TAX administrators from the region explored potential areas of further improvement in the compliance of the large taxpayer sector and how the compliance model could be applied to the sector during a webinar held recently.
A joint initiative of the Pacific Islands Tax Administrators Association (PITAA) Secretariat and the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center (PFTAC) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the webinar discussed ways to improve compliance, collect revenue and ultimately enable the governments to continue providing essential services.
“Large taxpayers are an important segment in tax administrations as they contribute at least 60 per cent to 80 per cent of administrations revenue even though they comprise of 20 percent of the taxpayer pool,” PITAA head of secretariat Koni Ravono said.
She said the workshop covered topics such as the importance of large taxpayers in reprioritising revenue collections during COVID-19, key features of an effective large taxpayer compliance strategy and stakeholder relationship management.
In a statement PFTAC co-ordinator David Kloeden reinforced PFTAC’s commitment to strengthening revenue administration in the Pacific including building capacity in core tax functions with this regional workshop being the first event for the year with a number of events planned for the year.
IMF Short Term consultants Stanley Shrosbree and Martin Scott facilitated the webinar with Mr Shrosbree adding that before making a decision for focusing on large taxpayers they needed the data to “tell us the story”.
“Tax non-compliance is a range of activities that are unfavourable to a state’s tax system.
“This may include tax avoidance, which is a tax reduction by legal means, and tax evasion which is the criminal non-payment of tax liabilities. Using data is crucial to identifying non-compliance,” he said.
Forty-nine tax officials from across 14 Pacific tax administrations were part of the four-day webinar, “Improving Compliance in the Large Taxpayer Segment”, which started on Thursday, February 25 and ended on March 3.
