Blazej Kuzniacki

Błażej Kuźniacki is an Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam in the field of Tax and Technology with a special focus on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and direct taxation. As a member of the Amsterdam Centre for Tax Law (ACTL), Błażej is one of the academic leaders (Tax & Technology) of the UvA’s research project "Designing the tax system for a Cashless, Platform-based and Technology-driven society" (CPT project) together with Prof. Dr. Evangelos Kanoulas from the Informatics Institute, Faculty of Science at the UvA. A focal point of his research at the CPT is currently explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) in tax law. Kuzniacki’s research efforts contribute to addressing a key and fundamental question: how to ensure that AI tools deployed in the field of taxation are trustworthy and beneficial to all stakeholders (i.e. taxpayrs, tax authorities and courts)? Ensuring the explainability, accuracy and fairness of decisions made on the basis of AI models is central to the acceptance and future adoption of these technologies in all domains and specially in taxation.

Błażej has a Ph.D. in Tax Law (University of Oslo, Norway) and two Master of Arts degrees in Law and European Studies (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland). Błażej is also a tax practitioner (currently: PwC) and attorney-at-law admitted to the Polish Bar, with a focus on strategic tax advice, cross-sections of international tax and investment law, and interdisciplinary interrelations between AI technologies and taxation. He completed a full time post-doctoral research fellowship at the Singapore Management University (2017-2018) and a full time PhD research program at the Department of Public and International Law at the University of Oslo (2012-2016). He is a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and a member of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law (IAAIL).

Kuźniacki is the author of around 100 publications with national and global coverage. His doctoral thesis “Controlled Foreign Companies (CFC) and Tax Avoidance” was published by C.H. Beck and critically acclaimed in the Intertax Literature Review by Professor Brian Arnold. The thesis was prepared under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Frederik Zimmer (University of Oslo) and defened before the Adjudicating Committee which was composed of Prof. Dr. Arvid Aage Skaar (University of Oslo), Dr. Bettina Banoun (Wiersholm) and Dr. hab. Adam Zalasiński (European Commission).

Kuźniacki is also a guest lecturer at various universities worldwide. For the outcomes of his scientific work, he was awarded, among other things, the 2015 Scholarship of Foundation for Polish Science, the 2014 Honourable mention and the 2016 IFA President YIN Scientific Award, and the 2021-2023 Scholarship for Outstanding Young Scientists in Poland. His scientific works and legal opinions on tax matters, particularly in the area of international and EU tax law, have been quoted, among the others, by the Supreme Administrative Court in Poland in many high-profile tax cases.

Companies

• Assistant Professor UvA (2021)
• Lecturer at Legal MBA Rzeczpospolita | PwC Legal | Polskie Stowarzyszenie Prawników Przedsiębiorstw (2020)
• Research Assistant Professor Lazarski University (2020)
• Deputy Director: Strategic Tax Advice | Dispute Resolution PwC Polska (2020)
• Member International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law (IAAIL) (2019)
• Senior Research Fellow Universiteit van Amsterdam (2019)
• Member of the Audit Committee Bank Pocztowy S.A. (2019 — 2020)
• Member of the Supervisory Board Bank Pocztowy SA (2019 — 2020)
• Second Opinion Advisor in International Tax Issues Crido Legal (2020 — 2020)

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Universitetet i Oslo / University of Oslo (UiO) (2012 — 2016)
• Master's degree Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) / University of Bergen (2009 — 2010)
• Magister Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu (2004 — 2010)