Dear Colleague,
The IBSA have had an extremely successful November. It has attracted a number of new members to the Association, all of whom bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise. We welcome you to the Association and look forward to working with you in the future.
Following the successful launches of the Middle East branch of the IBSA in October followed by a similar event in Cyprus the same month, we asked several members from as far as Hong Kong to New York to attend a Global Committee meeting just before the annual conference, where we discussed our vision for the future development of the IBSA. Amongst various recommendations the committee agreed to consider podcasts at meetings to attract members who are unable to be physically present at branch events. Members expressed the view that the IBSA comprises a close community of professional s with whom it is a pleasure to spend time at branch events, workshops and conferences, and this was evident at the Annual Members’ Dinner at the Langan's Brasserie, the night before the annual conference. It did, indeed, feel like an evening spent amongst good friends and colleagues!
The Annual Conference, at the Landmark Hotel, was a huge success. For those of you unfamiliar with Roy's Polycon Lens Journey, it comprises seven sessions ranging from intellectual property identification, protection and exploitation, to research and development issues, VAT and branding issues, to corporate finance, joint ventures and international tax – an holistic approach to the issues that Polycon Lens will experience as it morphs into the Eyemax Group. It is a fictitious story about Stephen Holmes developing the first progressive power acrylic lenses for spectacles and manufacturing them for wholesalers prior to selling them as white label designer glasses. The business progressed into the research and subsequent manufacture and sale of high quality optical lenses for telescopes, then to lenses for digital cameras and subsequently for mobile phones. Polycon Lens Company was rebranded as the Eyemax Group and as Eyemax, it eventually harnessed Stephen’s creative brain to develop the solar lens bowl for capturing solar energy in a joint venture with a utility company. The metamorphosis of Polycon Lens Company into the Eyemax Group could not have been achieved without Stephen Holmes’ entrepreneurial skills and creative input.
But equally, it required professional expertise in a variety of disciplines.....the rationale behind the concept in creating the IBSA, where professional advisers care sufficiently for the client's financial wellbeing that they involve themselves in disciplines other than their own specialism to facilitate their clients more effectively.
We would like to thank the speakers for their contribution to the conference and for understanding the objective of the Polycon journey - the continued theme made for an extremely interesting and enjoyable day. We were thrilled the conference was so well attended throughout the day. We also appreciate the support from so many members who were just not able to attend this year due to the perils of work commitments. We look forward to seeing you at the next one!
For conference material about the Polycon journey, slides and a summary of the issues raised, please click here.
We have a full diary of events planned for 2017 and have almost finalised the events for the first 3 months of next year. We start with the two events highlighted below on 19th January in London and 26th January in Cyprus. The topic of the London event is UK-centric and deals with corporate incentives for investors and employees, whilst the Cyprus topic has been chosen to encourage participation from members in other European countries, where intellectual property tax incentives are granted, such as Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Malta.
February events will be detailed in next month’s newsletter but they will be held in New York, Malta, Geneva, Dubai and Hong Kong on topics such as the US tax outlook in a Trump world, Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Arrangements and Residence planning for Entrepreneurial Clients. We have already arranged a joint US and UK branch meeting in mid-march on a video-linked discussion of how the OECD BEPS initiative is being adopted in these two countries, and the differences that have arisen in the acceptance of these recommendations.
As always, we welcome new membership of the IBSA; if you would like more information about the IBSA and are interested in joining our Association, or if you are already a member but would like to join a local or the global committee, please contact Lucie.Hoyland@istructuring.com.
Kind regards,
Roy Saunders
