Thoughts from Irish Tax Institute Conference 2016
22 Apr 2016
The Brightwater Tax Team
Last Thursday, The Brightwater Tax Team set off for Galway to attend the Irish Tax Institute’s Annual Conference. We landed in the Radisson Blu in time to join the participating delegates and conference organisers for a welcome reception in the hotel bar.
Brightwater Executive division, we landed in the Radisson Blu in time to join the participating delegates and conference organisers for a welcome reception in the hotel bar.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Insights for the Road Ahead”. Over the course of a day and half we were treated to a variety of expert speakers who shared their advice and insight to some of the technical changes and challenges facing the participating members. The conference covered a broad range of topics from updates to main areas of practice to more topical trends and changes such as “New Tax Appeal System” addressed by Julie Burke of Ronan Daly Jermyn and “Tax Conundrums for 2016” addressed by Brian Brennan of KPMG.
The Annual Tax conference also offers incredible networking opportunities so it was great to see such a large increase in the number of attendees this year. The profile of delegates was varied and included Seniors, Managing Partners, legal and accountancy professionals from regional based sole practitioners, multinationals and Big 4 firms. The Talk was lively and of a positive and encouraging market. Myself and my colleagues were kept busy manning the Brightwater stand, recruitment in the industry was a hot topic (surprise surprise), particularly the noticeable shortage of candidates that was experienced this year due to the increased number of newly created positions.
After a busy day, it was time for dinner and although it was a Gala event, the organisers really went out of their way to make sure everybody could relax and mingle. We were joined at our table by delegates from Crowe Horwath, Rose Private, Pembroke Tax Consultants and Michael A. Nagle & Co. We chatted over our delicious food and then the party got started as the Swing Cats took to the stage until the wee hours.
We know the Irish Tax Institute will outdo themselves next year and am looking forward to the 2017 conference!
The Brightwater Tax Team