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| Mike
Williams is a new entry this year |
Mike Williams is a tax veteran who plays an important role
in guiding the UK's international tax policy, but he will have
jumped onto even more people's radars when he was appointed as
the chairman of the BEPS Action 15 working group for the
development of a multilateral instrument.
The ad hoc working group – which was
created on May 27 2015, before the final BEPS deliverables were
released – will be responsible for drafting the
multilateral instrument for implementing BEPS around the world.
This will essentially involve putting together treaty amendment
rules to facilitate countries in implementing treaty-related
BEPS recommendations.
Williams' three vice-chairs in the group are Mohammed Amine
Baina of Morocco, China's Liao Tizhong and Kim Jacinto-Henares
of the Philippines, all of whom feature in this year's Global
Tax 50 list. While each of these figures performed influential
roles outside of their Action 15 work over the past year, this
showing is testament to the importance of the ad hoc
group's work.
The working group has been signed up to by more than 90
countries. The agreement by OECD countries to sign up to a
multilateral instrument to modify tax treaties was one of the
pivotal aspects of the BEPS Project, and the group will now
work to create the instrument capable of modifying the world's
3,500+ bilateral tax treaties.
Williams will need to show strong leadership; the working
group has a tough timetable to adhere to, with negotiations on
the instrument scheduled to be finished by the end of 2016.