About the authors
Halil Erdem
Halil Erdem is a tax lawyer with PwC and the head of PwC's Tax Academy in the Middle East, operating from Dubai. Halil advised companies on cross-border and domestic VAT matters with respect to Dutch, EU and GCC VAT. Halil has been instrumental in various VAT audits across multiple EU and Middle Eastern jurisdictions. In addition, Halil has been extensively involved in the GCC VAT implementation and served as an in-house adviser for both EU and GCC multinationals.
Halil is professionally qualified as a tax advisor in the Netherlands. Halil obtained a bachelor’s degree in Dutch Law and an LLM in international and European tax law from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Halil has developed and overseen numerous VAT training programs across the GCC. His key strength is the simplification of complex tax technical topics and making complicated legislation understandable.
Wouter Kolkman
Wouter Kolkman is a tax lawyer with DLA Piper in the Netherlands and a key member of DLA Piper's tax team operating from the Dubai office. Wouter's practice focuses on VAT and other indirect taxes such as import duties and excise tax. His clients include multinational companies, investment funds and governmental institutions. Wouter has been involved with governmental GCC tax projects since the summer of 2017.
Wouter is professionally qualified as both an attorney at law (registered with the Amsterdam bar) and a tax advisor in the Netherlands since 2015. Wouter received his law degrees (LLM in corporate law and LLM in tax law) at Leiden University, the Netherlands in 2014 respectively 2015. In 2021, he completed a post-master in EU customs law at EFS Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The views expressed in Fundamentals of GCC VAT Law are solely those of the authors in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of their respective employer.