IPTI conference report

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I am pleased to report that the International Property Tax Institute’s (IPTI) Annual Conference, which was held in Scotland in conjunction with the IRRV’s Annual Scottish Conference on 4th and 5th September, attracted delegates from all over the world, and was well received.

The conferences were held at the Crieff Hydro Hotel, which, as many readers will be aware, is a great location offering not only excellent facilities on site, but also providing a very convenient point from which to see some of Scotland’s most attractive scenery and points of interest, including mountains, lochs, castles, palaces and, of course, internationally renowned golf courses.

In fact, I suspect that golf may have been one of the most influential factors for many of those who came to our conference, and those who played on either the famous courses at St Andrews, Carnoustie, Gleneagles, etc., and/or the “friendly” golf competition organised at Crieff for those attending the conferences, certainly had a great time.

To add to the enjoyment of the golf, sightseeing and the conferences, we were blessed with good weather all week in Scotland, which, as many will know, is a somewhat rare event. In fact, the weather was so nice that IPTI organised its first “All Comers International Mixed Doubles Putting Competition” at the conference, which was won by a Canadian pairing followed by a Russia/UK combination. I think this could catch on!

Moving on to the conference itself, we had a positive “plethora” of Presidents to open the event and welcome our delegates. We had Dave Chapman, President of the IRRV; Andrew Hetherton, President of the Rating Surveyors’ Association; Joan Hewton, President of the Scottish Assessors’ Association; Larry Hummel, President of the Institute of Municipal Assessors; and Rob Turner, President of the International Association of Assessing Officers. We also had Mark Higgin, Chairman of the RICS Rating and Local Taxation Panel as part of the welcoming panel … along with me as President of IPTI.

I should add that Derek MacKay MSP and Minister for Local Government and Planning, also very kindly came along to welcome our overseas visitors to Scotland.

We had a very impressive line up of speakers, with the keynote address being given by Professor Roy Kelly from Duke University in the USA, who had flown in from Ghana, where he is

currently doing some work for the World Bank. Among other issues, Roy spoke about globalisation and localisation and the role of property tax alongside user charges.

Roy was followed by IRRV Chief Executive David Magor, who gave our delegates his usual “energetic” style of delivery on a number of topical issues, including the need to modernise property taxes, their role in financing local government, the use of green taxes and credits, and a consideration of alternative revenue sources for local government.

We had an interesting session on the relevance of international valuation standards, with Ben Elder outlining the latest position with regard to the RICS Red Book and Roger Messenger setting out the position in relation to the European Valuation Standards, contained in the “Blue Book” published by TEGoVA.

We also had a number of speakers from around the globe giving us the latest position on issues in their countries, and the extent to which sharing experience and best practice internationally through this kind of conference can help to improve existing property tax systems. I am sure that delegates were able to take away some really good ideas which will help to enhance the operation of property tax systems in many countries.

Dealing with particular valuation issues, we had David Chitlik from Marriott Hotels, who spoke about the problems of identifying and quantifying business enterprise value. This is an increasingly important issue in property tax systems which, traditionally, require business enterprise value to be excluded from the market value of land and buildings, which forms the basis of assessment for most systems. Although David was primarily concerned with the impact of “brand” in the context of hotels, we have many examples in the UK of other types of property where this issue may come into play,

“We had a very impressive line up of speakers, with the keynote address being given by Professor Roy Kelly from Duke University in the USA, who had flown in from Ghana, where he is currently doing some work for the World Bank.”

IPTI conference reportIPTI goes to Scotland, and Paul Sanderson is on hand to report

A “plethora of Presidents” to welcome IPTI’s delegates

Delegates from around the world

IPTI conference report

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e.g. Harrods, or restaurants run by celebrity chefs.One of the benefits of running two conferences “side by side” is

the fact that delegates who had registered for either the IPTI or the IRRV conferences were entitled to attend any of the sessions being run by either of the two organisations. IPTI had already agreed with the IRRV that we would run a session on the afternoon of day one which catered primarily for UK valuers, and we had a large number of delegates in the room to hear from global corporate ratepayers, including Bruce Wilson from Tesco and Philip Glenwright from Shell about their concerns, public sector valuers from the VOA, SAA, LPS (in Northern Ireland) and the Irish Valuation Office talking about their issues, challenges and opportunities, and private sector rating practitioners setting out their perspectives on the UK and Irish rating systems.

Reference was made to the recent meeting IPTI held in London primarily for large corporate ratepayers, at which they expressed their concerns over a number of issues, including the annual increase in the NDR multiplier; the postponement of the next NDR revaluation due in 2015 in England, Wales and Scotland, the impact of empty property rating, the position with regard to traditional “bricks and mortar” businesses versus “virtual” internet businesses (particularly in connection with retail properties), and the need for a major review of the existing business rates system.

Delegates were informed that IPTI had been in contact with senior policy officials at HM Treasury to discuss these issues, and it was hoped that something positive would come out of those discussions.

We had some very interesting and informative sessions at the conference on the need for responsive and efficient appeal systems and the importance of developing standards for professionals involved in property tax, whether working in the public or private sectors.

In addition to policy and practice relating to property tax systems, we also had some interesting presentations on the use of modern technology and the extent to which GIS, aerial photography and other developments can help to drive quality improvements in property tax systems.

Of course, it was not all hard work. We had some very enjoyable receptions where around 300 IPTI and IRRV delegates and guests mingled and got to know each other. I should point

out that Elizabeth Grant, the Provost of Perth & Kinross, not only hosted a civic reception for all the delegates, but also sought out international visitors and made them feel very welcome.

Similarly, both Dave Chapman the IRRV President and Les Robertson, the IRRV Scottish Association President, in their speeches at the Gala Dinner, made mention of the international contingent who were attending our conference, and expressed their pleasure at having such distinguished guests joining them in Scotland.

I should also add that the entertainment which followed the Gala Dinner was first class, with a musical duo known as “Playing Politics” who sang a number of satirical songs about property tax – which was probably a first – and the “Last Resort Band” who played a variety of music for delegates who took to the dance floor. In fact one of my abiding memories of the event will be the number of international delegates who got tied up going backwards and forwards trying to do the “Gay Gordons”, and were then worn out by doing a variety of Scottish country dances. All in all, an excellent time was had by one and all at the conference, and I think it showed the value of the IPTI/IRRV partnership.

We are very grateful to our sponsors – Thomson Reuters, Esri Canada and GL Hearn – for supporting the event, and to the IRRV, in particular Fraser Macpherson, for helping us with arrangements for the conference.

Immediately following the close of the conference, IPTI held a meeting of its Board of Advisors at the hotel, who agreed that it had been a very successful and worthwhile event.

If any readers are interested in finding out more about future IPTI events, please visit our website at www.ipti.org. █

Paul Sanderson JP LLB FRICS IRRV (Hons) is President of the International Property Tax Institute.

“All in all, an excellent time was had by one and all at the conference, and I think it showed the value of the IPTI/IRRV partnership.”

Delegates from around the world

The IPTI President in need of “bling” –

Paul Sanderson, Les Robertson and Dave Chapman

Enjoying the Gala Dinner