IBFD Academic Tax Conference 2026 - Ability to Pay in Tax Law

Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Landmark,

VOC-kade 600, 1018 LG Amsterdam

08:45 – 09:05 Opening Words
Welcome words: Pasquale Pistone (Academic Chairman of IBFD) (5 min)
Introduction by the Conference Convenors: João Nogueira and Pedro Schoueri (editors of the conference proceedings) (15 min)

Chair: Miranda Stewart (IBFD Visiting Global Scholar & NYU School of Law, USA)

09:05 – 10:30 Session 1: Historical and Philosophical Foundations of ATP

• Duván Felipe Ordóñez Gloria (Independent, Colombia)
  Philosophical Foundations of the Ability to Pay from Ancient Greece until Early Modernity 
• Karl Pauwels (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
  Philosophical Foundations of the Ability to Pay from Early Modernity onwards
• Ira K. Lindsay (University of Surrey, UK)
  Six Justifications of Ability to Pay 

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break and dialogue with the poster program participants

Chair: João Félix Pinto Nogueira (IBFD Deputy Academic Chairman)

11:00 – 12:20 Session 2: Constitutional and legal foundations of ATP

• Larisa - Cătălina Ionescu (University of Bucharest, Romania)
  Ability to Pay and the Existential Minimum: From Equality and Property to Human Dignity 
• Ricardo André Galendi Júnior (Instituto Brasileiro de Direito Tributário (IBDT), Brazil)
  Ability to Pay, Constitutional Interpretation and Economic Incidence

12:20 – 13:20 Lunch break and dialogue with the poster program participants

Chair: Alison Futter (University of Cape Town, South Africa)

13:20 – 14:40 Session 3: Positive and negative dimensions of ATP

• Raphael Lavez (Brazilian Institute of Tax Law – IBDT, Superior School of Engineering and Management - ESEG, Brazil) 
  The Positive and Negative Dimensions of Ability to Pay: A Constitutional Framework for Progressive Income Taxation
• Gianluigi Bizioli (University of Bergamo, Italy)
  The multifaceted role of the Constitutional Courts applying the ability to pay principle. A comparative analysis of DACH, Italy and Spain jurisdictions

14:40 – 15:00 Coffee break and dialogue with the poster program participants 

Chair: Pedro Schoueri (Senior Associate, IBFD) 

15:00 – 17:00 Session 4: Income Tax and ATP

• Raphael Lavez (Brazilian Institute of Tax Law – IBDT, Superior School of Engineering and Management - ESEG, Brazil)
  An Ability to Pay Decision Framework for Income taxation: From Principle to Design 
• Petros Pantazopoulos (School of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
  Assessing Ability to Pay for Income Tax Purposes – Challenges Arising from the use of Presumptive Methods 
• Christina Dimitropoulou (Maastricht University, the Netherlands)
  Ability to Pay and the Income Tax: a Normative Reconstruction of the Realization Rule 

17:00 – 18:00 Distinguished Lecture by the Visiting Global Scholar - Defining Ability to Pay: The relevance of the Tax Base 

• Presentation of the 2026 Visiting Global Scholar by Pasquale Pistone (Academic Chairman)
• Miranda Stewart (IBFD Visiting Global Scholar & NYU School of Law, USA)

Chair: Miranda Stewart (IBFD Visiting Global Scholar & NYU School of Law, USA)

09:00 – 10:20 Session 5: ATP beyond personal income taxation

• Jean-Philippe Van West (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium), Katia Cejie (Uppsala University, Sweden), Charlotte Bruynseraede (KU Leuven, Belgium) 
  Linking Ability to Pay in EU Tax and Social Security Law
• Alison Futter (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
  Ability to Pay and Corporate Taxpayers 

10:20 – 10:40 Coffee Break and dialogue with the poster program participants

Chair: Alison Futter (University of Cape Town, South Africa)

10:40 – 12:00 Session 6: VAT

• Nora Schreier (University of Graz, Austria)
  The Applicability of Ability to Pay to VAT Law from an EU Perspective and its Implications for VAT Design
• Yige Zu, (City University of Hong Kong School of Law, Hong Kong), Rick Krever (University of Western Australia Law School, Australia) 
  Ability to Pay and Consumers and Suppliers in the VAT 

12:00 – 13:00 Group pictures followed by lunch break and dialogue with the poster program participants

Chair: João Félix Pinto Nogueira (IBFD Deputy Academic Chairman)

13:00 – 14:20 Session 7: ATP and the tax mix

• Marco Greggi (University of Ferrara, Italy)
  Ability to Pay Across Multiple Tax Bases: Rise and Fall of a Principle 
• Miranda Stewart (IBFD Visiting Global Scholar & NYU School of Law, USA)
  Ability to Pay, the Tax Base, and Wealth in Contemporary Conditions

14:20 – 14:40 Coffee Break and dialogue with the poster program participants

Chair: Pedro Schoueri (Senior Associate, IBFD)

14:40 – 16:00 Session 8: International aspects

• Almut Breuer (Maastricht University, the Netherlands)
  A general EU principle of ability to pay: does it already exist and what is there to gain from it?
• Thomas Sendke (University of Cologne, Germany)
  The legal basis for Ability to Pay in EU Tax Law 
• Florian Haase (IU International University, RÖDL, Germany)
  ATP, Double Tax Treaties, and Taxation on a Gross Basis: What is Implicitly Present in the OECD-MC and What Should Explicitly be Included?[