23rd General Assembly: Greece will hold the next IOTA Presidency

Ms. Dorottya Vannai's picture
Published by:

The Members of IOTA met in Brussels on 2-4 July, 2019. IOTA’s 23rd General Assembly successfully concluded with the appointment of the new Statutory bodies. During the Technical Session the attendees followed and engaged in lively discussions on the HR policy of tax administrations and the challenges of managing and recruiting modern tax employees.

 

Greece was appointed to hold the Presidency of IOTA for the term 2019/2020. Mr Georgios Pitsilis, the Governor of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) of the Hellenic Republic became IOTA’s new President.


Photo: Mr Hans D’Hondt outgoing President  (left) holding the IOTA flag with Mr Georgios Pitsilis incoming President

Presided by Greece, Belgium, Georgia, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom were reappointed as members of the new Executive Council, while Hungary, Switzerland and Ukraine became the newly appointed members for the upcoming one-year period.

Mr Ivan Stoilov, from Bulgaria was appointed as Internal Auditor of IOTA for one year and will serve the mandate together with Mr Jorge Manuel Caetano de Oliveira, from Portugal, who was elected in last year’s General Assembly for a two-year consecutive mandate.

The Members elected Mr František Imrecze as Executive Secretary of IOTA for the term 2019/2022. He takes charge of the Budapest based IOTA Secretariat from October when the present Executive Secretary, Mr Miguel Silva Pinto finishes his mandate.


Photo: Mr Miguel Silva Pinto present  (left)  and Mr František Imrecze incoming Executive Secretary

The Technical Session of the 23rd General Assembly was officially opened by Mr Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and International Development of Belgium. The Minister spoke about gender equality and why delegates should all strive to enhance gender equality when making HR related decisions in their tax administrations. Also, data indicate that promoting more women into management positions and creating diverse teams lead to improved performance and reduce risk.


Photo: Mr Alexander De Croo, Minister of Finance of Belgium officially opened the Technical Session of the Assembly.

The Technical Session of the General Assembly was attended by over 180 delegates from Member-Countries’ Tax Administrations, high ranking officials from IOTA countries administrations, European Commission, CIAT, OECD, and other representatives of international organisations, tax practitioners and academia.

At the 23rd General Assembly of IOTA a Letter of Intent was signed between EUROPOL - the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation - and IOTA to further develop the existing cooperation between the two organisations.


Photo: Ms Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol and Mr Hans D’Hondt outgoing IOTA President signing the Letter of Intent

The professional theme of this year’s General Assembly was “Are Tax Administrations Ready for the Tax Official of Tomorrow?”. As a natural follow-up of the 22nd General Assembly held in Bratislava in 2018, which examined the impact of digitalisation on our tax administrations, the focus of this year’s General Assembly was put on the redefinition of tax officials in a digital environment.

Keynote speakers provided an overview for the delegates of the Assembly on the latest trends and driving factors that influence the way tax administrations manage their employees. OECD FTA Secretariat Director Mr Peter Green, who moderated the session of keynote speeches gave the floor to Mr Jerome Fournel, Director General of Public Finances from France; Mrs Csilla Tamás Czinege, Director General of National Tax and Customs Administrations from Hungary; Mr Georgios Pitsilis, Governor of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue from Greece and Mr Stephen Quest, Director General of DG TAXUD from the EU Commission.


Photo: from left to right: Mr Georgios Pitsilis, Mr Jerome Fournel, Mrs Csilla Tamás Czinege, Mr Stephen Quest, Mr Peter Green

The plenary discussions and breakout sessions explored challenges of managing modern tax employees as well as the key trends that are driving the future of human resources in tax administrations. The speakers launched the debate around such relevant topics as employer branding, knowledge and talent management, performance evaluation, leadership development and other key subjects in the field of HR. 

The plenary session of the business community and academia generated ideas by looking at new organisational models, people management strategies, international mobility and employee engagement. Delegates could listen to speeches on how to prepare for the tax official of tomorrow from representatives of EY, PwC UK, McKinsey&Co., Accenture, Quintessence and Leuven Public Governance Institute.


Photo: Representatives of business community and academia discussing HR strategies

Read more about this year’s professional theme and the the summary of conclusions in the Communiqué here.

For a compilation of the Tweets published on the 23rd General Assembly follow IOTA on Twitter. For more social media activity you can also follow IOTA’s Facebook page.

The 24th General Assembly will take place in Greece. The professional theme of the event will be: “Ensuring the most effective use of data in the age of tax transparency”.