Caroline Heber is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich as well as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). In the fall semester of 2017, Caroline Heber was an Emile Noël Fellow at the Jean Monnet Center at NYU Law School. Previously, she was a Fellow at the Ross Parsons Centre at Sydney Law School and the University of Graz.   

Milena Hrdinková
Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, Minister’s Office Department 

Stanislav Kryl
Tax Adviser, Head of the VAT Section of the Czech Chamber of Tax Advisers

Blanka Mattauschová has worked in tax advisory companies since 1994. From 2007 to 2013 she was a director of indirect tax department of the Ministry of Finance where she was responsible for VAT, excise and energy tax legislation. Within the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union she presided a working group on the tax evasion in the field of the VAT. She is currently director of the indirect tax department of the General Directorate of Finance.

Maria Elena Scoppio is currently the Head of Unit for VAT in the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union in the European Commission. Beforehand, she was the adviser on taxation issues of Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Taxation and Economic Affairs. She was also a member of the two previous Taxation Commissioners' cabinet, Mr. Semeta and Mr. Kovacs. Before entering cabinet, she worked for two years in the Legal Affairs Unit in DG TAXUD. A lawyer by training, prior to joining the European Commission, she was employed in the private sector as an international lawyer and as a tax adviser.

Maria Elena holds a Master of Laws in the College of Europe in Bruges, a DESS diploma on International Taxation in the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Fiscales of Brussels and a Ph.D. on European Taxation in the University of Bologna, in co-tutorship with the University R. Schuman of Strasbourg. She is the author of various books and articles on taxation and regularly lectures on fiscal subjects in various European institutes. In addition to her native Italian, she speaks fluently English, French, Spanish and German.

Dr. Karoline Spies is post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). She has been working as researcher and lecturer at the Institute since 2010 and finished her doctoral thesis on the scope of the free movement of capital in 2014 (awarded, amongst others, with the European Academic Tax Thesis Award 2015). Her post-doctoral research project focuses on the role of permanent establishments in VAT.

Johan Van der Paal is an indirect tax partner with Deloitte Belgium, based in Brussels. Johan has more than 20 years of experience as an advisor in indirect taxes, specialized in VAT, where he Is actively working on EU VAT policy development.

Johan has a law degree from the University of Leuven, and a degree in tax management from the Vlerick Leuven Ghent School of Management in Ghent.  He is a member of the Belgian Institute for Accountants and Tax Consultants (IAB-IEC).

Johan is Professor at the Ghent University, teaching VAT, since 2015.  He is a regular speaker at internal and external seminars. 

Hana Zídková works as assistant professor at the Department of Public Finance of the University of Economics in Prague, Hana teaches courses mostly focused on consumption taxes. Within her research activities, she is interested in VAT and tax evasion.

Hana has been a registered tax advisor since 1999 and gained practical expertise while working for consulting firms, Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, where she specialised in VAT and excise duties. Hana is a member of the VAT working group of the Chamber of Tax Advisors and guaranties tax part of professional exam for auditors.