Delegates from 38 organisations based in 28 European countries were in Malta last Friday to attend the annual general assembly of the Confédération Fiscale Européenne, the umbrella organisation of the tax advising profession.

Hosted by the Malta Institute of Taxation, the international meeting also incorporated the annual general meeting of the CFE’s technical arms, the fiscal committee and the professional affairs committee.

Topical subjects tackled at these meetings included the emission of trading rights and the financial sector taxation.

There was a discussion on guidelines on multi-national enterprises and on transparency and exchange of information, both recently issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The delegates also reviewed decisions of the European Court of Justice that have not yet been im-plemented by member states.

Founded in Paris in 1959, the CFE today embraces more than 200,000 European professional tax advisers. The Malta Institute of Taxation has been an active CFE member for the past 10 years.

The CFE considers its functions to be the safeguarding of the professional interests of tax advisers, assuring the quality of tax services provided by tax advisers, exchanging information about national tax and professional laws, and seeking to contribute to the coordination of tax law in Europe.

“Most of these topics are relevant to a vast array of commercial sectors in Malta and also to their end users,” MIT president Renald Micallef said.

The CFE has recently changed its place of registration from Paris to Brussels.