On 15 November 2024, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) advised that its Commissioner had been appointed Vice Chairperson of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration. The announcement was made during the 17th FTA Plenary held in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 15 November 2024. The SARS Commissioner joins the Commissioner of the Canadian Revenue Agency and Chairperson of the FTA, the Director General of the Norwegian Tax Administration and fellow Vice Chair of the FTA. A diverse Bureau[1] joins the Chair and Vice Chairpersons in setting the direction of the FTA work for the coming two years. The elevation of the SARS Commissioner puts South Africa in a strategic role within the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) to influence the Bureau to serve the interests of developing countries.
On his appointment, the SARS Commissioner emphasised the importance of South Africa’s participation in the international tax dialogue: “SARS has been steadfast in the achievement of its strategic intent to develop and administer a tax and customs system premised on voluntary compliance, and where appropriate, enforce responsibility and decisively. Nine strategic objectives support SARS’ strategic intent. Strategic Objective 8 is to “Work with and through stakeholders to improve the tax ecosystem.”
The SARS Commissioner further elaborated: “Our participation in international forums underscores the importance of effective and beneficial partnerships, including with the FTA. Tax risks are not confined within national borders. A tax risk anywhere in the world is a tax risk everywhere. No country is a fiscal Island. SARS can only be efficient and effective if we maintain solid international networks and partnerships, enabling cross-border tax cooperation and improving voluntary tax compliance. This contributes to our vision of building a smart, modern tax administration that can be trusted and admired. Our participation in the FTA, the pre-eminent forum on tax administration, is essential to making our vision a reality.”
The FTA was established in 2002 and brings together tax commissioners and tax administration officials from over 50 countries. The FTA is unique in that it is the only Head of Tax Administration-level Forum that harnesses the collective expertise and experience of its members to share knowledge, undertake research of common interest and develop new ideas and approaches to enhance tax administration around the world through thought leadership, knowledge-sharing of best practices and the development of new practical tools.
The Athens Plenary convened under the theme “The transformation of tax administration”. “The transformation of tax administration is becoming ever more crucial in the pursuit of enhanced domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, effective DRM through taxation is essential for financing public investments in infrastructure, education, and healthcare, which are fundamental to achieving the SDGs. Taxation serves as a sustainable and predictable source of public finance, particularly in developing countries”, said the SARS Commissioner in his opening presentation to the Plenary.
Delegates to the Athens Plenary engaged in robust discussions on key burning tax administration issues, including, amongst others, transformation of tax administrations, leadership challenges and opportunities, digital transformation to help realise more seamless and closer to real-time taxation processes, tax certainty, the implementation of the Global Minimum Tax and tax administration capacity building. The Plenary also saw the launch of the FTA’s Gender Balance Maturity Model.
Link: FTA Plenary 2024 – Statement of Outcomes
[1] FTA Bureau 2024: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America.