Accelerating Our Learning Activities in the Area of Taxation

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe (SEE) Project. It will be initially delivered in two years through 14 cross-country participatory and experience-based learning and networking activities with a possible extension, subject to favorable results and availability of further financing. The Project builds on the CEF's learning program on taxation carefully linking individual activities into a coherent annual training plan and tailors them to the regional specific capacity development needs and priorities.

SEE countries’ tax administrations are increasingly looking for ways to improve the efficiency of revenue collection and to achieve compliance at minimum costs, both for taxpayers and the tax administrations. Intensive efforts are invested into improving the overall compliance with tax laws, and sustaining confidence in the tax system and administration. In this context, many tax administrations region-wide have begun to introduce specific procedures under which they can deliver tax compliance risk management.

To support them in these efforts, we have designed the Project that intends to help revenue officials who are involved and have experience with procedures pertaining to effective and efficient application of modern risk management approaches strengthen their capacities by sharing experience, best practices, and lessons learned with their peers across the SEE region. Project activities will use the latest thinking and best practices that are also promoted by the international organizations including the European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and others. They will be supplemented by SEE regional practitioners’ insights into what is required to maintain and consolidate taxpayer compliance.

The Project also aims to respond to the challenge that is closely related to the current economic difficulties where in many cases the tax administrations in the countries most affected by the economic crisis have suffered severe cutbacks in their budgets for training and are frequently unable to attend training events citing the lack of funding.
The Project is designed for officials at different professional levels representing revenue authorities of Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

These demand-driven project activities are primarily supported by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Center of Excellence in Finance, Assistance Technique France, and the International Monetary Fund. “The Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands supports the CEF tax training program because it aims to contribute to strengthened capacities of tax administrations in countries of the Dutch constituencies in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (also countries served by the CEF) by enhancing skills of tax officials and supporting them in their reform efforts. In this way it supports our policy of targeted knowledge transfer and a genuine exchange of views and experiences with the Ministries of Finance in our constituency countries,” explains Angelique van Haasteren from the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands.

For more information please visit: http://www.cef-see.org/tax or contact Tina Žagar at tina.zagar@cef-see.org.