Train the Trainer - Building a sustainable EOI capacity within tax administrations

The Global Forum Secretariat’s capacity-building activities support the global implementation of the two international standards on transparency and exchange of information (EOI): exchange of information on request (EOIR) and automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI). Our work empowers jurisdictions in the fight against tax evasion and other illicit financial flows to ultimately enhance their domestic resource mobilisation. Between 2011 and 2021, the Global Forum Secretariat organised 316 events and 22 000 tax officials have been trained, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic during which new methods and resources were developed.

Building upon its extensive experience, the Secretariat launched the new Train the Trainer (TtT) global training programme in 2021. The 2021 pilot was launched under the umbrella of the Africa Initiative to build an EOI legacy within African tax administrations, and 34 officials from 17 African countries participated. Initial results were very encouraging, with 26 local trainings held in 13 countries and attended by nearly 900 tax officials.

Through the training of officials from national tax administrations, the TtT programme seeks to create and support a highly skilled network of trainers who will effectively adapt and multiply the acquired knowledge and skills domestically, in effect creating a sustainable capacity within tax administrations. Designed to assist participating jurisdictions in providing local training on EOI to tax auditors and investigators, the project is devised to build the capacity of national administrations to effectively use EOI instruments in their day-to-day work. The ultimate goal is that EOI is effectively used to tackle tax evasion and avoidance in order to mobilise domestic revenues and assist governments in their fight against other illicit financial flows.

The Global Forum Secretariat is offering three new Train the Trainer programmes in 2022 for African, Asian and Latin American countries. A maximum of 15 jurisdictions will be selected for each region, with two participants per jurisdiction, resulting in up to 90 officials taking part in the 2022 regional programmes. Based on average figures from the 2021 pilot, at least 1 500 tax officials are expected to be locally trained by the end of the year, as an immediate result of the new programmes.