Between Scylla and Charybdis: Steering Through the Waters of Cross-Border Finance and Taxation
Thessaloniki, Greece
24 September 2026 - 26 September 2026
Between Scylla and Charybdis: Steering Through the Waters of Cross-Border Finance and Taxation
Thursday 24 September 2026 | |
| 18:45 | Registrations open |
| 19:00 » 21:00 | Welcome reception |
| 21:00 » 23:30 | Dinner |
Friday 25 September 2026 | |
| 08:00 | Registrations open |
| 09:00 » 09:30 | Opening session by AIJA President |
| 09:30 » 10:00 | Keynot speaker |
| 10:00 » 11:00 | SESSION 1: Sustainable Finance - (Over)-regulation and setback in the financial sector? Will deregulation trends boost-up investors' confidence and investments' attractiveness? The panel will discuss whether overregulation is indeed a thing and how it impacted markets in Europe and worldwide. What issues the financial markets have been financing due to excessive regulations from financial and tax perspective, such as reporting obligations, CBAM etc.? The panelists will put some light on lessons have we learned from overregulation. They will cover the recent shift toward a more principles based regulations and discuss whether new rules have chance to raise attractiveness of local and cross-border investments. |
| 11:00 » 11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30 » 12:30 | SESSION 2: Risks in Cross-Border Secured Transactions: WHT, Deductibility, and Structuring Around the Edges This session will explore the practical challenges of creating, perfecting, managing and enforcing security interests in cross-border transactions involving different legal and tax regimes, assets and parties across multiple jurisdictions. Speakers will discuss how to ensure validity and perfection of collateral under conflicting legal regimes, the role of security agents and trustees in managing multi-jurisdictional securities, insolvency and enforcement rules on creditor recoveries. While capital markets practitioners often focus on the legal perfection and enforcement of cross-border security interests, these transactions also raise complex tax challenges. The panel will explore how tax rules influence the structuring of secured loans, pledges, and guarantees — particularly when interest payments flow across jurisdictions. |
| 12:30 » 14:00 | Lunch Break |
| 14:00 » 15:00 | SESSION 3: Structuring for High Net Worth Individuals: Considerations in Financing Yachts, Art, and Real Estate How family offices and private bankers structure the financing and acquisition of luxury assets – from yachts, private jets, and art collections to prime real estate – across multiple jurisdictions? This session will discuss how legal, tax, and regulatory frameworks influence ownership and financing structures, including the use of special purpose vehicles, trusts, and offshore entities, as well as the impact of anti-money laundering rules, environmental regulations, sanctions issues and the challenges of asset mobility and enforcement. This session will also address the tax arrangements for high-value assets. Panelists will explore cross-border issues including VAT and customs duties, WHT on financing flows, CFC implications for ownership structures, and risks around beneficial ownership. |
| 15:00 » 15:30 | Coffee Break |
| 15:30 » 16:30 | SESSION 4: Substance and Treaty Benefits: When Structure Collides with Reality This session will explore how corporate substance requirements and anti-abuse rules affect the application of tax treaties in cross-border restructurings and financing transactions. Panelists will examine typical holding and financing structures that now face challenges due to Principal Purpose Test (PPT), local GAARs and minimum substance requirements. The panel will discuss how to assess whether “minimum substance” is sufficient, how tax authorities approach recharacterization, and what practical solutions remain viable in 2026. |
| 17:00 » 17:30 | Commission Meetings |
| 20:00 | Dinner |
Saturday 26 September 2026 | |
| 09:30 | Registrations open |
| 10:00 » 11:00 | SESSION 5: Tokenization as a modern way of securitization – will that work? Could and how tokenisation be used as a new form of securitisation for the issuance of asset-backed interests through digital tokens? The session will explore how traditional securitisation structures can be adapted to distributed ledger environments, as well as the regulatory and tax challenges. The panel will also explore how tax systems are approaching tokenized assets from a VAT and direct tax perspective — focusing on classification, compliance, and cross-border structuring risks. |
| 11:00 » 11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30 » 12:30 | SESSION 6: Waves that rock our financial markets - most noticeable trends on financial markets and their influence on investment firms' strategies and investors' decisions ESG, D&I, CSRD, start-ups, booming automotive, geopolitics and arming sector… - the panel will delve into latest trends on financial markets and will aim to enlighten what is yet to come. The speakers will uncover whether the most popular slogans have indeed found their place in the investment strategies of the biggest firms but also of the individual investors. |
| 12:30 » 14:00 | Lunch |
| 16:00 » 23:00 | Optional excursion and dinner |