Asia-Pac Tax Agencies Agree Cooperation

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

01 December 2014

At its recent meeting in Sydney, the 44th Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research agreed greater regional cooperation on tax issues.

It will now create a new task force to enable the region to discuss and keep up to date on international developments and issues including base erosion and profit shifting and tax transparency. Discussions during the Study Group focused on the latest developments in international taxation, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) new global standard for the automatic exchange of information, and discussions were held on how to deal with developments "collaboratively as a region and develop capability, in order to ensure each jurisdiction receives the correct share of taxation."

The members shared their "knowledge and experiences on the key tax administration issues of globalization and the erosion of the tax base; the operation of multinational entities; the seamless exchange of information and the use of bulk data; and opportunities for capability development across all fields of tax administration."

SGATAR this year brought together almost 200 delegates, including representatives from the Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations, International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, the OECD, and the World Bank Group. The 45th SGATAR conference in 2015 will be held in Singapore.

SGATAR members: Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

TAGS: compliance | tax | business | tax compliance | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) | Australia | China | Macau | Mongolia | Philippines | Singapore | Taiwan | Thailand | tax authority | multinationals | transfer pricing | Cambodia | Guinea | Hong Kong | Indonesia | Korea, South | Malaysia | New Zealand | Papua New Guinea | Japan | Vietnam | Tax