Another big week lies ahead in the tax world

Tax reform has been a big issue on the public agenda over the last month, following government announcements on the carbon tax, mining tax, national tax forum and the review of GST funding.

With that in mind, the Institute's inaugural annual tax conference, appropriately titled, ‘the Big 1’, couldn’t have come at a better time. It starts this coming Wednesday, 6 April in Melbourne.

The conference runs for two days and features speakers ranging from Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, through to Tax Commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo and former High Court judge Michael Kirby.

With so many different initiatives underway right now in the tax arena, the conference presents a unique opportunity to debate and discover the tax reform priorities of conference speakers and delegates. Some of the areas that will be discussed include:

• The development of a tax reform blueprint for Australia, which is back on the agenda following the recent announcement by the Federal Treasurer of details on the national tax forum to be held in early October this year
• The next steps in the introduction of the proposed new resource tax arrangements. The formation of a new Implementation Group (which I am fortunate to be a part of), and the commitment by the government to adopt all 94 recommendations from the Policy Transition Group, means the momentum is certainly about to gather pace again in this area.

These recent developments, as well as a raft of others, will be comprehensively debated at the tax conference by a wide cross section of experts. It's going to be fantastic to watch and participate in.

If you haven't registered to attend the National Tax Conference yet, visit www.charteredaccountants.com.au/NTC to find out more. In the meantime, you can follow the latest updates at twitter.com/Chartered_Accts by referencing #taxconf.