Forty Third Assembly of the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations

With the participation of delegates from more than 40 countries and more than 200 specialists in tax matters and high technology, the 43rd Assembly of the Inter-American Center for Tax Administration (CIAT in Spanish) got underway yesterday in Santo Domingo, hosted by the General Office of Internal Taxes. Delegations from various international organizations participated including Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Fiscal Association (IFA), the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OCED), the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD), the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA) and the European Union.

The inaugural conference “A Modern Vision of the Tax Administration in the Current Economic and Social Context” was given by Parthasarathi Shome, Chief Economist of the Revenue and Customs Service of the United Kingdom.

The official inauguration of the event was headed by the Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa Albizu; Director General of Internal Taxes, Juan Hernández Batista; Claudino Pita, CIAT Executive Secretary and William Baker, Chairman of the CIAT Board, who pondered the relevance and influence of discussions, interchanges of experience and decisions and how they are related to the central theme of the assembly: “A Modern Vision of the Tax Administration.”

This meeting brings together the General Directors of the Tax Administration of the 39 member countries and partners of CIAT such as Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Dutch Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, United States, Venezuela and others.

Deputy Finance Ministers, tax experts, academics, invited delegations from countries such as Angola, Morocco, United Kingdom, Slovakia, China, Taipei, Korea, Slovenia, among others also participated.

The inaugural conference “A Modern Vision of the Tax Administration in the Current Economic and Social Context” was given by Parthasarathi Shome, Chief Economist of the Revenue and Customs Service of the United Kingdom. Later, Juan Hernández, Director General of the Dominican Internal Revenue Office spoke on “Information Technology and Communications in the Service of Tax Administration.”

On Tuesday, José Antonio Pereira, Director General of Taxes in Portugal, discussed the “Strategies for Promoting Compliance: The Subjective Benefit in the AATT” along with Germania Montás, Deputy Director of Dominican Internal Revenue as moderator with commentaries by Claudino Pita, Executive Secretary of the CIAT.

Meanwhile, Marcelo Lettieri Siqueira, Fiscal Auditor of the Revenue Ministry of Brazil, will speak on Thursday at the conference, “Strategies and Instruments for Improving the Management in the AATT.” Director General of Internal Taxes in the DR, Juan Hernández Batista will be the moderator with commentary from Marlene Ardaya, Executive President of the National Tax Services of Bolivia.

The 43rd General Assembly of CIAT will be meeting until Thursday at the Hilton Hotel. Throughout the meeting, there will be debates revolving mainly around Information Technology and Communications (ICT) as the key aspect in the service of tax administration on the understanding that the ICTs are now an indisputable tool in the optimization of information and its use for the control of taxes, increase of transparency and improvement of services.