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The stage 1 peer review assessments for Aruba, Bahrain, Barbados, Gibraltar, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Oman, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Viet Nam evaluate the efforts made by each jurisdiction to implement the Action 14 minimum standard of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project, which aims to improve the resolution of tax-related disputes between jurisdictions.
Debate over how to improve MAPs and APAs will bring changes this year
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that companies will no longer be required to pay for an external audit of their annual goods and services tax (GST) return or to obtain a reconciliation statement to satisfy the rules under the GST regime.
However, tax professionals are divided as to whether the change to self-certification introduces more risks for in-house tax departments that could lead to litigation.
“This is a double-edged sword,” said a tax director at a leading pharmaceutical company.
At the same time, African governments are looking for ways to increase tax revenue. Botswana’s annual budget was also presented to Parliament on February 1. Minister of Finance and Development Thapelo Matsheka announced a two percentage point rise in the VAT rate from 12% to 14%, as well as a number of other rate rises on withholding tax and fuel levies.
Achim Pross, head of the International Cooperation and Tax Administration Division at the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, explains how dispute prevention will be improved over the coming year.
Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD s Centre for Tax Policy Administration (OECD)
The first day of the OECD s consultation may be over, but there is still a lot to discuss. The OECD will be hosting a day of consultation on its pillar two blueprint on January 15.
The next step for the Paris-based organisation is the G20/Inclusive Framework meeting on January 27-29. Yet there is just six months left to reach a final agreement.
Finishing at 16.30:
The Inclusive Framework (IF) still has to find enough common ground to support a final draft. Many countries have an idea of what they would like to do with pillar one, says Martin Kreienbaum, chair of the Inclusive Framework.