On 16th November 2022, the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA), the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA), along with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) successfully co-hosted the Virtual Regional Consultation on International Tax Matters. The meeting welcomed an exciting mix of speakers, government representatives, including tax policymakers from relevant ministries, and tax officials from member tax administrations of IOTA and CATA, and other jurisdictions. This consultation followed the regional consultation on the Two-Pillar Solution to address the tax challenges of digitalisation (30th May 2022), as well as the Plenary meeting of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS (6th October 2022).
OECD in partnership with IOTA and CATA continues organising a series of regional consultations to provide information, support active engagement and gather feedback from relevant stakeholders on matters of critical importance to the international tax agenda and discuss the ongoing work of the OECD. These regional consultations, held in a virtual format, are aimed at addressing international tax issues and urgent topics that tax administrators and policymakers are confronted with. This meeting provided updates on key building blocks of Pillar One and Pillar Two as well as on the assessment of the economic impact resulting from the implementation of these measures, in addition opened the floor for discussions on VAT on e-commerce and capacity-building activities.
Welcome remarks by Alix Perrignon de Troyes, Executive Secretary of IOTA and Harry Tonino, Deputy Head of Global Relations and Development Division, Center for Tax Policy and Administration OECD set the floor for the meeting, which brought together more than 260 participants from 48 jurisdictions from the operation area of this Inclusive Framework and beyond.
In her opening remarks, Alix Perrignon de Troyes expressed her appreciation and gratitude to the OECD for their strong collaboration with IOTA and CATA, stressed the importance of regional cooperation with OECD, and outlined several key themes of this regional consultation. “This event is an important milestone in our efforts to drive forward regional consultations for tax administrators and policymakers to provide the latest information and discuss urgent international tax topics such as updates on the key building blocks of Pillar One and Pillar Two as well as the economic impact assessment on Pillar One and Pillar Two, VAT on e-commerce and capacity-building activities available to support the implementation of these measures.”, said Alix Perrignon de Troyes.
The Executive Secretary of IOTA underlined the essential work of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS and its efforts to implement Pillar One and Pillar Two, as well as informed the attendees about the work of the IOTA Forum on Implementation of Measures to Counter BEPS, which will continue providing a valuable platform for IOTA member countries to identify and tackle the challenges anticipated and/or encountered when implementing the OECD’s two-pillar solution along with other specific aspects of the four minimum standards under the BEPS Action Plan, as she also announced the Executive Council’s decision about the extension of the Forum’s mandate for the next one-year term in 2022-2023.
Mrs. Perrignon de Troyes briefly introduced the recent work undertaken by the IOTA Forum on Combating VAT Fraud was aimed to gather information about experiences and country practices in analysing, monitoring, detecting and combating fraudulent VAT schemes facilitated by digital platforms. At the end of her opening remarks, she emphasized that “Working together with OECD through regional initiatives and capacity-building activities, we can facilitate the exchange of views and best practices, provide additional guidance on the implementation of the agreed rules and related, complementary measures. So IOTA member countries could follow the developments on the Two-Pillar Solution to address the tax challenges of digitalisation and provide their input and feedback, which is greatly needed.” The Executive Secretary of IOTA declared that IOTA is committed to supporting this work every step of the way.
After the welcome remarks, the OECD Secretariat provided an update on the work on Pillar One, and presented the outcomes of the last Public Consultation meeting on the Progress Report on Amount A of Pillar One and the 14th Plenary meeting of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS (October 2022) with regard to tax certainty, Amount B and unilateral measures. Attendees were also informed about the economic impact assessment based on the Two-Pillar solution, using a new methodology and the most up to date data available. This session was run under the moderation of Alexandros Roukalis, International Taxation Expert, IOTA Secretariat.
The session on Value Added Tax (VAT) on e-commerce revealed the work undertaken by OECD and the tools available to support the effective collection of VAT revenues from e-commerce activities in the region. At this session, representatives from two IOTA member tax administrations such as Vanessa Bianchini, Tax Official from the Italian Revenue Agency along with Renaud Rodenas, VAT Fraud Expert, from the General Directorate of Public Finances, France co-presented the findings of the IOTA Report on How to detect, prevent and combat new VAT fraud schemes facilitated by the digital platforms in selling goods. This session was moderated by Massimo Morarelli, International Taxation Expert, IOTA Secretariat.
The last session of the meeting was dedicated to the OECD updates on G20 reports, toolkit, capacity building and other activities including the Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme, the criminal tax investigators project, the assistance on automatic exchange of information, and the support on digitalisation of tax administrations., These and other initiatives were presented by Andrew Auerbach, Senior Tax Advisor, OECD Secretariat.
Participants took the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification on the presented topics at each session. The event was co-chaired by Laura Stefanelli, Tax Advisor, OECD Secretariat and Duncan Onduru, Executive Secretary, CATA Secretariat.
IOTA, OECD and CATA jointly expressed their continued support to the organisation of these consultations for the benefit of the tax administrators and policymakers of the region as more opportunities will arise to follow on the developments in the implementation of Two-Pillar Solution and have their input and feedback on the topics under discussion.
Presentations and other material from the event are available for registered IOTA website users on the event’s webpage.