The issue of tax certainty will be addressed by the G20 when Germany takes up its presidency in 2017, said Martin Kreienbaum, the German Federal Ministry of Finance’s Director General of International Taxation, at a Washington DC conference sponsored by the OECD, USCIB, and BIAC held June 6–7.
The next G20 presidency will continue the G20’s current international tax work, promoting the implementation of OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting plan output, greater tax transparency, and exchange of information, as well as addressing the issue of tax and development, Kreienbaum said. “The new thing will be tax certainty,” he said.
Kreienbaum said there is a need to raise awareness about the adverse impact on foreign investment when countries lack clear tax rules or effective tax dispute resolution. “If we get a profound analysis of this situation then we will raise awareness,” he said.
Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the Center for Tax Policy & Administration at the OECD, expressed support for the initiative. Saint-Amans noted that efforts to promote tax certainty in past years have had only limited success.
Now that tax avoidance and evasion are being addressed, it is politically feasible to raise these concerns, Saint-Amans said.
Saint-Amans said that there would be greater tax certainty if tax administrations were better equipped to handle tax disputes, so training is essential. He said there is also a need for improved mutual agreement procedures and arbitration. Also, certainty would also be enhanced if countries could agree to clear tax standards, he said.
“There is a lot of work ahead of us,” Saint-Amans said.
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