02 Nov Developing new methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate corruption and TAX Crimes in the EU

We are delighted to invite tax experts, tax authorities representatives, Law enforcement agencies, professionals of relevant industries to join the PROTAX upcoming focus groups.

The EU-funded PROTAX project is focused on the human factors surrounding tax crimes. As such, it seeks to understand ground-level problems that hamper the application of law, investigation, collaboration and ultimately the conviction of tax crimes. By integrating stakeholder knowledge and expertise, PROTAX will generate law enforcement tools and guidelines to help counter tax crimes and reach harmonised levels of organisation and networking across the EU.

In this context, PROTAX will host focus group events in 10 EU Member States addressing the following themes:

1. Exploring tax crimes
2. LEA requirements and organisational aspects
3. Inter-agency co-operation
4. International collaboration
5. Dual role of the financial sector: Prevention and facilitation of tax crimes
6. Benchmarks and best practices
7. Ideas to advance the fight against tax crime

At a second stage, the PROTAX partners will prepare a final report that will outline major findings of all focus group events. It will analyse the similarities and differences of tax crime treatment in various EU-jurisdictions, and will particularly highlight best enforcement practices across the EU.

We will convene a conference in Brussels where we will invite all focus group participants and other stakeholders involved in the prevention, investigation and prosecution of tax crimes. The conference will provide a platform for professionals specialised in tax and tax crime matters to learn about the findings of the focus groups and contribute to the formulation of recommendations to the European Commission and stakeholders to enhance capabilities in the fight against tax crimes.

The focus groups will be an excellent opportunity for us all to exchange and learn about various dimensions of tax crime practices in the EU, and think collectively about how to move forward in countering this type of crimes.

The input, experience, and views of experts and practitioners will help shape the solutions generated at various stages of PROTAX.

The focus groups will be held throughout 2019 in the following countries:

Portugal (March); Malta (March); Czech Republic (March); Ireland (April); Finland (May); Austria (March); Estonia (April); Italy (May); UK (January); Germany (tbc)

All our focus groups will operate according to ‘Chatham House rules’, i.e., participants will be able to express their views freely without being named and have the opportunity to comment on the draft summary report of their focus group before the report is finalised.

In compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), PROTAX will store securely any personal data collected for the duration of the project in encrypted, password-protected files. We will ask participants to sign an informed consent form before participating in a focus group.

Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to receive more information.