Under a warm European temperature of 32 degrees, Roedl & Partner held their 18th ‘Going Global’ Forum at their head office in Nuremberg, Germany. This annual event is an opportunity for Roedl clients with ties to international markets to learn about developments in other countries that may affect them – from taxation, accounting and audit to employment policies. It is also a great opportunity for Roedl clients to meet the accounting teams supporting them and their subsidiaries outside of Germany.
Accru Felsers Michael Kersch and I were lucky enough to cross continents to join this 2-day convergence of the Roedl global community.
The conference agenda
Transfer pricing was still high on the agenda this year, with discussions about the various approaches to sources of information depending on each country’s tax authorities.
A lot of time was also devoted to the issue of expatriates, who can create costly headaches for companies originally only seeking short-term presence abroad.
On the French side, there was discussion about the complexity of social policies that foreign employers need to navigate and the importance of choosing the proper structure from the beginning.
To Accru Felsers as an international associate of Roedl, the most fascinating discussions followed the next day at the practice discussion groups. Each group discussed specific hot topics, successes and challenges common to Roedl’s global staff and community.
Automation of processes and moving to digital systems is a big focus of the European business process outsourcing sector, mirroring changes to Australian systems on our shores a few years ago. The discussions demonstrated Australia’s leading position in digital accounting (as highlighted by Xero’s recent benchmarking report).
Belgium and Australia explored similarities in their taxation regimes, with high individual tax rates which shocked other countries until they realised their respective governments imposed other taxes that we are not subject to in Belgium and Australia.
And we were all astonished to hear about the Russian tax anomaly which has resulted in employees never taking leave in a month that contains a public holiday!
Thank you to Roedl
The conference was an invaluable experience for me, with the long-awaited face-to-face meetings with clients, enlightening discussions in German and great dinners with colleagues, on the backdrop of beautiful historical Nuremberg. Thanks to Roedl for organising such a wonderful global event, and to Accru Felsers for the opportunity to attend. We at Accru Felsers are proud to be associated with Roedl and Partner public accountants in Germany.
