Since 2014, the William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada introduced a new knowledge field into its activities: economic and legal studies, with emphasis on the financial-economic framework of self-government, particularly with regard to the Basque public financing and tax system. The successful 13th Annual Conference “Fiscal Systems and the Crisis” was the starting shot of this new adventure.
As for Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia- Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, the Provincial Government included the promotion and dissemination of international research about the Basque Economic Agreement and comparable federal fiscal systems as a target in its strategic plan of government Bizkaia Goazen 2030. In particular, the Provincial Government of Bizkaia seeks to raise awareness about the Basque tax system by means of international outreach and also to move forward in the understanding of the structural relations between the system of the Basque Economic Agreement and the other federal models existing in the United States of America and worldwide.
With the aim of achieving their common goals, the signing of a Collaboration Agreement between UNR and the Government of Bizkaia in 2014 was a remarkable milestone. Pursuant to said agreement, two experts in taxation from the Provincial Government of Bizkaia were seconded for one term in 2015 and in 2016 for the purpose of carrying out research work into comparable federal systems and to showcase the Basque Economic Agreement. The positive outcome of the two-year Collaboration Agreement led to the signing in 2016 of a new Collaboration Agreement, which expires in 2019, pursuant to which another two governmental experts were carrying out research work for a term in 2017 and 2018.
Under the framework of the Agreement, the CBS, with the financial support of the Provincial Government of Bizkaia, will organize on April 3 and 4, 2019, a Symposium on Basque Fiscal Systems, within which said Basque public officials will offer the results of their research conducted at the CBS. As to enrich the Symposium, distinguished scholars from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and from Deusto University in Bilbao will be also invited to offer their views on the topic from different perspectives. Basque Country, USA, Switzerland, Australia or Canada will be some of the tax federal systems tackled by the speakers.
The Symposium is bound to offer a meeting point for the tax practitioners in the Basque institutions and the international academia and welcomes students and professors at University of Nevada, Reno with an interest in decentralization and tax policies from a worldwide perspective.
