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INTER-AMERICAN CENTER OF TAX ADMINISTRATIONS -CIAT -

STATE AGENCY OF TAX ADMINISTRATION - AEAT -

INSTITUTE OF FISCAL STUDIES - IEF

XXIII CIAT/AEAT/IEF ESSAY CONTEST

Announcement: December 2010

RULES The Technical Cooperation Agreement signed in Madrid, on April 9, 2010, between the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the State Secretariat of Finance and the State Agency of Tax Administration of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Spain, provided in paragraph c) of its Fourth Clause, for the financing of the prizes established in favor of the Essay Contest on tax policy or tax administration issues.

In execution of the aforementioned Technical Cooperation Agreement, the XXIII CIAT/AEAT/IEF Essay Contest is announced according to the following rules and conditions: FIRST: PRIZES: The State Agency of Tax Administration (AEAT) will provide a first prize of five thousand dollars (US$5.000) and a second prize of two thousand five hundred dollars (US$2.500).

The prizes of the Contest will be reserved to be exclusively awarded to officials in active service of the tax administrations of the CIAT member countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, that are full members of CIAT, who have not been previously awarded the First Prize in the three years immediately prior to the holding of this Contest, starting from the date of Jury’s resolution.

Prizes will be subject to the corresponding tax system, as appropriate.

SECOND: THEME: the research works participating in the contest should not have been previously published and should deal with one of the following topics: Topic 1:

Studies of public opinion on the attitude of taxpayers and other users to

the systems and tax administrations: methodologies, experiences and trends.

Transparency in the international scene of the information with tax significance: the exchange of information, methodologies and systems, organizational aspects in the tax administrations.

Topic 2.

Decentralized treasuries: financing and transfers systems between the national and sub-national areas. Methodologies and experiences in the international arena.

Topic 3.

Attached is a guide describing the structure and contents of the papers.

THIRD: JURY: the evaluation of the merits of the papers presented and, accordingly, the selection of those to be awarded the prizes will correspond to a Jury formed as follows:

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President: The CIAT Executive Secretary.

Members:

A representative from the Institute of Fiscal Studies of Spain; a representative from the State Agency of Tax Administration of Spain; the Head of the Permanent Spanish Mission at CIAT; the CIAT Tax Studies Director who shall act as Secretary

Any of the aforementioned Members may delegate his representation to any of the other members of the Jury for duly justified reasons.

FOURTH: CONDITIONS: The contest is open to officials in active service of the tax administrations of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean members of CIAT, in accordance with the provisions of Article One. The papers may be prepared by one or several authors, but in this latter case, only the person appearing as head of the research group will be entitled to receive the prize.

FIFTH: PRESENTATION OF THE PAPER: the contestants should send their papers, on CD and hard copy, in duplicate, to the CIAT Executive Secretariat.

If the paper is sent by registered mail, the mailing address is as follows: Inter- American Center of Tax Administrations - CIAT Essay contest P.O. Box 0834 – 02129 Panama, Republic of Panama If the paper is submitted directly or sent via courier, it should be addressed to: Inter- American Center of Tax Administrations - CIAT Essay contest Ave. Ramón Arias Edificio CIAT Nuevo Reparto El Carmen Panama, Republic of Panama In case the paper were sent by courier, the participant must specify in the respective airway bill that the document being sent has no commercial value, since the contest organizers will assume no responsibility for customs procedures or the costs this may involve. If the CIAT Executive Secretariat would be required to pay taxes or customs procedures as a result of the remittance of the paper, the latter will not be accepted.

A summary should be included whose extension should not exceed 1600 words.

The papers should be identified with a PSEUDONYM or MOTTO.

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The outside of the envelope containing the work should indicate the title of the paper and the pseudonym or motto under which it is presented. This envelope should be accompanied by a closed envelope containing the following data on the author or authors of the work, indicating, if there are several of them, the head of the research team: full name, nationality, position held at the respective tax administration, mailing and electronic address, institutional as well as personal, telephone, fax, photocopy of passport or personal identity card. The envelope should also include a certificate issued by the Tax Director of the respective CIAT member country or the official authorized by him for such purpose, stating that the author or authors is/are in active service in the respective tax administration.

If any participant in the Essay Contest would fail to comply with his obligation of keeping his name confidential by providing a pseudonym or slogan he will be disqualified.

Among other instances, the author fails to comply with the obligation to keep his name confidential, when he may have placed it in the participating paper, or in any other attached document.

The author also incurs in noncompliance with the obligation to keep his name confidential if he communicates in writing with the CIAT Executive Secretariat officials and therein informs about his condition as participant in the Essay Contest. If he would need to communicate with the CIAT Executive Secretariat, he should use his pseudonym for such purpose.

The name(s) of the author or authors should only appear in the closed envelope referred to in this clause.

The papers that do not respond to the conditions provided in this clause shall not be taken into account when evaluating and awarding the prizes.

SIXTH: DEADLINE: The deadline for submitting entries will be May 1, 2011, submittal being understood as the physical receipt of the documents at the mailing or actual address of the CIAT Executive Secretariat on the date indicated. Entries received on dates other than the one indicated shall not be considered as submitted.

SEVENTH: PUBLICATION OF THE LIST OF ENTRIES RECEIVED: the CIAT Executive Secretariat will publish in its WEB page (www.ciat.org), the list of entries received within the deadline stipulated in the foregoing clause, with the corresponding pseudonym or slogan. The aforementioned publication will be made on May 2011 and it will not prevent subsequent verification to ensure compliance with all requisites.

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EIGHTH: JURY’S ACTION AND DECISION: The Jury will act in accordance with the procedure it may freely agree and its decision, even if it declares the first and/or second prize void, shall be firm and unappealable.

The Jury will make its decision prior to July 29, 2011 and such decision will be informed directly to the authors of the award-winning papers and published in the CIAT Newsletter, as well as in the CIAT portal. Nevertheless, the Jury may agree to change the aforementioned deadline for deciding the contest, if circumstances thus require it. The tax administrations of the CIAT member countries will be notified of any change.

The Jury will consider, in particular, the following aspects for awarding the prizes: -

The scientific, technical and methodological quality of the papers.

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The originality of the proposals or conclusions, together with their substantiality and feasibility in relation to the socioeconomic and cultural environment.

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Their possible usefulness for improving the tax administrations of the member countries of CIAT or the tax administration of the contestant’s country.

NINTH: COPYRIGHT OF THE PAPERS: The authors of the papers will yield to CIAT and to the IEF all rights thereon. CIAT and the IEF may authorize the winners the publication of the papers, based on previous request. CIAT and the IEF reserve the right to publish them jointly or separately.

For additional information write to:

Inter- American Center of Tax Administrations - CIAT P. O. Box 0834 – 02129 Panama, Republic of Panama Telephone: (507) 265 2766 Fax: (507) 264 4926 Electronic mail: ciat@ciat.org Internet Portal: www.ciat.org

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ANNEX GUIDE FOR THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS OF THE ESSAYS

GUÍDE FOR THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS OF THE ESSAYS

Language: The paper should be sent to the Secretariat in Spanish or Portuguese.

Extension of the paper: The papers should not exceed 60 pages (letter size, 21.59 cm x 27.94 cm) single space (approximately 19.000 words), without considering any type of annexes.

Summary of the paper: Each essay should begin with a summary of its contents, which should not exceed 1.600 words.

Structure of the paper: It is recommended that the following structure be followed:  Presentation of the topic to be discussed, clearly determining its scope and contents  Development of the topic with: description of experiences from the author’s country, when appropriate, comparisons with other countries and critical analysis of the topic.  Conclusions  Recommendations

Approach to be followed in the discussion of the topics The approach to be followed in the development of the papers refers to the topics determined for the contest. That is, a conceptual analysis of the topic selected by means of general and specific considerations, as well as considerations of a theoretical nature, and those taken from specific experiences on the subject, either from the author’s country or from other countries.

Description of the Topics:

The topics chosen for this version of the contest are:

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Item 1. Studies of public opinion on the attitude of taxpayers and other users to the systems and tax administrations: methodologies, experiences and trends.

Item 2: Transparency in the international scene of the information with tax significance: the exchange of information, methodologies and systems, organizational aspects in the tax administrations.

Item 3: Decentralized treasuries: financing and transfers systems between the national and sub-national areas. Methodologies and experiences in the international arena.

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