Handbook - Developing Partnerships with Non-OECD Economies - Section 5 Event Description

Event Description

1. Tax Treaties: Special Issues (TT1)
2. Advanced Application of Tax Treaties Seminar (TT2)
3. Practial Workshop on the Negotiation of Tax Treaties (TT3)
4. Transfer Pricing Guidelines
5. Advanced Transfer Pricing Guidelines
6. Taxation of Non-Residents
7. Taxation of Financial Instruments
8. Taxation of Financial Markets
9. Exchange of Information and Access to Bank Information
10. Automatic Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes
11. Bribery Awareness for Tax Examiners
12. International Tax Avoidance and Evasion
13. Tax Incentives
14. Tax Policy Analysis
15. Tax Policy Modelling
16. Income Tax
17. VAT Compliance
18. Auditing Multinational Enterprises (AME1)
19. Advanced Auditing Multinational Enterprises (AME2)
20. Auditing Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME1)
21. Advanced Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME2)
22. Tax Administration

1. Tax Treaties: Special Issues (TT1)

The purpose of the Tax Treaties: Special Issues seminars is to provide participants with a working knowledge of the application and interpretation of double tax agreements.  It involves an examination of selected Articles found in double tax agreements and key issues such as treaty interpretation.  The Special Issues Seminars focus on a selection of the more relevant treaty provisions relating to the taxation of business profits, property, employment income, investment income and intellectual property.  The seminar is orientated towards practical issues.  As such, the participants are expected to consider a number of case studies in groups and be prepared to discuss their views and experiences.  Expert instructors provide shorThe purpose of the Tax Treaties: Special Issues seminars is to provide participants with a working knowledge of the application and interpretation of double tax agreements.  It involves an examination of selected Articles found in double tax agreements and key issues such as treaty interpretation.  The Special Issues Seminars focus on a selection of the more relevant treaty provisions relating to the taxation of business profits, property, employment income, investment income and intellectual property.  The seminar is orientated towards practical issues.  As such, the participants are expected to consider a number of case studies in groups and be prepared to discuss their views and experiences.  Expert instructors provide short lectures and guide the discussion of the issues raised in the case studies and lectures. 

Target Audience: The seminar will therefore be especially useful for officials who are, or will be, involved with the application of tax treaties, consideration of competent authority issues and the negotiation of tax treaties for their country.

2. Advanced Application of Tax Treaties Seminar (TT2)

Advanced Application of Tax Treaties seminar is an advanced version of the OECD’s popular Tax Treaty Special Issues Seminars.  The Advanced seminar examines a smaller number of important and challenging tax treaty issues in much greater depth.  The main focus is on understanding current problems and consideration of possible solutions.  Participants are encouraged to share their experiences and provide descriptions of treaty application problems and abuses that they have encountered.

Participants will need to have a good understanding of how tax treaties are applied and preferably would have previously attended one of the OECD’s regional tax treaty seminars.  The seminar will therefore be especially useful for senior officials who are, or will be, involved with the application of tax treaties, consideration of competent authority issues and the negotiation of tax treaties for their country.  

3. Practical Workshop on the Negotiation of Tax Treaties (TT3)

The Treaty Negotiation Workshop is very comprehensive and practical workshop that most of today’s treaty negotiators have graduated from.  The main purpose of the workshop is to provide practical experience of tax treaty negotiations and an understanding of some of the problems frequently encountered.  The instructors include experienced treaty negotiators, typically from OECD countries. 

The workshop primarily takes the form of a simulated negotiation of all of the provisions of a bilateral double tax agreement between two fictitious countries.  The negotiations are based on fictitious treaty models, recent treaties and descriptions of the tax legislation of the two countries.  Participants are divided into four or six teams of up to five persons who negotiate the positions of their assigned country throughout the week.  One instructor acts as the technical advisor for each team.  Participants are expected to head the actual negotiations of each provision and each participant is expected to head the discussion on two or three articles during the week.  Instructors assist each team in preparing for their negotiation and provide feedback during the workshop.  The simulated negotiations are also supplemented with a series of short presentations and discussions on all aspects of tax treaty negotiations including how to organise a treaty negotiation programme, how to conduct negotiations and advice on strategies for successful outcomes.

This workshop is especially useful for officials who are, or will be, involved with the negotiation of tax treaties for their country.  Participants get from this workshop what they put into it in the form of preparation and participation.  Therefore participants should be genuinely interested in learning how to negotiate tax treaties and be prepared for a challenging five days of intensive study and work.  Assignments will be issued for completion each night of the workshop.  Despite all of the hard work, participants usually find the workshop stimulating and rewarding.

Because of the high resource cost in delivery, this event can only be run on limited occasions.  These will require both high demand from qualified officials and sufficient experienced OECD country officials available to act as instructors/technical advisors to the negotiating teams.

It is essential that your nominees have a good command of the language adopted for the workshop, because the participants are expected to contribute actively in the preparation and to conduct of the simulated negotiations.  Participants must also have a good understanding of the provisions of a tax treaty and will be expected to have familiarised themselves with the material prior to the workshop.  It pointless attending this workshop if participants are not familiar with the provisions of tax treaties. 

4. Transfer Pricing Guidelines (TP1)

The course aims to provide an introduction to transfer pricing issues, largely by looking in detail at the OECD transfer pricing guidelines.  The topics covered include a description of the arm's length principle and allowable transfer pricing methodologies, comparability, risk and functional analyses in special problem areas, such as intangibles and services.  Particular attention is also given to the application of both traditional and profit methods.  Administrative issues are also studied, for example, the collection and exchange of information and the use of Advance Pricing agreements and the Mutual Agreement Procedure.  The course is designed to be practical in nature, so the topics covered are illustrated by the frequent use of case studies.  Time should also be available for a discussion of any difficulties experienced by participants.
Target Audience: Senior administrators involved in organising, managing and conducting transfer pricing audits of multinational enterprises.

5. Advanced Transfer Pricing Guidelines(TP2)

This purpose of this event is to discuss in detail some of the more difficult practical and theoretical issues arising in  transfer pricing.  Items discussed include the latest OECD work on comparability and profit methods, practical case studies on intangibles and business reorganisations, and dispute resolution/prevention processes such as Mutual Agreement Procedure and Arbitration and Advanced Pricing Agreements. The event also discusses techniques to improve the efficiency of transfer pricing administration including information powers (TP documentation, EOI, etc),  risk assessment techniques and use of safe harbours.  Participants are strongly encouraged to provide case studies in advance of the meeting which can then be discussed at the appropriate point during the event.

Target audience: The event assumes prior knowledge of transfer pricing. Particpants should therefore either have attended the Introductory transfer Pricing Event (Transfer Pricing Guidelenes) or be experienced transfer pricing auditors or be involved in Competent Authority work.

6. Taxation of Non-Residents

This is a new event which will be developed in 2005.  The broad purpose of this workshop is to examine the issues and challenges in the taxation of non-residents. More information about the structure and content of this workshop will be provided closer to the event date.
Target Audience: senior tax administrators and policy makers involved in managing the taxation of non-residents in their jurisdictions.

7. Taxation of Financial Instruments

Appropriate taxation is a critical factor in the avoidance of financial instability and in the creation of orderly and liquid financial markets.  The workshop aims to advance the policy dialogue in respect of the development and implementation of tax policies supporting open financial markets, with a focus on developing appropriate tax policies toward innovative financial instruments.  Case studies will be used to explore how tax systems may need to be modernised in order to adapt to the new global financial and capital market environment.  Key issues to be addressed will include tax policy to the extent that it can contribute to a stable financial environment; the features of tax systems which implicitly promote behaviour by investors and financial institutions that may be detrimental to the proper functioning of open financial markets; and how tax systems can contribute to ensuring that the benefits of open financial and capital markets are realised.
Target audience: Officials from Ministries of Finance and Tax Administrations who deal with the taxation of financial instruments.

8. Taxation of Financial Markets

As financial markets are progressively liberalised, tax administrations will also begin to face many challenges.  Amongst these challenges are the needs to bring into the taxation structure financial institutions and the products and services they offer using measures that will promote rather than stifle their developments.  On the other hand, tax administrations also have to adopt effective measures to limit the ability of taxpayers to abuse the tax arbitrage and avoidance opportunities made possible by financial market innovations.  This workshop will focus on the broad policy issues in the taxation of financial markets, the domestic and international taxation issues specific to the taxation of banking, insurance and investment activities and the policy issues in the taxation of enterprises and individuals as end users of innovative financial products such as derivatives contracts.

Target audience: Officials from Ministries of Finance and Tax Administrations who deal with the taxation of banks, insurance activities, collective investment institutions and other financial market activities.

9. Exchange of Information and Access to Bank Information

Exchange of information between tax administrations is the most effective way of combating international tax avoidance and evasion. The aim of this workshop is to share the experiences of OECD and non-OECD economies as regards the exchange of tax information between competent authorities; and to identify ways of improving the efficiency of this process. The workshop will draw upon OECD work in this area. The underlying legal basis for international exchange of information will be examined and illustrated with case studies highlighting the balance between the legal obligation to exchange and the limitations that safeguard taxpayers’ rights. Practical advice will be provided on how to make a request for information and how to respond to a request; and the use of new technologies to share information will be discussed. In addition, the workshop will examine the issues raised in the OECD report Improving Access to Bank Information for Tax Purposes.

Target audience: Senior taxation or finance officials involved in the legal and practical aspects of exchange of information with tax treaty partners (i.e. competent authority work).

10. Automatic Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

Automatic exchange of information involves the systematic and periodic transmission of “bulk” taxpayer information by the source country to the residence country concerning various categories of income. The aim of this workshop is to share the experiences of OECD and non-OECD economies as regards automatic exchange of information between tax administrations. This workshop will address issues such as how to set up automatic exchange with a treaty partner, what type of information can be exchanged automatically,  how to use the OECD standards for automatic exchange from the sending side and receiving side, how to build up a data warehouse, data protection issues, providing feedback  to treaty partners etc.  Ways to improve automatic exchange will also be discussed if already in place to improve  the efficiency of this process. The workshop will draw upon OECD work in this area: OECD Model MOU for automatic exchange, the Module on Automatic Exchange of the OECD Manual on exchange of information and the OECD standards for automatic exchange etc.

Target audience: Senior tax officials involved in the legal and practical aspects of exchange of information with tax treaty partners (i.e. competent authority work), technical and IT experts.

11. Bribery Awareness for Tax Examiners

The purpose of this workshop is to present the OECD Recommendation on the non tax deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials, the different forms of tax legislation denying the tax deductibilty of bribes and more particularly the OECD Bribery Awareness Handbook for tax examiners.  The Handbook provides useful legal background information, examples of mandatory reporting of commissions in some countries as well as practical tips: indicators of bribery, interviewing techniques, examples (made anonymous) of bribes identified in tax audits as well as standard form for feedback by the tax examiner to his headquarters in order to faciliate the monitoring of trends and assessing risk.

Target audience: Tax examination managers and senior tax examiners.          

12. International Tax Avoidance and Evasion

The purpose of this workshop is to examine some common techniques that are used by enterprises and individuals to avoid and evade taxes, with a particular emphasis on tax avoidance and evasion in international transactions.  The seminar covers the avoidance and evasion possibilities created by offshore banks/financial centres, tax havens and preferential tax regimes, transfer pricing techniques, use of permanent establishments and financial market developments.  The workshop also introduces common responses introduced by governments in their domestic law and international tax treaties to control the extent of international tax avoidance and evasion.  The common responses that will be discussed in this workshop include:

• improving access to bank information;
• effective exchange of information;
• controlled foreign company rules;
• the arm’s length principle; and
• thin capitalisation rules and other rules to deal with financial market innovations.

Target Audience: officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration who deal with the taxation of international transactions.

13. Tax Incentives

The seminar surveys the types of incentives, their effectiveness in achieving their objective, and issues in their design and administration.  Tax incentives in various taxes, including corporate and personal income taxes and consumption taxes, are examined with practical examples taken from OECD and EIT.

Target Audience: Policymakers responsible for designing tax systems.

14. Tax Policy Analysis

The seminar on tax policy analysis will cover policy considerations (e.g. efficiency, equity) relevant to a number of topics of interest to senior tax policy makers.  It is anticipated that the topics considered in this workshop will evolve from year to year, at least in part, to cover policy areas of current and particular interest to OECD and non-OECD countries alike.  For example, the workshop could focus on the following areas: i) linkages between taxation (mainly corporate income tax) and domestic and foreign direct investment; ii) taxation of stock options; iii) environmental (or ‘green’) tax reforms; iv) taxation and savings; v) taxation and employment.  Participants are encouraged to draw to the attention of the workshop organizers other topics that they would like to see covered.  Case study analysis and presentations are also encouraged.

Target Audience: senior tax policy makers who are actively involved in debating and designing tax policies in their economies.

15. Tax Policy Modelling

The purpose of this workshop, aimed at early-career economists, is (i) to provide participants with a working knowledge of micro-simulation principles and techniques in modelling the revenue impacts of tax policy changes, in the areas of personal income tax, corporate income tax, and value-added tax, including the establishment of a database; (ii) to oversee “hands-on” application by participants of micro-simulation techniques; (iii) to provide participants with an overview of measurement issues and policy uses of marginal and average effective tax rates; and (iv) to establish a network of model builders and users which may be useful for participants when practical problems arise.

Target Audience: Participants should be early-career tax policy economists involved in tax modelling in the central government’s Ministry of Finance (or in the Ministry responsible for providing tax modelling services to the Ministry of Finance).  Participants should also have a good knowledge of the basic design features of at least one of the following main tax bases -- personal income tax, corporate income tax, and value-added tax -- and some familiarity with spreadsheet analysis (e.g., Excel software.)

16. Income Tax

The purpose of this seminar on income tax is to discuss significant tax policy issues in a multilateral setting and to share country experiences on these issues.  The content of this workshop is decided on an event by event basis, in consultation with the participants from Non-OECD economies.  The taxation topics that are covered by this workshop will change from year to year.  Some of the topics that have been discussed in previous years include taxation of re-organizations, flat vs. progressive personal income tax rates, EU Directives, tax treatment of revaluation of assets, derivatives and options, etc.  Participants are invited to present their country experiences and practical cases relevant to the topics for discussions.

Target Audience: policy-makers and senior administrators involved in tax reforms.

17. VAT Compliance

The rapid growth in international trade in goods and services has coincided with the global spread of value added taxes (VAT) with almost 140 countries now using such taxes. By 2002, VAT accounted for 18.7 percent on average of all tax revenues across OECD members, compared to 11.9 percent in 1965.
Many countries, both developed and developing, have suffered significant losses of VAT revenue through non-compliant behaviour of the taxpayers. Criminal attacks, such as so called “carousel fraud”, fraudulent refund claims, tax evasion and tax avoidance are widespread.
This seminar will provide a review of the basic functionality of the VAT system; examine specific problems which are vulnerable to manipulations, consider how policy can be developed to meet new challenges and reduce exposure to non-compliance, and point out countermeasures to tackle fraudulent and abusive activities.

In the area of tax administration participants will be presented with effective approaches to audit, tax collection, and taxpayer service, from experiences gained in OECD member countries.

Target Audience: Senior tax policymakers and tax administrators with responsibility for indirect tax policy/administration and/or tax administration more generally (e.g. compliance, tax audit).

18. Auditing Multinational Enterprises(AME1)

The objectives of the seminar are to provide participants with a basic knowledge of the issues to anticipate when auditing multinational enterprises.  The seminar includes discussions of the most significant legal and practical issues to be taken into account. It deals with the creation and legal significance of a multinational enterprise (MNE), the tax principles underlying the operation of an MNE, tax avoidance and anti-avoidance strategies, the operation of tax treaties, and an introduction to transfer pricing and thin capitalisation issues. Furthermore, the “best practice” audit approaches that are adopted to deal with these entities by OECD countries as well as countries participating in the seminar will be examined.  Audit examples are included as far as possible to encourage debate and provide a practical basis for the examination of these issues in the work place. The seminar will also deal with the relevant administrative provisions, information requirements and the audit process itself in order to facilitate the work of tax examiners who may have only limited expertise. 
Target Audience: senior and middle tax administrators and tax inspectors responsible for or engaged in the audit of multinational enterprises.

19. Advanced Auditing Multinational Enterprises(AME2)

The purpose of this event is to discuss strategies for auditing the international aspects of multinational enterprises, with a particular focus on transfer pricing.  The event begins with a discussion on the typical features of  MNEs and the taxation issues involved in auditing them. This is followed by a case study extending over 4 days that provides an opportunity to discuss the steps MNEs typically take to plan the amount of tax they pay, and where, and the practical issues auditors face. The case study emphasises the importance of information gathering and the utilisation of the information to secure well founded adjustments which are acceptable to the multinational enterprise and other interested tax administrations. 

Target audience: senior or experienced auditors dealing with large multinational enterprises, as well as policy makers with an interest in audit practices. Should be familiar with the main concepts of transfer

pricing, the arm’s length principle and OECD transfer pricing methods.

20. Auditing Small and Medium Enterprises(ASME1)

The objectives of this seminar are to discuss strategies to fight domestic tax abuses and to discuss the roles of the audit process within these overall strategies in particular aimed at small and medium size businesses.  The seminar will include discussions of compliance risk management, risk identification, resource planning, communications with the taxpayer, the preparation of an audit, the audit work programme, reporting and final assessment. Dialogues on taxpayers' rights and obligations, on appropriate legislation and basic audit theory will also be included in this workshop. A significant part of the seminar will be devoted to practical cases to allow participants to familiarise themselves with the common practical audit tools and techniques.  The practical cases will also deal with the auditing of electronic records.  The main purpose for this event is to provide the participants with a sound understanding of tax audits and a comprehensive toolkit for auditing. At the same time, the participants will be encouraged to develop a creative approach to deal with most domestic audit cases as well as with problems of the shadow economy.
Target Audience: tax auditors as well as policy makers who are interested in audit practices.

21. Advanced Auditing Small and Medium Enterprises(ASME2)

The objectives of this seminar are to discuss strategies to fight domestic tax abuses and to discuss the roles of the audit process within the overall strategies to improve taxpayer compliance in particular aimed at small and medium size businesses.  The seminar will include discussions on compliance risk management, risk identification, case selection for audit, resource planning, communications with the taxpayer, the preparation of an audit, the audit work programme, reporting and final assessment and payment. Attention will also be paid to evalution and performance measurement. Dialogues on taxpayers' rights and obligations, on appropriate legislation and basic audit theory will also be included in this workshop. A significant part of the seminar will be devoted to practical cases to allow participants to further familiarise themselves with the common practical audit tools and techniques. Methods of indirect income measurement will be explored in more depth by discussing practical cases to improve basic understanding of these methods and to further improve participants skills to implement these methods in their daily practise. The practical cases will also deal with the auditing of electronic records. The seminar will also deal with new developed strategies and practises to counteract non-compliant business taxpayers. The main purpose for this event is to provide the participants with a sound understanding of tax audits at advanced level and a comprehensive toolkit for auditing. At the same time, the participants will be further encouraged to develop creative approaches to deal with most domestic audit cases as well as with problems of the shadow economy.
Target Audience: (senior) tax auditors as well as policy makers who are interested in audit practices. 

22. Tax Administration 

The course aims to provide a general introduction to tax administration issues based on practices and experiences in OECD countries. The topics covered include organization and management of tax administration, improving taxpayers’ compliance, the need for a strategic approach, and compliance risk management. Principals and process of tax assessment will be discussed including registration and filing, electronic filing and prepopulated tax returns, withholding at source, provisional and final assessment. Attention is also given to risk selection, verification and audit and to administrative powers of tax administrations, the rights and obligations of taxpayers, and taxpayer service. The seminar will also deal with appeal procedures, the handling of contentious cases, and with administrative sanctions and interest regimes and criminal cases. Finally attention will be given to staffing and performance issues including complaints about the performance of the Tax Administration.
Target audience:  Officials from Ministries of Finance and Tax Administrations who deal with designing and implementing systems for tax administration and tax inspectors and auditors dealing with tax assessment, verification and audit and handling contentious cases.