Ben Terra studied international law at the University of Amsterdam and taxation at the University of Leiden. He was head of the post-graduate training in VAT, customs and excises at the Ministry of Finance in the Hague, professor of law at the University of Leiden and visiting professor at the Universities of Florida in Gainesville, of Sydney in Australia, the Gmimo University in Moscow and the Anton the Kam University in Surinam. Ben was head of the global indirect tax practice of Ernst & Young until 2002 and member of the board of Ernst & Young tax advisors, the Netherlands. Ben has an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of Lund and has published numerous articles and books on indirect taxation. As a consultant of the OECD, the European Commission and IMF, he has been involved in re-organizing tax departments, drafting law and policy and training tax officials in various countries including Indonesia, the Dutch Antilles, Aruba, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Albania, the Ukraine, the Baltic States and the CIS, Surinam and Bangladesh. At present he teaches indirect tax and European tax law at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Lund. Ben is also lecturing at the University of Vienna, the University of Neuchâtel and the University of Münster.