Given the circumstances around COVID-19, this year's 6th Berlin-Vallendar tax conference took place on June 4, 2020 digitally via ZOOM.
The two organizers Martin Jacob (WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management) and Frank Hechtner (Technical University of Kaiserslautern) welcomed more than 90 international participants.
"Once again, I am excited by the international composition and the high quality of the conference. I am particularly pleased about the large number of colleagues from the USA, for which the conference partly began at 4 am," said Martin Jacob, who was responsible for the organization this year.
Initially, seven current projects in the field of tax research were presented by their respective authors. Nathan Goldmann (North Carolina State University) presented the research paper "Executive Compensation, Individual-Level Tax Rates, and Insider Trading Profits", written in collaboration with Naim Bugra Ozel (University of Texas at Dallas). The paper was discussed by Tobias Bornemann (WU Vienna).
"Income Shifting and Management Incentives" the paper by Regina Ortmann (University of Paderborn), and her colleague Dirk Schindler (Erasmus University Rotterdam). Xu Jiang (Duke University) discussed the paper.
Paul Demeré (University of Georgia), showed with his current research paper "Do U.S. Multinationals Use Income Shifting to Launder Corrupt Activity? Evidence from Effects on Partner Country Citizenry" a valuable contribution to the exchange of current research results. He co-authored the paper with Jeffrey Gramlich and Yoonsoo Nam (both Washington State University). The work was discussed by Maximilian Todtenhaupt (NHH Bergen).
The "Early-Paper" Stage Session was a new addition to the program this year. The organizers gave four tax researchers the opportunity to present their current research topic to colleagues at a very early stage. Kathleen Andries (WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management), Zackery Fox (University of Oregon), Jesse van der Geest (Tilburg University), and Kelly Wentland (George Mason University) took the opportunity to give the participants first insights into current works in their 10-minute presentations. They received many positive suggestions and comments and this format will become a core element of the conference.
Even though a virtual conference could not replace the "real" discussions and the mutual exchange, it was a successful event for all participants.