Tax Officials in SEE on Modern Risk Management Approaches
Revenue authorities across SEE are increasingly introducing new measures to improve tax compliance and to ensure that the full amount of taxes due according to the law is paid. Such modern approaches to compliance management require an extensive modern skill set. To address these we have been working closely with the IMF's Tax Administration Reform Advisor for SEE Steffen Hansen, CEF Associate Fellow Norman Gillanders, and colleagues from the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Lisette van der Hel and Soraya van der Zouw, and designed recently implemented learning event on modern approaches to tax compliance.
On the occasion senior tax officials from Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine discussed principles of compliance risk management, many modern tax administrations have adopted to better allocate scarce resources and to achieve an optimum tax compliance strategy. The importance of finding a good balance between preventive measures that promote voluntary compliance and corrective measures such as audits and fines were emphasized and explored. Participants worked on a case study where they were asked to identify potential compliance risks in tourism sector and discuss possible ways of how they can get in control of this sector by applying an adequate compliance risk management strategy. They also gained new insights into how tax administrations can influence taxpayer behavior.
An important feature of this event was the valuable exchange of ideas and country experiences in introducing and implementing compliance risk management strategies for the administration of taxes. In this context, a significant part of the course was devoted to discussions that drew on existing experience of the participating countries to examine the challenges involved in and possible approaches to successfully introduce modern ways of working in tax context as an integral part of the ongoing efforts to reform the tax administration.
To catch the highlights of the third learning event under the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe (SEE) project play the video or visit created shared memory. The course was delivered at CEF in Ljubljana on May 12-14, 2015.
The next learning activity under the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe project will provide insights into current developments and challenges in VAT administration along with the exchange of information on recent VAT fraud schemes supported by discussions on possible ways of combating them. It will be run on June 16-18, at the CEF.About the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe (SEE) project:
This is a two-year training and networking project that builds on the CEF's training program on taxation carefully linking individual activities into a coherent annual training plan. It is primarily supported by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Assistance Technique France (Adetef). The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening of beneficiary institutions’ capacity in implementing the EU’s recommendations under which the revenue authorities can deliver tax compliance risk management.
