Date:
Providing citizens with the information to understand how the tax system works, the rights and obligations of taxpayers, and how citizens can influence the evolution of the tax system, is vital to building public trust in tax systems, a key component in tax morale. There are number of ways in which citizens can gain this knowledge and confidence in the tax system, such as education of taxpayers about the tax system; providing taxpayers with justifications for specific changes in tax law; reducing complexity; or communications encouraging taxpayers to see their taxes as their fair contribution to society, to name a few.
A recent report from the OECD, Building a Tax Culture, Compliance and Citizenship: A Global Source Book on Taxpayer Education (Second Edition) shows that taxpayer education can be a key tool to boost the willingness of individuals and businesses to voluntarily pay tax, and play a vital role at the heart of mobilising the tax revenues urgently needed to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. For while there has been significant progress in international tax co-operation to tackle fraud, tax avoidance, and tax evasion, important challenges remain in domestic revenue mobilisation, and the Covid-19 pandemic has increased demands on states to provide public goods, while reducing economic activity.
However, educating taxpayers is not just the business of tax administrations, and to succeed, collaboration and partnerships with other stakeholders such as schools, professional bodies, business associations and non-governmental organisations are essential.
ACCA and IFAC, in collaboration with the OECD, are therefore delighted to invite you to a lively discussion revolving around the three main approaches around taxpayers education identified in the report - teaching tax; communicating tax; and supporting taxpayers directly in compliance - and how to foster effective collaboration among the key actors, with experts from the OECD, EU policy makers, tax administrations, academics and the accountancy profession.
Agenda (CET):
3.00pm Welcome by Helen Brand, OBE, Chief Executive, ACCA
3.07pm Presentation of the main highlights of the OECD report, Grace Perez-Navarro, Deputy-Director, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration
3.16pm Keynote speech, Victor Negrescu, MEP
3.25pm Panel discussion, moderated by Scott Hanson, Director, Public Policy & Regulation, IFAC
- Agnija Rasa, Deputy head of unit Management of programmes and EU training, DG TAXUD, European Commission
- Giulia Mascagni, Research Director of the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) and Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
- Richard M Kayombo, Director For Tax Payer Services and Education, Tanzania Revenue Authority
- Jason Piper, head of Taxation, ACCA
4.20pm Q&As
4.30pm Concluding remarks, Alta Prinsloo, CEO of PAFA (Pan-African Federation of Accountants)
4.38pm Conclusion by Kevin Dancey, CEO of IFAC
4.45pm End