The 2019 IOTA Annual International Conference was hosted by the Georgia Revenue Service on 16-17 October in Tbilisi, Georgia. This year a Tax Compliance Technology Showroom complemented the IOTA Conference. The exhibition showcased the recent and innovative digital solutions in the field of tax compliance.
Over 150 participants, including senior tax officials, representatives of international partner organisations, businesses, academia and journalists took part in the IOTA Conference.
Opening speeches were given by Vakhtang Lashkaradze, Director General of the Georgia Revenue Service and František Imrecze, Executive Secretary of IOTA.
„It is a great honour for us to host such an important event of IOTA. The topic that we discuss in the upcoming days is exciting and interesting and is on the high agenda of many tax administrations. At a stage in my career I led the IT department of the Georgia Revenue Service and therefore the theme of the conference is also very close to me personally. In our tax administration we are continuously observing how new developments require new solutions and how the influence of new technologies changes our office. We have been developing new technological solutions as well as outsourcing projects. I believe this conference will further facilitate dialogue between the tax administrations and serve as a solid ground for future cooperation and development” said Vakhtang Lashkaradze in his opening speech.
František Imrecze, the Executive Secretary of IOTA also welcomed exhibitors and participants: „Success lies in partnership. How can we, tax administrations solve the problem of taxation in a fast changing, desruptive environment we live in without partnering to resolve it ? We need business partners, who provide technological solutions to cope with our challenges. This is why this exhibition is a landmark in the history of IOTA. The Tax Compliance Technology Showroom that is complementing the Annual International Conference this year showcases the best solutions of businesses in the field of tax compliance and connects the public administrations with the business community and academia. And I would also like to add that this is the first time but not the last time when we welcome the business community at the table of IOTA to discuss the challenges of smart taxation.”
Introductory speeches were offered by Lasha Khutsishvili, Deputy Minister of Finance of Georgia and Georgios Pitsilis, IOTA President and Governor of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue of Greece.
„The government of Georgia always welcomes the international events in the country. They are great possibility to exchange ideas and practices and also to promote Georgia as an important and reliable international partner. Gorgia has an old and reliable cooperation with IOTA, this conference is another demonstration of our trustful parntership” highlighted Lasha Khutsishvili, the Deputy Minister of Finance of Georgia in his introductory speech.
IOTA President and Governor of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue of Greece, Georgios Pitsilis, also welcomed the participants of the conference through live video stream: „IOTA’s role is to be a key partner for assisting our members to develop their administrations and cooperate in an effective way with each other. And our ambition is to establish IOTA as an even more reliable partner in the international tax framework. Since the very first edition in 2016, the Annual International Conference was meant to address timely and relevant topics for our membership and open it to our international partners. With that in mind we have decided this time to transform the event into a Tax Compliance Technology Showroom, offering opportunities for the participants to get acquainted with the newest technologies used in the field of tax compliance. Business partners are key to widen our horizons and their perspective is very welcome in a framework where we all need to collaborate strongly to achieve our goals. I trust you will all enjoy the Showroom as much as the opportunities for establishing contacts and networking.”
The nine different sessions of the Conference included keynote presentations and interactive roundtable debates providing views and perspectives from businesses and tax administrations on how tax compliance processes are aligned to the increasingly digital and automated business models.Participants also discussed possible strategies to tackle emerging risks posed by new technology. A broad range of digital solutions supporting electronic transactions & real-time reporting, monitoring of movement (transportation) of goods of high fiscal risk, use of blockchain to prevent error and fraud, eTax portals, AI enabled virtual taxpayer assistance, etc was presented in parallel sessions.
Delegates from international partners, such as the European Commission, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations, the West African Tax Administration Forum, the International Monetary Fund represented their organisation at the event.
This year the IOTA International Conference was complemented by a Tax Compliance Technology Showroom that was organised to present the wide collection of recent and innovative digital solutions in the field of tax compliance. More than 15 exhibitors, representing IT developersand IOTA member tax administrations gave on-site demonstrations of their innovative projects and cutting-edge technology solutions that empowered tax administrations to facilitate, improve and promote tax compliance.
The Showroom was the focal point for the IOTA Conference attendees. The Showroom created a unique opportunity for participants to have a direct contact with software producers, businesses and tax authorities that developed digital solutions in regard to tax compliance improvement, fraud prevention, delivery of user-friendly e-services, use of big data and advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotic process automation.
During the event, participants voted for the best exhibited digital tax compliance solution that they liked the most. The winner of the competition was the Georgia Revenue Service with the District Tax Officer’s android application. The tax administration was offered an opportunity to deliver a technical demo of the solution in one of the plenary sessions. „In Georgia, tax officers equipped with tablets visit premises of taxpayers throughout the country. By using the application, the officers can support the taxpayers, especially SMEs in filling tax returns, submitting waybills and submitting complaints.” a tax official described the purpose of the application.
For the Agenda of the 2019 Annual International Conference of IOTA , click here: Agenda
For more content on the topic visit Euractiv’s news portal for an article by František Imrecze, IOTA Executive Secretary: Smart taxation in a fast-changing global economy
For more photos click on IOTA's social media channels on Facebook and on Twitter.
For registered users: for more information on the conference and for the presentations, please click here.
| Exhibitors of the Tax Compliance Showroom – IOTA Annual International Conference, 2019 | |
| Exhibitors | Tax Compliance IT Solutions |
| Ministry of Taxes of the Republic of Azerbaijan | State registration of LLC only with one procedure |
| Bureau van Dijk, A Moody´s Analytics Company | Tax Risk & Transfer Pricing Solutions |
| Estonian Tax and Customs Board | Electronic tax compliance rating |
| Fast Enterprises & Finnish Tax Administration | Gentax - COTS tax processing system for revenue agencies as configured for the Finnish Tax Administration |
| Georgia Revenue Service | District Tax Officer’s android application |
| i-Cell Mobilsoft | Electronic Public Road Trade Control System |
| State Revenue Service of the Republic of Latvia | Electronic taxpayer rating system |
| State Tax Inspectorate of Lithuania | Virtual Accountant - i.APS |
| Norwegian Tax Administration | Dialogue based digital tax return |
| Petapilot, SA - Col.bi (Collaborative Business Intelligence and Audit) | a multipurpose analytical platform for Digital Audit and Tax Compliance |
| Refundit | Digital VAT refund system for non-EU tourists |
| Allexis s. r. o. & Financial Directorate of the Slovak Republic | E-cash register connected to the information system of duty stamps |
| Spanish Tax Agency | Cash invoice bank |
| Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs, United Kingdom | Virtual Street Sweep, Digital Prompts |
| Vizor Software | Vizor AEOI solution |