IOTA-European Commission talks in Brussels

Ágnes Kővágó's picture
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The Acting Executive Secretary of IOTA held talks today in Brussels with the representatives of the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) of the European Commission. The main purpose of the meeting was to intensify cooperation by discussing issues of mutual interest and by identifying new opportunities for joint initiatives.

Mr Jan Christian Sandberg, Acting Executive Secretary of IOTA held talks today with Ms Caroline Edery, Head of Tax Administration and Fight Against Tax Fraud Unit of DG TAXUD. Both sides offered a brief overview of their organisation and its institutional developments and provided an insight into strategic objectives and priority areas of the work for 2016.

Parties agreed that deepening cooperation is of mutual interest and that EU and IOTA can reinforce each other’s activity and efforts.  Mr Sandberg and Ms Edery discussed the main areas of cooperation such as aiming to enhance administrative capacity of member tax administrations, reduce their administrative burden and compliance costs for taxpayers. The fight against fraud, tax evasion and aggressive tax planning was highlighted as a crucial area for common actions. Mr Sandberg underlined that IOTA activity on tackling VAT fraud is designed to complement the work of European Commission (Anti-Tax fraud Strategy). The Acting Executive Secretary of IOTA offered support in providing input from third countries into development of Missing Trader Intra-Community Guide. In 2016 the first exchanges for EU Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) and FATCA will be conducted by relevant tax administrations. Parties emphasised the need for collaboration between European Commission and IOTA in identifying key challenges and opportunities competent authorities experience with implementing the new standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information. On 4-6 May 2016, a workshop on Practical Implementation of the Automatic Exchange of Information will be organised by IOTA in Budapest (Hungary) to discuss practical tools, methods and experiences of the Competent Authorities of IOTA member tax administrations in the AEoI. Such initiative is very important for detecting internal shortcomings in this area and further development of established system and procedures for AEoI and developing new tools and effective use of AEoI. The event will also contribute to improved cooperation and exchange of information between EU Member States and third countries. 

The partnership of IOTA and DG TAXUD will be further strengthened by renewing the Memorandum of Understanding, making the framework for enhanced cooperation more focused and coherent supporting tax administration capacity building and other development initiatives. Mr Sandberg and Ms Edery mutually extended invitations to events organised by both organisations in 2016. They expressed their conviction that consulting each other and cooperating in programming of activities of IOTA and the European Commission at EU level will promote greater understanding, development and implementation of the European solutions, instruments, standards and guidelines; and to encourage mutual assistance between EU members and non-EU members of IOTA.