Europe and America Seminar Agenda

SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS

Value Added Tax in Europe and Other Countries

Britta Eriksson
President & CEO
Euro VAT Refund, Inc.

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Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax that is levied on goods and services in almost all countries around the world except the U.S. 15-25% VAT will be assessed to the goods imported to the European Union, and it is very important for the U.S. company to understand how this works and what effect it will have on the goods they sell. Will it be a cost to their customer? Does it matter if they sell to a company or to a private customer.

If the U.S. company acts as the importer, then it will in most cases be required that they register for VAT in the EU country of import, and that they charge VAT to their customers. How does this work? Can we register without having an establishment? How much will this cost our customers and us? What are the procedures and what help do we need?

VAT is also added to sales of services within the EU. How does this work? Does the U.S. company that sells to customers in the EU have to register for VAT and charge VAT to the customers?

Belgium in the Heart of Europe - Tax Incentives for Foreign Investors

Michela Ritondo
Senior Tax Official
Fiscal Department for Foreign Investments
Federal Public Service Finance of Belgium

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Michela Ritondo, Senior Tax Official at the Belgian Ministry of Finance, will give a presentation on tax incentives to encourage foreign companies wishing to invest in Europe using Belgium as a tax gateway.

The EU "e-customs initiative"

Paul V. Oliva
Founder and Principal
OlivaGlobal Communications

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Presentation description coming soon.

Trade and Investment with Bavaria

Dr. Lucie Merkle
Executive Director
State of Bavaria U.S. Office for Economic Development, West Coast Division

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Presentation description coming soon.

LUNCHEON

Entering European Markets in a Challenging Environment

Edmund Hain
Founder and Managing Director
Business Consulting Network International, LLC

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How to “translate” U.S. products and services to solutions for European business and consumer needs? With the 27 EU countries (plus Switzerland) U.S. companies are faced not only with 20+ languages, but with basically different markets, industries and consumer behaviors. Plus different levels of economics development, and EU regulations on the one hand and local laws on the other. The idea of Europe as a uniform market can make “business trips” to Europe to an adventure with critical risks for U.S. companies.

Trade And The Transatlantic Relationship - Is There A Crisis?

Caroline Kraviec Brownstone Caroline Krawiec Brownstone
President & CEO
International Management and Marketing Associates (IMMA) Ltd.

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Even in these challenging economic times, the EU-US partnership is the most important economic relationship in the world.

Combined, the EU and the US represent around half of the world’s GDP (54 % in 2008), and are each other’s most important trade and investment partners.

Bilateral trade in goods alone is worth $610 billion every year, which is more than one billion dollars a day – with total commercial exchanges across the Atlantic Ocean amounting to $4.4 trillion annually.

How does this relationship affect US and specifically California owners, managers, manufacturers, innovators, financiers, suppliers, researchers, developers and especially firms which are currently competing in this global import/export arena?

How can we, not only maintain business development and improve productivity, but expand our horizon to astutely capture business opportunities before the threshold of competition surfaces or re-surfaces?

We will consider both macro and micro conditions questioning this topic of “Trade and The Transatlantic Relationship – Is There a Crisis” and discuss these topics at our MBITA luncheon meeting before for the November 20, 2010 European Union-United States Summit meeting In Lisbon, Portugal when the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission welcome President of the United States for the purpose of enhancing the transatlantic partnership.