Globalisation, and Malta’s recent membership of the EU, have placed new

challenges in our way. Considering the fact that we are rapidly growing in the Financial Services sector, these challenges also centre on matters such as international taxation.

As always, the Malta Institute of Management is being proactive in this respect. On 5 October, it launched an educational programme leading to the Advanced Diploma in International Taxation. This diploma is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Taxation in the United Kingdom.

So far Malta has based the growth of the Financial Services sector on the provision of services based on local legislation. This new tool, combined with international tax principles and legislation, will provide Maltese professionals with a further advantage over their EU counterparts.

The course covers topics like the principles of international taxation, double taxation conventions, transfer pricing and international tax avoidance.

It also features lecturers from abroad. Professor Philip Baker is a barrister practicing in Gray’s Inn and Visiting Professorial Fellow in International Taxation at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London. He is a member of the International Tax Sub-Committee of the Law Society, a former member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and joint head of the School of Tax Law at Queen Mary at the University of London.

Prof. Baker will be the main speaker at an international conference that is to be held in Malta on the subject of international taxation. The full-day conference, also organised by the Malta Institute of Management, will be held on 19 January and will be promoted abroad, mainly in Italy and the UK.

This is the first event of its kind to address international taxation, and it is the

intention of the Malta Institute of Management that it becomes an annual event.

Other speakers at the

conference will be Parliamentary Secretary in the Finance Ministry Tonio Fenech, Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Frendo, Dott. Roberto Geraci who is a Dottore Commercialista e Revisore Contabile at the Studio Dottori Commercial-isti e Associati, Matthias Lefarth, Head of the Finance and Tax Department of the German Association of Small and Medium Sized Companies, Helen Ghezzo, International Tax Manager at De La Rue, William Morrison, Senior Consultant Accordance, Juanita Bezzina, KPMG and Robert Attard, Visiting Lecturer at the University of Malta.

The Faculty for the Advanced Diploma of International Taxation, which has been brought together by the Malta Institute of Management, also includes Juanita Bencini, Matthew Manderson, Nikki Dimech and Reuben Buttigieg.