Report on XIV General Assembly of IOTA in Brussels, 8-9 July 2010

Published date: 15.07.2010 13:07 | Author: tax administration

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The 14th General Assembly of the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA) was organised and hosted by the Federal Public Service Finance of the Kingdom of Belgium and held in Brussels on 8-9 July 2010. High representatives of member Tax Administrations met each other, celebrating the 13th anniversary of this international Organisation. One hundred and fifty eight delegates from forty five countries, local Secretariat and IOTA`s Secretariat, and twelve international organisations attended the Assembly.
Montenegrin delegation in Belgium consisted of: Director Mirjana Pešalj and Deputy Director Vukica Kaluđerović, who gave their contribution to the work of the Assembly.
On the first day of the 13th General Assembly representatives of: Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Estonia, Bulgaria and Ireland held presentations on the theme: “New challenges and effects on taxpayer compliance and tax revenues at a time of economic crisis”, which was chosen for the professional theme for 2010 on the previous General Assembly. There was also a panel forum during which representatives of the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were speakers. The overall objective of the technical session was to reflect on the implications of the global economic crisis for national economies and tax administrations of IOTA member countries, as well as to consider measures adopted and possible future steps for mitigating effects of the crisis and overcoming related problems.

On the second day of the work Directors of Tax Administrations adopted the Budget and Work program for 2010 and elected members of Executive Council and internal auditors in secret ballots. Majority decided that the professional theme for 2011 would be: “Achieving more with less: the experiences of tax administrations in using innovation and smarter working to continue to operate effectively despite resource constraints”. Presidency of IOTA was given over by Jean Marc Delporte, Director of the Belgian Tax Administration to the French Tax Administration, under leadership of Jean-Marc Fenet, to be in charge of organising the XV General Assembly in Nice 2011.The Russian Federation and Armenia became members of IOTA.
Representatives of the local Secretariat and IOTA’s Secretariat represented themselves in the best light both as hosts and organizers, showing hospitality and kindness to all present.
IOTA is a non-profit Organization of European Tax Administrations, providing intensive cooperation to all its members, identifying positive practice and encouraging its adoption and supporting implementation of individual development programmes, with the aim of strengthening of fiscal systems, not only on the national level, but also in the whole European region. Years of IOTA’s work proved that the existence of such Organization is very significant at the time when the process of globalization represents a hot issue. Mission of IOTA is to provide a forum for discussion of practical tax administration issues on its seminars and workshops, giving guidelines to their development and promoting further fiscal reforms in line with European standards and individual needs of Tax administrations. Apart from that, during 13 years of its existence this Organization maintains traditional co-operation with various international and regional Organisations that provide technical and logistical assistance to tax administrations worldwide and in particular in the European region such as the European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, the IMF and the United Nations.
The decision to establish the Organisation was made during the Conference of Tax Administrations of Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic Countries, which was held in Warsaw, on 28-30 October 1996. The European Union and nine of its Member States, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD and the USA supported this initiative. The Secretariat of the Organisation is located in Budapest, the Republic of Hungary, where it operates since 1997.
The number of countries in IOTA’s family increased significantly and the Organisation now has 44 full members and 1 associate member country- Jordan.