29th General Assembly of IOTA "Adaptive and Agile Tax Administration in a Rapidly Changing Environment"

It was a pleasure to welcome a diverse audience that included senior officials from IOTA's Member and Associate Member Countries' Tax Administrations, high-ranking officials from the Azerbaijani government, and guests from around the world. Among them were leading tax experts and representatives from international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Intra-American Network of Tax Administrators (CIAT), International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD), International Fiscal Association (IFA), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank, alongside IOTA observers, business community representatives, tax practitioners, and members of academia.

The event attracted over 180 in-person attendees and more than 50 participants who joined virtually. Throughout the three days of the Assembly, the program included dynamic plenary and parallel sessions featuring international speakers, along with varied learning and networking opportunities in the exhibition area.

The Administrative Session of the 29^th General Assembly took place on the 17^th of June and was followed by the Technical Session on the 18^th and 19^th of June 2025. The professional theme was "Adaptive and Agile Tax Administration in a Rapidly Changing Environment". As a part of the Technical Session, delegates were invited to explore the IOTA Expo. This exhibition highlighted technologies and platforms that enable tax administrations to adapt more quickly, make data-driven decisions, encourage innovation and experimentation, and optimise talent management and workforce planning.

ADMINISTRATIVE SESSION 17TH JUNE 2025

The Administrative Session was opened by Orkhan Nazarli, IOTA President and the Head of the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, along with Alix Perrignon de Troyes, Executive Secretary of IOTA. The heads of the Organisation welcomed the attendees, outlined the agenda, and highlighted the objectives of the event.

During the Administrative Session of the 29^th General Assembly, the IOTA President gave an overview of the key achievements and important decisions taken by the Presidency and the Executive Council during the term 2024/2025. Additionally, IOTA members made important decisions and voted on the Statutory Documents, the Internal Auditors Report, the budget, agreed on the work programme, and much more besides.

The Assembly approved the next Presidency of IOTA and for the 2025/2026 term, the flag returns to Hungary, and the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NTCA) will again hold the Presidency of IOTA. Ferenc Vágujhelyi, the Commissioner of the NTCA, becomes the President of IOTA again for the coming year. This demonstrates Hungary's strong commitment to the Organisation and marks its 4th Presidency, following the years 1998/1999, 2005/2006, and 2023/2024. Members also voted on the appointment of the Republic of North Macedonia for the 2026/2027 Presidency, along with Armenia for 2027/2028.

The following member countries were appointed to the IOTA Executive Council for the 2025/2026 term: Azerbaijan, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, North Macedonia, Republika Srpska (BiH), Romania, and Switzerland.

The General Assembly agreed on the professional theme for the 30th General Assembly of IOTA: “The IOTA at 30 Years: Empowering Tax Administrations to Tackle Tax Compliance Challenges through the Use of AI and Behavioural Insights”. The General Assembly also approved the NTCA's proposal to celebrate the Day of Excellence in Taxation annually on October 30, the official founding date of IOTA. This day will recognise the achievements of colleagues who demonstrate exceptional performance within their tax administrations and the IOTA membership.

TECHNICAL SESSION 18TH-19TH JUNE 2025

The global and national social, economic, and ecological challenges that societies confront today require novel public sector solutions. As governments explore how to change the very foundations of governance and democracy to meet the needs of the 21^st-century environment, innovation is becoming an imperative to stay ahead of the curve. 

Tax administrations are increasingly aware of the need to mitigate the high rate of societal change and leverage technological advances, and, therefore, traditional structures and processes are no longer enough to address the multifaceted issues connected to achieving ecological, digital, and other societal transitions. Embracing agile transformation and innovation in tax administrations is not an option but a necessity. Over the course of the past few years, tax administrations have been moving towards adaptive innovation and agile approaches to respond to the rapidly changing environment. The overall goal of the Technical Session of the 29th General Assembly of IOTA was to explore how tax administrations are strengthening their resilience and building capacities needed for agility and innovation through adopting agile strategies, designing and implementing agile structures and adaptive governance, creating space for experimentation and learning, and benefiting from emerging technologies such as automation, AI and cloud computing.

With nine distinct sessions, including keynote speeches, presentations, and panel discussions, the Technical Session of the General Assembly provided inspiring insights and shared practical experiences of applying methods and tools that can support agile transformation and adaptive innovation in tax administration. As a part of the Technical Session, the IOTA Expo “Agile and Adaptive Innovation in Tax Administrations” showcased technologies and platforms that empower tax administrations to adapt faster, make data-driven decisions, foster innovation and experimentation, and optimise talent management and workforce planning.

The Technical Session was officially opened by Orkhan Nazarli, IOTA President and Head of the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan. He welcomed the participants, outlined the agenda, emphasised the session's main objectives, and set the scene for discussions on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of tax administration in a fast-evolving environment. 

The first plenary session, ‘Global Trends in Shaping Adaptive and Agile Organisations’, featured a combination of keynote speeches and presentations from international partner organisations and observers highlighting the pioneering practices that demonstrate the commitment of tax administrations to agility and adaptive innovation. In this session, Samira Musayeva from the State Tax Service of Azerbaijan served as the moderator. The keynote speeches were delivered by guest speakers representing our esteemed international partner organisations and observers:

• “Responding to Global Trends in Tax Administration” keynote by  Claudia Vargas, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration;
• “OECD Tax Administration 3.0 portfolio” keynote by Torstein Hoem, Norwegian Tax Administration;
• “The Complexity of Agility” keynote by Debra Adams, International Monetary Fund;
• “Advancing Transition to Adaptive Organisation: Digital Transformation in Developing Economies” keynote by Yuhei Chiba, Asian Development Bank;
• “Agile DevOps in the AI era: Building a Culture of Innovation with a Centre of Excellence” keynote by Valentina Ion, Microsoft.

The next session opened the floor for the IOTA Expo Walking Tour, “Agile and Adaptive Innovation in Tax Administrations,” where delegates were invited to explore the exhibition. This session showcased cutting-edge technologies and platforms that enable tax administrations to adapt more quickly, make data-driven decisions, encourage innovation and experimentation, and optimise talent management and workforce planning. The Expo featured the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the National Revenue Administration in Poland, and the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, as well as B.EST Solutions, Fast Enterprises, Mastercard, Microsoft, Moody’s, NBA Technology International, Netcompany, and the RoyaltyRange from the business community.

The third plenary session of the day revolved around the theme ‘Developing Agile Strategies for Continuous Progress’ and explored examples of national adaptation strategies and plans that tax administrations apply to ensure continuous progress in enhancing adaptive capacity and strengthening resilience. This session was moderated by Farid Isayev from the State Tax Service of Azerbaijan, who was joined by the following speakers from the IOTA membership and the business community:

• “Building institutions that can change by design, not by exception” key presentation by Markku Heikura, Finnish Tax Administration (online);
• “Strengthening Human Capital for Agile Tax Administration: The Experience of Azerbaijan”  by Aytan Karimova, State Tax Service of Azerbaijan;
• “Main Achievements of Tax Administration Reform in Uzbekistan” by Umid Azizov, Tax Committee of Uzbekistan;
• “Adapting to the New: Agile Strategies for Continuous Progress”  by Dr Gabriel Bellenger, Accenture (online)
• “Fundamentals of an agile operating model and why being agile matters” by Murat Gursoy, McKinsey

This was followed by a session on ‘Methodologies for Adaptive Innovation in Tax Administration,’ consisting of presentations by the tax administrations and the business community exploring human-centred design, agile methodology, and design thinking. This session was moderated by Steve Lahos from the Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority of Luxembourg, and featured the following presentations:

• “From Penalties to Prevention: Using Design Thinking to Reduce Discrepancies” presented by Emil Garayev, State Tax Service of Azerbaijan;
• “Customer-Centred Design and Development of Digital Services”, presented by Baiba Šmite-Roķe, State Revenue Service of Latvia;
• “Agile Transformation Approach” presented by Mark Kennedy, Deloitte UK.

The last session of the day looked at the ‘Role of Emerging Technological Innovations in the Development of Adaptive and Agile Organisations’ and explored the role of emerging technological innovations such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and automation in enabling tax administrations to respond swiftly to tax policy changes, taxpayer needs, and financial pressures. This session was moderated by Jon Sherman from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, who was joined by panellists such as Ferenc Vágujhelyi, National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary; Jose Borja, Spanish Tax Agency; Raigo Uukkivi, Estonian Tax and Customs Board; Boris Zollickhofer, Federal Ministry of Finance of Germany; Fieke van der Vlist, PWC (online); Grant Wardell-Johnson, KPMG; Marek Bawol, Fast Enterprises.

The final day of the 29^th General Assembly of IOTA brought another set of engaging discussions to the stage. The sessions aimed to provide impactful insights into the necessary skills and capacities needed for adaptive innovation, and looked at the practical application of adaptive innovation tools and methods.

The second day of the Technical Session started iIn the breakout rooms offering presentations on specific experiences, case studies, and examples of novel tools and methodologies being employed by tax administrations to support adaptive innovation. These parallel sessions focused on public services, especially digital services, and also included time for reflection and dialogue, allowing delegates to ask questions and share their experiences.  Delegates spent time considering subjects such as User-Centricity as a Guiding Principle, Agile as a Methodology, and Applying Design Thinking in Tax Operations. The debates in the parallel sessions were driven by members’ experiences and speakers from business and academia, facilitated by Technical Experts from the IOTA Secretariat and the IOTA membership.

Following this, participants had the opportunity to provide feedback on findings and conclusions formulated in each parallel session in the form of a panel debate. In this debate, the discussion was led by Øivind Strømme, International Director of the Norwegian Tax Administration , who was joined by the group moderators Massimo Morarelli from the IOTA Secretariat, Duncan Cleary from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, Ireland, and Farid Isayev from the State Tax Service of Azerbaijan.

The last plenary session of the General Assembly addressed the topic of 'Skills and Capacities Needed for Adaptive Innovation.' It discussed competency requirements and the range of skills employees need at both professional and personal levels to shift from traditional methods to new approaches that support adaptive innovation. The session was led by Michael Heber from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, with panellists including Serdar Yilmaz from the World Bank, Turkan Vusat qizi from the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan, Victoire Daher  from the General Directorate of Public Finances of France (online), and Philippe Abgottspon from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration.

The event concluded with closing remarks by Orkhan Nazarli, outgoing President of IOTA. At the end, heads of tax administrations, their representatives, senior officials, and tax experts committed to continuing collaboration within IOTA to support the practical implementation of strategies, approaches, tools, and solutions needed to build capacities that leverage innovation for human-centric tax services and operations.

All materials and presentations from the 29^th General Assembly of IOTA are now available on the dedicated webpage of the IOTA Web Portal. The photos and videos of the event will be uploaded soon to the same webpage. The documentation of the General Assembly is exclusively accessible to registered IOTA members. IOTA appreciates the wonderful hospitality and collaboration of the Azerbaijani hosts, which made this prestigious annual event possible.