The 11th Plenary Meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) took place in Oslo, Norway, on the 27-29 September 2017. Over 130 delegates attended the meeting, including the heads of 50 tax administrations, international organisations and business representatives. IOTA was represented by the Executive Secretary (ES), Miguel Silva Pinto.
The FTA Plenary included discussions on the challenges arising from the implementation of BEPS, tax certainty, latest developments, enhancing the efficiency of tax administration through tackling evasion and the future of tax administration. The FTA Commissioners discussed the issues that keep them awake at night, with a special focus on technology (cybersecurity and loss of data), complexity (globalization, new business models), organization (recruitment, new skills, loss of knowledge) and compliance (trust, fairness, voluntary compliance). The OECD Tax Administration Series 2017 were released during the event.
IOTA’s ES intervened in the capacity building session, referring how much IOTA has been contributing to advancing its Members’ tax administrations by providing opportunities for tax officials to learn from each other on practical solutions found in a broad range of tax matters. He also announced that IOTA is joining the Knowledge Shared Platform of Tax Administration (KSPTA), a project sponsored by the Canadian Revenue Agency (which will provide a good opportunity to develop the awareness about IOTA at wider range.
The Chair of the FTA, Mr Edward Troup, UK’s HMRC Commissioner handed over the position to Mr Hans-Christian Holte, Commissioner of the Norwegian Tax Administration.
Mr Silva Pinto took the opportunity to establish and strengthen contacts with both the former and new Chairs of the FTA, IOTA’s Members’ Commissioners and Senior Officials from its international partners such as the OECD, CIAT, IMF and the WCO.
Photo: from left to right: Ms Caroline Edery and Mr Valere Moutarlier from DG Taxud, Mr Marcio Verdi from CIAT, Mr Juan Toro from IMF and Mr Miguel Silva Pinto.