This week, the OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) marked its 20th anniversary, with Australian Commissioner of Taxation and FTA Vice-Chair, Chris Jordan AO, hosting its 15th plenary meeting in Sydney.
‘This year marks 20 years of the FTA, 20 years of international collaboration. As we reflected on the years that have passed, it was clear the depth and strength of co-operation between our members, international organisations, and regional tax administrations has never been stronger,’ said ATO Commissioner, Chris Jordan.
Tax Commissioners and delegates from around the world came together to renew their commitment to addressing multinational tax issues, and together with business representatives, discussing relevant global trends to improve the fairness and effectiveness of tax administration.
Discussions focused particularly on strategies and actions across three areas:
- Implementation of the OECDs Two-Pillar Solution to address the taxation issues arising from digitisation of the economy.
- The digital transformation of tax administrations to achieve greater efficiencies.
- Supporting tax capacity building in developing nations.
‘We renewed our commitment in these areas as key priorities for the year ahead,’ ATO Commissioner, Chris Jordan.
A core focus of this years’ Plenary is capacity building, and the ATO met with a number of key regional partners to discuss our Official Development Assistance and continue to build on the relationships that have already been formed. The outcomes of these meetings highlighted the importance of collaborative assistance, in addition to sharing insights, and intelligence.
The group also agreed to a new strategic framework to govern the second phase of collaboration in bringing Tax Administration 3.0 to life, which will provide the opportunity for further collaboration in the form of new senior-level working groups and an advisory group on digital transformation.
‘A key focus for the ATO is the ongoing digital transformation of tax administration, domestically and globally. Tax Administration 3.0 is our vision for 2030, where seamless, integrated, and automated systems allow data to flow from the systems taxpayers already use, to ours, without any extra effort or intervention from them.’
‘The digitalisation of the economy has been accelerated through the events of these last few years, and has brought to the forefront the importance of global collaboration on digital technology and tools,’ ATO Commissioner, Chris Jordan.
Over the next year, the importance of the FTA will only increase as we move to the implementation of a number of areas, and this year’s Plenary will continue to set the stage for years to come.
The statement of outcomes will be available on the OECD’s websiteExternal Link.