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Tax Reform in a Globalized Economy: An OECD Perspective Moderator Michael P. Reilly Vice President, Taxation, Johnson & Johnson Chairman, USCIB Tax Committee Presentation: Jeffrey Owens Director, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration Discussants: Edward Kleinbard Joint Committee on Taxation

Event Description:

The OECD assesses tax policy as part of its mandate for overall surveillance of structural policy. This involves comparing tax design and policy across Member countries, and analyzing the impact of different tax structures on economic efficiency and income distribution. Its primary purpose is to assist policy makers in designing tax policies that are suited to their objectives.

Jeffrey Owens, who heads up the OECD tax work, will share his thirty years of experience in analyzing trends in tax reform around the world. As Jeffrey says: “any country, big or small, that seriously considers fundamental tax reform should first look at what has been happening in other countries.” Little is new in the tax world: some country will have tried out a new approach to taxation. Looking at the experience of other countries provides a way of seeing what could and could not work in the US.

Jeffrey will also talk about current challenges that the U.S. and other OECD countries must address in an increasingly globalized economy:

• The shift from a brick and mortar economy to a service economy;
• The rise of India and China;
• The move by multinationals to operate as truly global corporations; and
• The ease of offshore non-compliance and the more competitive environment within which tax systems have to operate.

Edward Kleinbard, Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, will provide comments on how these issues are affecting the tax reform debate within the United States.

Biographies:

Jeffrey Owens, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, is a public finance expert with a doctorate in Economics from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He is also a qualified accountant. The OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration is the focal point for the OECD’s work on taxation. Over the last ten years he has built up the OECD’s work on taxation so that it is now the leading organisation in the international tax area. Mr. Owens has taught at Cambridge University, the American University in Paris, Bocconi University in Italy and Queen Mary’s College in London. He is a member of numerous scientific committees and frequently contributes to international conferences and journals.

Edward Kleinbard is Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation. Mr. Kleinbard regularly publishes on tax matters and received a 2006 Burton Award for Legal Writing for his article on the Business Enterprise Income Tax, and he is widely recognized as one of the elite tax lawyers in the United States. Mr. Kleinbard joined Cleary Gotlieb in 1977 and became a partner in 1984. His practice focused on federal income tax matters, including taxation of new financial products, financial institutions and international mergers and acquisitions. He received a J.D. degree in 1976 from Yale Law School, where he was an articles editor of the Law Journal. He received an M.A. degree and an undergraduate degree from Brown University in 1973. Mr. Kleinbard also regularly lectures at New York University, Practicing Law Institute and similar conferences.

Michael P. Reilly is Vice President, Taxation at Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ. Since joining Johnson & Johnson in 1985, he has served in various positions in the Tax Department, including an assignment in Brussels, Belgium as Director, European Tax Affairs. From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Reilly worked at the Internal Revenue Service in the Office of Chief Counsel, Reorganization Branch in Washington, DC. Mr. Reilly currently serves as Chairman of the Tax Committee of the United States Council for International Business and as a Vice-Chair of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. He is also Chairman of the Tax Council. Mr. Reilly received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and his J.D. from George Washington University.