Seminar held in collaboration with Union of Investment Companies

KUWAIT: PwC's annual seminar in collaboration with Union of Investment Companies in Kuwait attracted many Kuwaiti and multinational companies yesterday.
The event was focused on providing updates around the business, tax and risk assurance landscape, and looked at the opportunities and challenges of doing business in Kuwait . The event also covered the far-reaching economic, fiscal and regulatory developments that are impacting businesses, and the steps companies need to take to transform their organizations and prosper in the digital era.

Topics centered around the role of technology and its potential to play a significant role in the transformation and fulfillment of Kuwait's vision 2035 and KDIPA one of its key drivers. Other topics on the agenda included, among others, a glimpse on a year of transfer pricing, VAT dispute hurdles and lessons learned, International Tax Change and its impact on Financial Institutions, as well as the emerging trends in regulatory technologies and corporate governance.
Sherif Shawki, Kuwait Country Senior Partner provided insights on the overall tax landscape having to shed light on the increased interest in tax and other assurance matters affecting the business environment. A lot of these changes are due to Vision 2035 and the opening up of the economy. We see Kuwait participating in international agreements around taxation, which in turn is driving a lot of change businesses are having to deal with on-ground. Another factor affecting the tax landscape is the foreign investment influx due to massive government project. The role of tax in technology and global tax trends that will develop in Kuwait, as well as OECD's importance in relation to tax, are just some of the areas organizations should consider in response to these changes."

Based on the changes taking place, Kuwait is adopting all the new measures with a view of matching the global trends taking place around the world and of course become the new financial hub in the Middle East.

Taking the matter forward and ensuring such vision and objective is met, Kuwait is to take on such initiatives of having to implement such actions i.e Digital Transformation, more robust tax and financial structures and aligning Kuwait organizations with a more global outlook to become one of the go to destinations for business opportunities.

PwC's Middle East Tax Leader, Mark Schofieldsaid: "The tax landscape is changing at a great pace affecting the way we do business. Every organization needs to acquire and develop the proper expertise and the know-how in order to respond to tax authorities in a timely manner."
UIC's Technical Support, Fadwa Darweesh also shed light on the importance of such collaboration with PwC on having to touch base on the significant impact of raising awareness on the latest updates taking place in Kuwait for the benefit of Investment Companies in addition to all entities in Kuwait.

"UIC is cooperating with PWC to shed light on the latest developments related to added value and financial supervision. UIC has raised many important issues on the agenda, especially after the stock market privatization and the requirements required by Borsa regarding regulatory commitment," she added. She noted that UIC role is to urge companies to attend the seminar to be prepared and ready for any decision issued by the Ministry of Finance regarding tax, new laws, or related issues, especially to be aware of the field of digitization where UIC aims to aware its companies with the latest global developments so that they can prepare for the time of imposing the tax in Kuwait.