06 Mar First PROTAX Focus Group – building an effective response to counter tax crimes

PROTAX project focuses 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.

On 31 January 2019, we have held the first PROTAX in Bristol, welcoming tax experts, law enforcement agencies, relevant industry representatives from the banking, audit and consulting fields.

It has been an excellent opportunity to discuss how to counter tax crimes in the UK and EU with participants providing different perspectives on the topic .

The Bristol focus group hosted at University of West England (UWE) was the first in a series of focus groups planned across Europe designed with the objective to address the following aspects :

• Exploring tax crimes
• LEA requirements and organisational aspects
• Inter-agency co-operation
• International collaboration
• Dual role of the financial sector: Prevention and facilitation of tax crimes
• Benchmarks and best practices
• Ideas to advance the fight against tax crime

Once the remaining 9 focus groups in 9 different EU countries are completed, we will convene a conference in Brussels at the EU Commission 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.