On 27-28 September 2023, IOTA successfully held its latest workshop, "Using Unstructured Data to Improve Compliance Risk Management in Tax Administrations". This digital event had over 160 registered participants from 31IOTA countries and featured speakers from various member tax administrations including Finland, Italy, Norway, and the United Kingdom, as well as presenters from the business community such as Alvara and Fonoa.

The autumn season brings a new beginning and an opportunity for further learning and expanding our professional knowledge with the help of VITARA. In the latest issued Course Overview, you can discover six e-learning modules in the fields of Human Resource Management, Reform Management, Strategic Management, and Institutional Management. Some of the virtual training modules are also available in French and Spanish.

On 13 September 2023, IOTA successfully gave a fresh start to the autumn season of its Work Programme 2023 with an engaging Webinar on “International Approaches to Virtual Currency”. Over 300 participants from 30 IOTA member tax administrations gathered in the virtual space to deepen their knowledge of virtual currencies, learn more about the latest trends, and new challenges in terms of risk analysis, and how IOTA member administrations approach the tax treatment of virtual currency.

On 5-7 September 2023, the Network of Tax Organisations (NTO) Council and its nine member organisations, including IOTA, in collaboration with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) successfully held the 2^nd NTO Technical Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. The hybrid event ran under the main theme of "Digitalisation of Tax Administrations and Contemporary Issues" and was joined by over 150 participants in-person and over 200 virtually including the heads and representatives of 10 regional tax organisations along with

On 6-8 September 2023, a successful joint IOTA-OECD ISORA 2023 Workshop took place in Vienna, Austria. The 3-day event was hosted by the Federal Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Austria. The IOTA’s organiser team including Roman Bichevoy, Strategy & Institutional Development Manager, and Oksana Stepanenko, International Taxation Expert represented IOTA Secretariat at the Workshop.

The Spanish Government grants prizes for Quality and Innovation in Public Management on an annual basis. In the XVI edition, the Spanish Tax Agency has been awarded the prize “Citizenship” for its App functionality to pay, defer and consult debts. The aim of this service, available from July 2022, is to make more agile, quick and simple the payment of debts, the request of a deferment or a payment on instalments, the consultation of the state of pending debts or obtaining a certificate of being up to date with tax liabilities.

New agreement options are now available to entrepreneurs and citizens for whom SRS has initiated tax checks and identified unpaid tax payments, which can reduce late fines up to 85% or completely cancel fines. The sooner an agreement is reached, the greater the reduction of the fine.

The Georgian Presidency of the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA) together with the IOTA Secretariat had the pleasure of co-hosting the 27th General Assembly of IOTA on the 27th-29th of June 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia. During the 3-day event, the vibrant Georgian capital became the hub for this remarkable event, where East and West connected. 

To streamline and simplify work with taxpayers, one tax control will replace the previous four different types of tax inspections. Up until now, SRS used thematic inspections, data compliance inspections, clarification of taxable objects, and/or clarification of the tax amount to verify compliance of tax payments by entrepreneurs and economically active citizens. This was not only complicated and difficult to apply, but often difficult to understand.