Biography:

Sebastián Vicuña is a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in the field of tax law, international tax law, corporate law, and regulatory compliance. He has a deep understanding of these areas, as well as a strong commitment to ensuring that his clients are in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

He is highly skilled in the areas of corporate formation and structure, mergers and acquisitions, tax consulting, legal advisory, and regulatory compliance. He works closely with his clients to understand their needs and to develop strategies that help them achieve their goals while minimizing risk.

He has been a lecturer in different academic programs and training courses for different universities and other public and private institutions.

He's the editor of LCP's weekly Pensions Bulletin and undertakes other technical writing for the firm.

Sebastian is the author of the Chile country guide for Tolley’s Global Mobility/Employment Taxes.

Biography:

Barbara trained as a lawyer with top-tier firms in Brazil, gaining over 15 years of experience in tax law, with deep expertise in both national and international taxation. As the Head of the Tax Department at Andersen Ballão Advocacia, she leads a team of professionals advising on a wide range of tax matters, including corporate taxes, national and cross-border transactions, VAT, and tax disputes.

Barbara specialises in tax planning, M&A transactions, consultancy, and resolving complex tax litigation, with extensive experience advising multinational companies, individuals, and various industries, including technology, retail, oil and gas, and finance. Her expertise extends to key areas such as international tax structuring, transfer pricing, direct and indirect taxation, helping clients navigate the complex Brazilian tax system.

She holds bachelor's degrees in Law from UNICURITIBA and in Accounting Science from the Federal University of Paraná. Barbara also obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) in Domestic Taxation from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), and an LLM in International Tax Law, with distinction, from Queen Mary University of London. In recognition of her academic achievements, she was awarded the prestigious Chevening Scholarship for 2022/23.

In addition to her legal practice, Barbara is a published author and a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Her articles have been featured in renowned tax publications, and she regularly delivers lectures and workshops on taxation in leading post-graduate programs in Brazil.

Barbara is recognised for her technical excellence and strategic thinking, having contributed to innovative solutions in major tax disputes and cross-border tax planning. She has played a significant role in fostering tax debate and education, serving as a mentor and role model for young professionals in the tax law field.

To contact Barbara, please email: barbara.neves@andersenballao.com.br / barbaradasneves@gmail.com or call +55 41 3221-7777.

Biography:

Robert is an expert in UK employment tax matters for employers with UK based employees, including UK employees working overseas, and overseas employees coming to the UK. He has extensive experience of advising clients with regards to PAYE matters, employee benefits and social security as well as employment related payments outside the payroll functions such as termination settlements and payments to consultants and other non-payroll labour.

After graduating in Politics and Law from the University of Southampton, Robert started his tax career at HMRC as an employer compliance officer undertaking enquiries into employers' expenses and benefits systems before moving into a large international practice and then into the Big 4. Here he assisted with tax investigations, flexible benefits planning, employment tax compliance and international social security.

Robert has presented to various audiences and has had a number of articles published in various magazines on employment tax matters.

Robert is a fully qualified member of both the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CTA).

Biography:

Mike Thexton has been talking and writing about tax since passing the examinations of ICAEW in 1983 and CIOT in 1984. He currently spends his working time presenting regular VAT updates for the specialist staff of several large and medium-sized firms of accountants, writing the Quarterly Online VAT Update for LexisNexis, and providing tax and accountancy services to personal and small company clients.

Mike won the Taxation Magazine Tax Writer of the Year Award 2010 for his articles in the professional press, leaflets for the clients of accountancy firms and technical material on VAT. Among the pieces submitted to the judging panel were answers to Taxation magazine's Readers' Queries, concealed behind a mysterious pseudonym.

He has also published a book, "What happened to the hippy man?", about his experience at the centre of the hijacking of PanAm 073 in Karachi in September 1986. He is working on "VAT the heck!", a collection of weird and wonderful stories from the world of VAT, and looking for a publisher…

Biography:

Prior to joining Chungrui Tax Group, Eva worked with one of the Big 4 CPA firms, Grant Thornton and foreign enterprises.

During her seventeen-year career in taxation areas, Eva has rich experiences in providing PRC tax advisory, compliance services and tax plannings for multinational companies including tax risk controls, transfer pricing, due diligences, cross-border taxation, tax planning for high-net worth individuals and etc. She served both multinational companies and Chinese medium and small-sized companies in China including trading, banking, manufacturing industries and etc.

Biography:

Omar is working at the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) – a global Islamic finance standard setter, as its Secretary General. Previously he was Partner – Assurance & Head of Islamic Finance (Pakistan & Afghanistan) at Ernst & Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder - A member firm of Ernst & Young. He is a Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP).

At AAOIFI, he is responsible primarily for leading the process of development of accounting, auditing, governance and ethics standards for the global Islamic finance industry, besides managing the overall affairs of the institution as the organization’s head.

Omar’s key areas of expertise include assurance and advisory services to Islamic financial institutions, including Islamic accounting advisory, audits, Shari’ah Audits, corporate finance advisory, structuring of Shari’ah compliant transactions, accountancy and financial reporting, Islamic finance training, financial modelling, risk management & development and review of manuals and systems.

His published books include:

1. Managing Finances - A Shariah Compliant Way;
2. Islamic Microfinance Bank: Working Model (in Urdu);
3. IFRS and Shari'ah based reporting: a conceptual study;
4. Textbook on Islamic finance and capital markets (for the Institute of Capital Markets, SECP – Pakistan);
5. AAOIFI’s *** program study texts (in the capacity of chief editor and reviewer) comprising 4 volumes on (i) Accounting and Financial Reporting; (ii) Shari'ah Standards and Shari'ah Governance; (iii) Audit, Assurance and Ethics; and (iv) Business and regulatory environment.

Omar is a member (ex-chairman) of ICAP's committee responsible for the development of Islamic financial accounting standards for Pakistan and also a member of the Insurance Committee leading the accounting regulations development for Takaful. He was a member of Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Shari’ah Board and part of the committee for revision of Takaful Rules, besides being part of several committees and task forces of the State Bank of Pakistan. He was also an advisor to Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) on Shari’ah issues concerning IFRS adoption.

He has contributed several articles in various newspapers and journals, and papers in conferences and is also a regular trainer and speaker on various forums on topics related to Islamic finance including forums like the State Bank of Pakistan, universities and professional bodies.

Biography:

Julian is a barrister at Exchequer Chambers, part of The Barrister Group (www.exchequerchambers.com). He was called to the Bar in 1995 and he has been a partner with major City and West End solicitors’ practices. Julian specialises in disputes that arise from any tax or tax-related matter. His practice covers all areas of tax, including corporate, international, employment, private client, VAT, SDLT, Stamp Taxes, and customs and excise duty; together with areas concerning professional negligence and judicial review. He acts as an advocate and in an advisory capacity and has appeared both on his own and as part of a team in a wide variety of cases in the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal, High Court and Court of Appeal (some of which have been live streamed). He represents taxpayers and HMRC. He has a Ph.D in tax (awarded by the University of London); and he has written and lectured extensively on tax issues. For further information please see taxbarrister.com. He also contributes to Tolley's "A Practical Guide to Tax Disputes".

Biography:

David is an experienced solicitor and member of Mewburn Ellis' legal services team.  David has extensive experience advising on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters. He has particular expertise in relation to disputes concerning patents, trade marks, and designs. He also advises on issues concerning copyright, domain names, confidential information, and Intellectual Property aspects of corporate and commercial transactions. David has advised on proceedings before the High Court, Court of Appeal, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, and UK and EU Intellectual Property Offices.

Areas of Expertise

• IP litigation and dispute resolution
• Contentious trade mark office proceedings
• Management and protection of IP
• Drafting and negotiating IP contracts
• Conducting IP due diligence in connection with the sale or purchase of IP rights, or for corporate investments, M&A or IPOs

Biography:

Petra is an Indirect Tax Manager at Protokorp d.o.o who principally advices on all aspects of VAT. She has MSc in law and BSc in economics. She has worked with various tax consultancy firms covering different types of taxes including corporate income tax and private individual taxation.

Petra advises businesses of all sizes as well as private individuals. She has experience in tax advising for many international companies from various industries.

Biography:

John is a chartered accountant and independent training consultant, who lectures for the major trainers, professional bodies, accountancy practices and publishers. He speaks on auditing, financial reporting, ethics, company law and anti-money laundering. Previously, he has been the technical partner for a top thirty firm of accountants and Head of CharterGroup, the accountancy network.

He has spoken for ICAEW's, highly successful, Audit & Assurance Faculty and Financial Reporting Faculty roadshows, for many years.

As well as writing for Audit & Beyond and various other publications, John is author of Core Auditing Standards for Practitioners. John is also a member of the Audit & Assurance Faculty's Practitioner Services Panel.

John finds writing about himself in the third person unsettling.

Biography:

Professional Experience:

Ruslan spent ten years in the commercial banking industry, after which he moved to the accounting and consulting sector where he has been working for the past 10 years.

He is passionate about supporting and guiding mid-market enterprise clients.

Ruslan holds a Master's Degree in Economics and obtained his CPA designation in Alberta.

He is a contributor to the Canada country guide in Tolley's Global VAT.

Expertise:

• Financial and Operating Analysis
• Corporate and Personal Taxation
• Full cycle of Corporate Accounting and Reporting
• Data Analysis and Business Intelligence
• CFO and Controller role for public and private clients
• Business Intelligence at University of Calgary
• Financial Counsellor at Institute of Canadian Bankers
• Fluent in English, Romanian, Russian

Biography:

David is a former partner in, and consultant to Larking Gowen, based in East Anglia, specialising in agriculture and associated private client work. He is a founder member and past chairman of the ICAEW Farming and Rural Business Community and the group’s subject matter expert. Since retiring from practice David continues his involvement with agriculture, both as a speaker at training conferences and as a farmer in his own right.

Biography:

Andrew is a specialist in a variety of indirect taxes with a focus on GST, State Taxes and Customs related taxation matters.

Prior to PKF, Andrew was a Partner at a Big 4 accounting for more than 11 years. He has had extensive experience in providing comprehensive tax advice to small to medium enterprises right through to large multinational organisations. He also has strong relationships with senior officers from the Australian Taxation Office and other revenue authorities.

As well as working with a range of different sized businesses, Andrew is an experienced practitioner across a diverse range of industry sectors. He also has experience in establishing business operations in New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore.

His major clients include automotive importers, distributors and dealers, food wholesale and distributors, and consumer electronic companies. He also has a number of clients in the Retirement Village and Aged Care Sectors. In addition, Andrew has recently been working with clients servicing the NDIS and affordable housing sectors.

Andrew’s portfolio is broad and diversified and includes working with a number of start-ups on a range of business, tax and funding issues.

Andrew also sits on the advisory boards of a number of large Private Companies.

Andrew is a contributing author to the Australia country guide in Tolley’s Global VAT.

Biography:

Elena is a Barrister with over 15 years’ experience in contentious financial regulation and corporate and white-collar crime. Elena is currently Senior Legal Counsel at Wells Fargo Bank in Financial Crime Legal. Elena previously worked at the Financial Conduct Authority in Enforcement Legal advising on regulatory/civil Enforcement cases against both firms and individuals and conducting litigation and advocacy before the Regulatory Decisions Committee, the Upper Tribunal and Courts. Elena also advised on contentious Authorization refusal cases and on Supervisory action. Elena started her career as a Criminal Barrister before holding positions in city law firms specializing in Financial Regulation, economic crime and internal investigations and has particular expertise in AML, Fraud, ABC and Sanctions.

Elena is a contributing author to Simon’s Taxes and Tolley’s Practice Management Tools.

Biography:

Emma speacialises in the taxation of companies and has over 12 years' of experience working in tax. Emma joined Tolley from Grant Thornton, having worked in both the corporate tax and enterpreneurial services tax teams.

Whilst in practice, Emma managed compliance and advisory projects for a wide variety of clients from small start-up companies to large international groups, and their owners.

Emma is now the in-house writer and manager of the Corporate Tax Module of TolleyGuidance.

Biography:

He is a former senior HM Inspector of Taxes having also worked at EY prior to joining Mazars LLP in 2008

Jon specialises in supporting clients through all types of disputes with HMRC ranging from ad hoc technical queries through to allegations of fraud and criminal investigations. He acts for corporates, entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals.  Jon also provides support for clients to identify and address their tax risks including their obligations under the Senior Accounting Officer and Corporate Criminal Offence regimes.

Latterly Jon has supported clients to address the challenges of HMRC’s approach to participation in tax avoidance schemes to include acting as an expert witness in claims of professional negligence.

Jon qualified as a Chartered Tax Advisor in November 2003.

Biography:

Mala is a Chartered Tax Adviser and non-practising Solicitor and Accountant. She trained with a top ten professional services firm where she worked in the tax investigations department and gained experience in a wide range of personal and corporate taxes. She joined the tax investigations team at a boutique tax consultancy and developed her portfolio before moving to a tax investigations firm.

Mala specialises in preparation of disclosures to HMRC and resolution of tax enquiries and CoP8 and 9 Investigations. She has experience in a range of situations – self-employment, property, owner managed businesses, non-UK domiciled individuals – and taxes; direct income taxes as well as PAYE, VAT and SDLT.

She is a well-known tax author, having had several articles published by the professional press including Taxation Magazine, Bloomsbury Professional and Tax Adviser. She also regularly lectures online and in person for the CIOT, AAT, ICAEW and CIMA, including at CIOT and CIMA conferences.

Mala was a finalist in the “Best Rising Star in Tax” category as part of Tolleys Taxation Awards 2020. The Awards are known for identifying excellence in tax. Being shortlisted for the award demonstrates Mala’s commitment to the tax profession as well as her technical excellence as supported by testimonials from clients and other tax experts.

Mala founded the London Tax Society in 2017 and actively encourages networking and technical development for young professionals.

To contact Mala, please email: mala@londontaxnetwork.co.uk or call 0203 953 6660.

Biography:

Krish realised his childhood dream by qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2008. He follows a rich lineage of Chartered Accountants in the family with an overall experience of more than a century.

Krish is a partner in the firm which was founded by his father three decades ago. He heads the tax compliance and the representation practice in his firm.

Krish specializes in new company set-up, GST and direct taxation in international tax, corporation tax and capital gains tax for his clientele who are predominantly large Indian companies and multinational companies from the UK, US and Japan.

In the last decade, Krish has worked extensively on tax due diligence, drafting legal opinions on tax matters, updating the client’s business with the why, how and what of tax policies accompanied by a clear call to action. His knowledge in accounting, passion for consistent legal research and mentoring gives him an edge in the timely and successful completion of tax cases before the tax authorities and tribunals.

He strongly believes in making taxes less taxing for his clientele.

Krish loves to travel, read about world economy, start-up valuations and learn about new technologies. He is an avid follower of cricket and watches the latest content across OTT platforms.