By Caribbean News Global 
PARIS, France – The Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) held its virtual plenary meeting on December 7-8, 2020, bringing together tax commissioners from across the globe and representatives from international organisations and regional tax administration bodies.
Senior officials from the 53 members of The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Forum on Tax Administration, and G20 members, agreed on an ambitious agenda for the next year, focused on enhancing resilience and tax certainty as well as the digital transformation of tax administrations.
Tax administrations are playing a critical role as governments deal with the economic recovery from COVID-19 following an unprecedented global crisis. They met to discuss a variety of tax administration issues including responses to the global pandemic, emerging risks, digital transformation and tax certainty.
FTA members agreed:
- To improve the resilience and agility of tax administrations globally to respond to crises, including through collaboration on new ways of working, the development and use of new IT tools, and different working arrangements.
- To develop a roadmap in early 2021 for the digital service transformation of tax administrations building on the vision for Tax Administration 3.0 published at the Plenary. This roadmap will aim to identify priority work on core elements of this vision, such as digital identity, e-invoicing and secure mechanisms for the real-time sharing of information across borders.
- To ramp up work on tax certainty, including through moving the International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP) from a pilot phase to an established programme for the co-ordinated assessment of multinational enterprise groups’ transfer pricing risks.
- To bring together senior FTA leaders in the spring of 2021 to consider collective FTA support for capacity building in developing countries, in particular around the digitalisation and the further development of the joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative.
“I am very proud of how tax authorities responded to the emerging COVID-19 crisis, working individually and co-operatively, and at great pace, to improve our individual and collective responses. The programme of work that we have agreed today, which builds on our achievements over this difficult year, will help us emerge from the crisis stronger, more resilient and more agile”, said Bob Hamilton, chair of the FTA and Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency.
“Our collective work and sharing of best practices will take us to the next level, which is essential to meet the needs and expectations of citizens, businesses and governments around the world.”
“Learning the lessons from the crisis, where tax administrations played a pivotal role, will be critical during the recovery period and in building future resilience”, said Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. “The pandemic has also accelerated thinking about the use of digital technology and tools, including how digitalisation might lead to fundamental changes in the administration of tax as set out in the FTA’s paper on Tax Administration 3.0. Our collective work on the steps to realise this vision may be an important legacy of this crisis.”
For more details, including as regards the reports published at the Plenary and the FTA’s future work programme, see the communiqué released at the close of the meeting.
The Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) is a global forum on tax administration for Commissioners. It has 53 members, including all G20 and OECD member countries as well as selected advanced and emerging non-OECD economies. The work of the Forum is overseen by a Bureau of 13 Commissioners from the participating revenue bodies and is chaired by Bob Hamilton, Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency. The FTA has extensive collaboration with a wide range of international and regional organisations, including the IMF, IOTA and CIAT as well as key stakeholders in the private and public sector.
