elliott

Global head of tax - businesses and regional tax lead GCNA & ASEAN, Standard Chartered Bank

Greg Elliott, is the Global Head of Tax for Businesses and Regional Tax Lead – GCNA & ASEAN.  In his role, Elliott has responsibility for supporting and developing the tax function to support SCB’s global businesses. 

Elliott is a senior tax professional with over 27 years of corporate and international tax experience working in the financial services / banking industry within the Asia Pacific region. He has expertise in both direct and indirect / transactional taxes combined with a deep product knowledge across the financial services industry.

Prior to joining SCB, Elliott spent three years as the Global Head of Tax with the CLSA Group.  Prior to that, Elliott spent nearly fourteen years with Deutsche Bank AG based in Hong Kong and Singapore as part of their APAC regional tax team and before that, at KPMG and Arthur Andersen. 

Elliott has previously been Chairman of Asian Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) Tax Product Committee.

 Speaking session 

Lessons Learned from Covid-19 and managing an in-house tax department

Wednesday, August 26 - 16.10-17.10 HKT/SGT/CST

Siti Syadiah Latief

Vice president head of tax, Nestle Indonesia

Siti Syadiah Latief (Diah) is VP-Head of Tax in PT Nestlé Indonesia, a subsidiary of Nestlé, S.A., one of the biggest food company in the world. Her main responsibilities are leading the tax team, ensuring tax compliance, providing tax advisory for the organization, planning and executing tax strategies for the company and its sister companies in Indonesia, and liaising with tax authorities and other relevant government institutions.

Latief holds crucial roles in winning several tax and custom disputes, obtaining tax facilities for the company’s factory expansion, managing smooth tax transition of business acquisition and divestment, and being a Leadership Development pillar in the Nestle Continuous Excellence project in Finance and Control division.

During her time with Nestlé Indonesia, Latief was assigned as Function Controller for Human Resource, Legal-Corporate Affairs and Marketing Services division to control and monitor the spending, to deal with its stakeholders, to ensure full compliance of internal control and to drive operational efficiencies. She is an active team work player with strong commitment and high passion to learn and share through coaching.

Prior joining Nestlé, she was Tax Manager in PT Unilever Indonesia, Tbk, one of the biggest consumer goods in Indoneisa. Latief formerly served a tax consulting firms, KPMG Indonesia, which gave her relevant knowledge in taxation.

Latief is graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy from Gadjah Mada University and obtained her Master in Business Administration from KU Leuven in Belgium majoring in International Business Management.

With 18+ years of work services, Latief brings solid experience in finance and tax gained from her positions in Nestle and from her previous professional career at KPMG and Unilever Indonesia.

 Speaking session 

Case study: Negotiating with an aggressive tax authority

Tuesday, August 25 - 15.20-16.20 HKT/SGT/CST

Vaibhav Sanghvi

Senior director, International & APJ Tax, NortonLifeLock

NortonLifeLock is a global leader in consumer Cyber Safety helping secure devices, identities, online privacy, home and family needs of nearly 50 million consumers, being a trusted ally in a complex digital world. In his current role, Vaibhav is responsible for worldwide tax planning, managing operational and strategic tax planning projects and all aspects of tax advisory, risk management, tax controversy and compliances in Asia-Pacific, Japan and Latin America regions..

Sanghvi has over 23 years in International Tax and Planning focusing on BEPS, IP planning, supply chain, marketing structures – 9 years with Big 4 firms (Arthur Andersen and PwC) and last 14 years in the Technology, Software, Mining, Oil & Gas Industries with Symantec, Rio Tinto and Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS).

Currently, member of the Transfer Pricing Roundtable constituted by the IRAS comprising of tax experts from the industry, practice and academia. Participated as a member of Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals (SIATP) Tax & Levies Committee to promote tax excellence by facilitating discussions with key stake holders and Government, comprising accredited tax professionals from Big 4 firms, MNCs and law firms.

 Speaking session 

What does BEPS 2.0 mean for your business?

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.05-11.05 HKT/SGT/CST

Silverwood Craig

Partner, Transfer Pricing Lead, MinterEllison

Craig Silverwood is a MinterEllison specialist tax partner who has over 18 years of dedicated transfer pricing and international tax expertise. Prior to joining MinterEllison in 2017, Silverwood was a senior team member of the Ernst & Young Australia International Tax and Transfer Pricing practice. He also spent several years as an ATO economist in the early 2000’s, where he established a focus on International Tax matters and tax data analytics.

Silverwood has successfully delivered many transfer pricing documentation studies, value chain assessments, intellectual property planning studies, Advance Pricing Arrangements (APAs) and managed ATO enquiries relating to transfer pricing and the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law (MAAL) and the Diverted Profits Tax (DPT).

Silverwood teams closely with MinterEllison's corporate and tax controversy practices to manage and resolve significant anti-avoidance, international tax and transfer pricing risk reviews and audits conducted by the ATO.

 Speaking session 

Tax transparency in practice

Wednesday, August 26 - 13.30-14.30 HKT/SGT/CST

Bartjan Zoetmulderar

Partner, Loyens &L Loeff

Bartjan Zoetlmulder is actively involved in the Loyens & Loeff real estate team and heads the Central and East European team. He is also one of the founders and leaders of the Loyens & Loeff BEPS committee. Zoetlmulder has focused his expertise in international tax matters to the real estate market, with a specific emphasis on tax structuring of investments in and from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as for investments in Dutch property. In this capacity, he serves mainly foreign clients, such as US, European and Asian real estate investors, investment funds and developers, although Dutch real estate enterprises are also among his clientele.

Throughout his career Zoetlmulder has been closely involved in the tax ruling practice, mainly for international holding and financing companies. He also worked at the Tokyo office from 1995 to 1998 and was responsible for Loyens & Loeff’s Japanese practice. He is still involved with the Japan desk today.

Zoetlmulder is chairman of the Dutch Association of Tax Advisers (NOB) since 21 June 2018. In addition, he is board member of Dujat (Dutch-Japanese Trade Federation) and a member of the International Bar Association (IBA), the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and NAREIT. He is a much sought-after guest speaker and writer on tax policy and other topics that fall within his field of expertise.

 Speaking session 

Tax transparency in practice

Wednesday, August 26 - 13.30-14.30 HKT/SGT/CST

Collin Goh

Senior tax consultant, MinterEllison

Collin has over 14 years' experience in transfer pricing experience in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Seychelles across Big Four accounting firms and Australian Taxation Office, including dealing with a complex Singapore marketing hub case in the energy & resources sector worth $550m of tax adjustment over 4 years.
Prior to joining MinterEllison, Collin was in charge of global transfer pricing at BHP for financial year ended 30 June 2018, covering matters such as Singapore marketing hub, bilateral APA between AU and USA and UK, global treasury operations, and global transfer pricing risk identification, compliance and mitigation.

Collin is responsible for providing independent insights on behalf of MinterEllison to the OECD Transfer Pricing team.

 Speaking session 

Tax transparency in practice

Wednesday, August 26 - 13.30-14.30 HKT/SGT/CST

Lisa Zheng

Vice president Asia tax and china treasury, Procter & Gamble

Lisa Zheng, Vice President Asia Tax and China Treasury, Procter & Gamble.  She is also Tax Committee Chair for TEI Asia Chapter.  Zheng has 26 years of tax experience, most of which has been in the commercial sector including Oil and Gas, Healthcare and FMCG, with the first 12 years in the US and the last 14 in Asia (China and Singapore). 

Zheng has extensive experience in transfer pricing including Advance Pricing Agreements and Mutual Agreements Procedure; tax controversies and mergers and acquisitions. 

 Speaking session 

What does BEPS 2.0 mean for your business?

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.05-11.05 HKT/SGT/CST

S Vasudevan

Executive partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan

Mr. Vasudevan currently heads the Direct Tax practice of the firm at New Delhi. He has worked in multiple tax verticals within the firm during the past 15 years.
Mr. Vasudevan assists clients on all aspects of tax and allied laws ensuring that the solutions are sound from legal and accounting perspectives. He has been handling advisory and litigation matters in indirect and direct taxation during his tenure with the firm. He has handled tax compliance reviews for many multi-national and public-sector enterprises.

His rich exposure to issues of manufacturers, traders and service providers particularly in FMCG, telecommunication, finance, energy, information technology, e-commerce sectors enables him to provide practical and holistic solutions, which are tax efficient.

He assists clients with advisory on mergers and acquisitions, international taxation, transfer pricing, valuation, compliance of withholding obligations and also represents them before various quasi-judicial and judicial bodies including Commissioners, Tribunal, Advance Ruling Authority, Settlement Commission, High Courts and Supreme Court.

He has expertise in handling complex tax investigations and litigations involving multinational companies and big domestic companies.
He regularly delivers lectures on various topics relating to direct and indirect taxes.
Mr. Vasudevan not only holds a Bachelor’s & LLB degree from University of Delhi but also is a graduate member of ICWA and an associate CA.

 Speaking session 

Digital services taxes: managing change

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.50-11.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Alok Pareek

Head of tax, Discovery India

Alok Pareek is a qualified CA, CS, LLB professional with around 12 years of experience in the field of taxation and is currently leading the tax functions of Discovery in India.

Pareek has experienced tax both as a consultant and in industry. In his career, he has spent nearly 6 years with KPMG in corporate international tax practice working on tax assignments of leading global MNC’s.

In his experience in industry, he has worked in manufacturing sector and technology space. He has to his credit working on tax efficient structures for new business roll out including, talk of the town digital business and other complex tax issues being faced by taxpayers in India both in direct and indirect taxation.

Apart from India taxes, Pareek has experience in managing indirect taxes of Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Alok is deeply interested in learning and sharing tax knowledge:

• Has to his credit 2 books authored on GST
• About 60 articles on domestic and international taxation
• Part of knowledge forums at national and international level as a speaker

 Speaking session 

Digital services taxes: managing change

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.50-11.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Ben Wolfe

Senior regional tax manager (indirect tax), Prudential

Ben Wolfe is a financial services indirect tax specialist with 20 years of experience working in Australia, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. As a Senior Regional Tax Manager with Prudential Corporation Asia (“PCA”), he is responsible for providing indirect tax advisory services to PCA’s life insurance and fund management operations. In addition, he works with a variety of stakeholders from PCA’s business units to ensure indirect tax compliance & reporting standards are upheld.

Prior to transferring to PCA, Wolfe was based in London at Prudential plc’s Group Head Office (“GHO”) Tax team from 2010. He was responsible for providing indirect tax advisory services to Prudential & M&G businesses in the UK as well as the life insurance operations based in Ireland and Poland. He also held overall responsibility for the timely delivery of Prudential’s UK VAT group return and worked closely with the GHO Tax support team based in Mumbai, India to deliver VAT reporting efficiencies. Throughout his time with GHO Tax, Ben actively and regularly contributed to an open dialogue with officers from the UK Tax Authority (ie, HMRC) which resulted in a number of historic VAT disputes being resolved.  

Wolfe began his career in tax by joining the Australian Taxation Office (at the turn of the millennium) as a member of the largest GST field officer team based in Sydney. Wolfe subsequently worked for a number of Big 4 firms in London as a member of the financial services VAT teams before moving in-house to join Prudential.

 Speaking session 

Indirect tax in the region

Tuesday, August 25 -14.00-15.00 HKT/SGT/CST

Greta Chan

Asia-Pacific & Japan indirect taxes manager, IBM

Greta Chan heads IBM’s Asia Pacific & Japan indirect tax practice, and is responsible for all advisory, compliance and operational matters for IBM in 14 countries.

Chan has extensive tax experience covering information technology and financial services sectors, mainly in Asia Pacific.  Amongst other things, she sponsored and implemented multiple organization-wide transformation projects such as tax reform and ERP implementation.

Chan holds B.Com.LLB & LLM degrees from UNSW, Australia.  She is also holds an Executive MBA degree with TRIUM, a joint program between London School of Economics, New York University Stern School of Business, and HEC Paris School of Management.

 Speaking session 

India tax insights on recent trends in digital taxation

Tuesday, August 25 - 11.20-12.20 HKT/SGT/CST

Joseph Ho

Head of tax, Europe/ AMEA, BT

Joseph Ho works as Group Head of Tax – Europe and AMEA at BT.  Focusing on the Technology, Media and Telecom sector, his primary area of work relates to the overall tax strategy of the global business, restructuring, management and resolution of significant disputes and APAs, finance/ treasury/ tax/ integration and oversight of regional tax compliance covering over 80 countries. Particularly, Joseph collaborates and works closely with BT Regional Tax Leads in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa regions.

Prior to relocating to BT’s headquarters in London, Joseph was based in Hong Kong managing all sorts of tax works for BT in the North East Asia & Japan region as well as the Australasia region.

Before joining BT, Joseph was with Huawei and Ernst & Young, mainly engaged in various cross-border tax works.  Joseph is a qualified Chartered Accountant, EMBA candidate from the University of Oxford and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto.’

 Speaking session 

India tax insights on recent trends in digital taxation

Tuesday, August 25 - 14.00-15.00 HKT/SGT/CST

Ranjeet Mahtani

Dhruva Advisors

Ranjeet Mahtani is  qualified as an advocate and a chartered accountant

He specialises in and focuses on all nature of indirect taxes including, GST, customs duty, and the foreign trade policy of India as also erstwhile indirect taxes of central excise duty, sales tax/ VAT, service tax and entertainment tax as also the.

Mahtani led diverse GST assignments involving Government advocacy (representation), impact analysis and transition support for clients in variety of sectors

Mahtani has been intrinsic part of numerous tax litigation and dispute matters, across all adjudicatory and appellate fora and represented clients before different tax tribunals and Indian courts including in writ petition proceedings

Clientele serviced by Mahtani include those in the entertainment, banking and insurance, logistics, manufacturing, oil & gas, shipping, telecom sectors, amongst others

Prior to joining Dhruva Advisors LLP, Mahtani was a partner in Economic Laws Practice (ELP) and was previously part of a member firm of Deloitte. He has more than 15 years of experience in Indirect taxation.

 Speaking session 

India tax insights on recent trends in digital taxation

Tuesday, August 25 - 14.00-15.00 HKT/SGT/CST

Arun Giri

Co-founder and group editor, TaxSutra

 Speaking session 

Lessons Learned from Covid-19 and managing an in-house tax department

Wednesday, August 26 - 16.10-17.10 HKT/SGT/CST

Matthew Campbell

Executive director - indirect tax, J.P. Morgan

Matthew Campbell is the Head of Indirect Tax for Asia Pacific and the Global Head of Indirect Tax Technology at J.P. Morgan. Campbell has been working in indirect tax for almost 20 years and is a Chartered Accountant. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Campbell was the indirect tax lead in Asia Pacific for AIG. In addition to these roles, Campbell has worked in tax consulting at PwC in London and started his career in audit and litigation at the Australian Taxation Office. During his time at the Australian Taxation Office he was part of a small team that worked on the first GST anti-avoidance case that ultimately went on to be successfully litigated in the High Court of Australia.

 Speaking session 

Indirect tax in the region

Tuesday, August 25 - 14.00-15.00 HKT/SGT/CST

Yuen Ho Kong

Regional tax director, AccorHotel Asia Pacific

Yuen Ho is currently a Regional Tax Director at Accor Singapore (APAC HQ) with more than 13 years of experience in international taxation. At Accor, Yuenho has direct oversight of regional tax planning and compliance, transfer pricing (“TP”) harmonisation and indirect tax implementation and reporting in APAC. His domain expertise and key roles include the following:

• Tax structuring
• Entity rationalization
• Legal entities integration and contract relocation
• Reviewing hotel management and licence agreements
• Mergers & acquisitions/divestments due diligence and seeking tax indemnifications
• Setting tax strategies, policies and internal controls
• Tax efficient repatriation of profits and cross-border financing
• Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) and Permanent Establishments (“PE”) risk management
• Tax controversy defence and dispute resolution

As the strategic tax lead in APAC, Yuenho collaborates closely with the global tax function in Paris to mitigate financial, treasury and various tax risks arising from related party transactions between APAC business units and Paris HQ.

 Speaking session 

India tax insights on recent trends in digital taxation

Tuesday, August 25 - 11.20-12.20 HKT/SGT/CST

Jordi Bonaboschl

Global director, tax affairs, INSEAD

Jordi is the Head of Tax at INSEAD, ane he is based in Singapore.

He specialises in international tax and transfer pricing, and he has been working both in-house and in public accounting for nearly 20 years, in countries such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, China and Singapore.

Jordi is the Chairman of the Tax Committee of the EuroCham in Singapore, and a lecturer in international tax at the Master in International Business Law, at Montpellier University. He is a regular speaker at various tax seminars in Europe, Asia and in the US and contributed various articles in professional publications such as "International Tax Review", "Journal des Sociétés" or “Tax in Africa”.

He is fluent in French, English and Spanish.

 Speaking session 

Digital services taxes: managing change

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.50-11.50 HKT/SGT/CST

Luis Coronado

Global transfer pricing and tax controversy leader, EY

Luis Coronado is a Partner based in Singapore and is the Global Transfer Pricing Leader.

Coronado has worked in Asia since 2005 and has more than 25 years of advisory experience in international tax, transfer pricing, tax policy and controversy issues. Before relocating to Asia, Coronado spent several years serving domestic and multinational companies in Latin America, namely Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela. He has advised companies on the negotiation of bilateral advance pricing agreements and competent authority resolutions with Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Mexico, and the US. He has also served many German multinational companies and is fluent in German, having lived in Düsseldorf as a student. He has also worked in Tijuana, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Washington D.C. and Shanghai.

Coronado is a frequent speaker at tax seminars and universities in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. He has been an instructor at the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation's program for introducing transfer pricing to Latin American governments, as well as in their programs in Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. He has also taught at the Yangzhou Taxation Institute in China. He has advised the Inter-American Development Bank, the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the World Bank on tax policy issues especially on transfer pricing policy and legislation.

Coronado was an international tax professor at Universidad Iberoamericana and Universidad Panamericana in addition to having participated in multiple training sessions for the Tax Administration Service in Mexico. Until recently he was also part of the Accountancy Faculty at Singapore Management University.

Coronado has a Bachelor's degree in International Trade and Customs (Honors) from the Universidad Iberoamericana and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He has also taken courses at American University, IBFD's International Tax Academy, New York University, Harvard University, and Vienna University. He is a member of the International Fiscal Association.

 Speaking session 

What does BEPS 2.0 mean for your business?

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.05-11.05 HKT/SGT/CST

Chester Wee

partner, ASEAN international corporate tax advisory leader, EY

Chester Wee is EY ASEAN International Tax Services Leader. He has more than 20 years of experience in advising on cross-border tax issues, managing tax controversy as well as handling tax compliance and reporting.

Wee's experiences cover a wide spectrum of industries including Consumer Products & Retail, Real Estate, Hospitality & Construction and Technology.  Over the years, he has been assisting businesses in reviewing holding structures and operating models; managing tax residence issues; identifying and managing withholding tax issues and permanent establishment risks; and advising on IP strategies and migration, and tax efficient repatriation of profits and cross-border financing. 

 Speaking session 

What does BEPS 2.0 mean for your business?

Tuesday, August 25 - 10.05-11.05 HKT/SGT/CST

Stephen Lam

International tax and transactions services partner, EY

Stephen Lam is EY International Tax and Transaction Services Transfer Pricing Partner at Ernst & Young Solutions LLP in Singapore. He works with groups headquartered in Singapore and other parts of Asia to help them develop, implement and manage their transfer pricing models globally. He advises clients from a wide range of industries, including apparel, digital, fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, high tech, logistics, pharmaceutical and shipping. He previously spent 10 years in London where he provided transfer pricing advice to European multinational corporations based in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Sweden and the UK. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Finance from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

 Speaking session 

Key challenges with transfer pricing

Wednesday, August 26 - 14.50-15.50 HKT/SGT/CST