/y2010n8

ISSN 1684-9833 • Year 1 / N°8/ May 28, 2010

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The Executive Secretariat Informs SRI Director of Ecuador visits CIAT

The Executive Secretariat Informs

On May 26 and 27, Economist Carlos M. Carrasco Vicuña, General Director of the Internal Revenue Service of Ecuador, came to the CIAT Executive Secretariat on a working visit. He was accompanied by Mr. Juan Miguel Aviles, National Head of the Planning Department.

The top level officials of the SRI met with the Executive Secretary, Mr. Márcio F. Verdi and directors of the Center to discuss the technical and logistic aspects of the organization of the CIAT General Assembly that will be held in Quito, Ecuador, in 2011. Consideration was also given to various issues regarding several technical assistance activities being currently formulated between the Executive Secretariat and the SRI of Ecuador.

SRI Director of Ecuador visits CIAT Technical Assistance Mission to the Barbados Tax Administration The Tax Administrations Inform Bolivian delegation visited DIAN in Colombia SII of Chile considers increased collection and the use of electronic documents a priority issue Costa Rican government submits to Legislative Assembly legal reform on tax transparency WCO, IDB and SAT of Guatemala hold Congress KRA study visit to Brazil Netherlands: Customs’ “OK-app” Training Publications ¡Were you aware that!... ¡¿Really?!

From left to right: Mr. Francisco Beiner, CIAT Manager of Development and Institutional Events, Mr. Juan Miguel Aviles, National Head of the Planning Department of the SRI, Economist Carlos M. Carrasco V., General Director of the SRI and Mr. Márcio F. Verdi, CIAT Executive Secretary.

Technical Assistance Administration

Mission

to

the

Barbados

Tax

The CIAT Technical Assistance Manager; Raúl Zambrano, visited the Barbados Inland Revenue Department.

The main purpose of this journey was to assist the Tax Administration with the processing of tax payments through their new information system.

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The Tax Administrations Inform Bolivian delegation visited DIAN in Colombia CIAT is a public international organization which groups the tax administrations of 38 countries, (29 Amarican countries, 6 European countries, 2 African countries and one Asian country), for the purpose of providing an integral service for the modernization of those administrations, by promoting their evolution, social acceptance and consolidation through the exchange of knowledge, experiences and the rendering of specialized technical assistance.

Executive Council Executive Secretariat The e-CIAT Newsletter is published and distributed electronically biweekly.

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Contact us: CIAT Executive Secretariat / e-CIAT Newsletter P.O. Box 0834-02129 Panama, Republic of Panama.

Phone (507) 265-2766 / 265-5994 Fax: (507) 264-4926 E mail:ciat@ciat.org Web Site: http://www.ciat.org

A delegation from the National Tax Service of Bolivia (SIN) visited the National Directorate of Taxes and Customs of A delegation from the National Tax Service of Bolivia (SIN) visited the National Directorate of Taxes and Customs of Colombia (DIAN) on April 26-30, in order to familiarize themselves with the MUISCA management model implemented by the latter organization.

The Single Automated Information, Service and Control Model (MUISCA) is based on the theory of business process management (BPM). It was developed with the collaboration of CIAT and is part of the compilation of best practices adopted by the Tax Administrations, within the new project for the modernization of the Bolivian Tax Administration underway since 2007.

In addition to the central offices of the administration, the Bolivian delegation also visited the Sectional Directorate of Taxes of Bogota and the National Document Administration Center, and was able to observe the results achieved by the DIAN through the implementation of its new management model, as well as the especial characteristics of the Colombian Tax Administration thanks to the explanations given by its officials who displayed their qualifications as excellent hosts.

Sonia Alarcón de Tapia Correspondent

SII of Chile considers increased collection and the use of electronic documents a priority issue Promote the use of Electronic Tax Documents, along with the implementation of new examination plans, will contribute to restrain the evasion rate, estimated at 18% of VAT in 2009.

The development of intensive examination policies, massive as well as selective, focused on reducing the trend toward increased tax evasion in recent times, was announced by the Director of the Internal Revenue Service (SII), Julio Pereira, during the event known as 2009 Public Account and 2010 Challenges of the tax administration.

Likewise, the SII Director said that measures will be adopted for rewarding taxpayers who make use of Electronic Tax Documentation (DTE). “Our fundamental task is to improve tax collection at a time when the country is in need of significant tax resources for its reconstruction. In that sense, we will make an effort for the massive use of electronic media in the issuance of invoices, receipts, slips, electronic credit and debit notes, This will be a very effective tool in fighting evasion and therefore, an important objective to be achieved.”.

Source: Internal Revenue Service - Web site

Costa Rican government submits to Legislative Assembly legal reform on tax transparency The bill amends the criteria for accessing financial information.

The Government of the Republic sent, for the knowledge of the members of Parliament, the reform proposed by the Ministry of Finance in order to comply with international standards on tax transparency, improving access to the taxpayers’

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financial information and undertaking the necessary reforms for providing the adequate legal basis to the agreements on tax information exchange with other countries.

The reforms to the bill included an amendment to article 105 of the Code on Norms and Tax Procedures (CNPT), aimed at improving access to information held by public sector entities. Article 106 of the same Code was amended and article 106 bis was added. It includes the new regulations regarding access to financial information.

Source: General Directorate of Taxation - Web site

WCO, IDB and SAT of Guatemala hold Congress A congress was held on April 14 to 16 in the city of Guatemala under the title of: “Authorized Economic Operator: Customs and Private Sector promoting opportunities for achieving competitive advantages in international trade”. It was organized by the World Customs Organization – WCO with the collaboration of the Superintendency of Tax Administration and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The congress especially intended for national and international customs and private sector representatives, which totaled 441 participants from 30 countries around the world, considered the different issues dealing with the Authorized Economic Operator by means of presentations, workshops and discussion panels.

Manfredo Chocano Alvarado Correspondent

KRA study

visit to Brazil

Kenya Revenue Authority under took a study visit to Brazil on 17th-24th April 2010. The trip was organised with the assistance of the Brazilian Tax Authority (Secretaria Da Receita Do Brasil) and CIAT (Inter-American Centre for Tax Administrations).

The KRA team was led by Mr. M.G Waweru, Commissioner General. The other members of the delegation were; Mr. John K. Njiraini (Commissioner, Domestic Taxes –Large Taxpayers), Mr. Ezekiel Saina (Head, ICT) and Mr. Caxton M. Ngeywo (Excise Expert).

The team visited the Sea Port at Sao Paulo, and Brasilia where they were taken through, operations of Sepro and Receita.

The study visit was undertaken by KRA for the purpose of studying the technological solutions employed by the Brazilian authorities for tax accounting and administration. Specifically, the study visit aimed at the following:

• Study the systems and technological solutions deployed for the accounting and administration of excise duty with emphasis on tobacco products, and wines and spirits • Study the use of technology in tracking and tracing of goods under the control of the tax authority including domestic and international trade.

• Study the ICT management systems including the overall ICT administration and coordination Structure The study, which was undertaken through topical presentations and field visits, covered; Port Operations at Sao Paulo, the Brazilian Tax System, Paper and digital stamps used in excise tax accounting, a visit to a beverage production plant and operations of SERPRO- the Federal ICT development company, In a meeting with Secretary for the Federal Revenue of Brazil, Commissioner General KRA reiterated that the findings and lessons from the study visit will be used to enhance implementation of tax reforms being undertaken by KRA.

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Further KRA will use the findings to improve the management of ICT Resources. He also expressed appreciation to RFB and CIAT for the support in facilitating the study visit.

John Karimi Njiraini Correspondent

Netherlands: Customs’ “OK-app” Customs have developed a mobile application for various smartphones: the “OK-app”.

As a result, travellers at home and abroad will always know what they are permitted or not permitted to import. Customs are the first central government organisation to make an app available.

The OK-app has a number of special functions, such as the “Is this OK?” function. This is an informative section in which the traveller finds all provisions applying to, for example, counterfeit goods, endangered species, fake weapons and cash.

Source: The Duch Tax and Customs Administration -Web site

Training Call to the 13th International Tax Seminar “The Role of Fiscal Policies facing the World Economic Crisis” June 16 th – 18th, 2010, Havana, Cuba.

CIAT makes New Call for Tutors of its Virtual Courses With a view to expanding the team of tutors for virtual courses, CIAT is making a new call for professionals with training and expertise in the tax field to participate in the selection process of new tutors. The deadline for submitting applications is 27th August 2010.

Publications New in the Web Thematic Bibliographic

In its No. 3 edition of May 2010, this thematic series, discusses Taxpayer Assistance.

Internal Audit Manual The CIAT Internal Audit Manual is the result of the efforts by the Working Group coordinated by the Executive Secretary and the Spanish State Agency of Tax Administration, which involved experts from: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Spain and United States of America.

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Our documents Unified Tax Code. Bolivia, 2010 Autor: Guillermo Málaga.

The purpose of this work is to make known that not only tax law is subjected to a single law, but there is a wide range of relationships with other regulations, while at the same time making known that many of the articles of Law 2492 in Bolivia are regulated by different Normative Resolutions of the Directory which are issued by the tax administration in compliance with its regulatory power.

¡Were you aware that!..

Research Scholarship AEAT/IEF/CIAT Following the evaluation of the entries submitted, the jury decided to award the 4th edition of the Research Scholarship sponsored by AEAT and IEF of Spain and CIAT to Mr. Marlon Manya Orellana, Planning Expert from the Internal Revenue Service of Ecuador. Mr. Orellana submitted a complete and ambitious research paper dealing with “Gathering and processing third party information. Sources and strategic alliances of the tax administration with public and private entities.” .

¡¿Really?!

The first Postage Stamp According to legend, in 1835, Rowland Hill was traveling in Scotland, while warming in the chimney of an inn, he saw the postman delivered a letter to the landlady. She took the letter in his hands, examined it carefully and returned to the postman saying: As we are very poor can not pay the amount of the letter, so please send her back to the sender. Hearing this, Hill had an impulse of generosity and gave the postman the amount of the letter. The postman took the crown half that cost, and delivered the letter to the landlady.

The hostess picked up the letter and put it on a table without worrying at all of its contents. Then he turned to the generous host and said gently, Lord, truly appreciate the details. I’m poor, but not enough to be unable to pay the postman. If I did, was because there is nothing in writing, only the address. My family lives very far and know that we’re fine, we wrote letters, but making sure that each line of the address is written by a different hand. If the letter of all, it means that everyone is well. We examined the direction and back to the postman saying we can not afford it and so we hear each other, without costing us a penny (at the time the shipment was paid by the recipient, according to the distance traveled and not by weight .)

Hill suggested the postage prior correspondence in the booklet entitled ‘Post Office Reform’, obtaining the appointment of a committee of the House of Commons for the study of rates and postal systems. It issued an order authorizing the Treasury to set postal rates and regulate the way of perceiving its previous amount.

The stamped envelopes and stamps adhesives used to deliver the Government.

The stamps were based on a picture of Hill, he drew the profile of Queen Victoria, the word Postage at the top and bottom One Penny. Omitted the name of the country to understand that the effigy of the queen was enough to identify it. Thus was born the first postage stamp in the world: The famous Penny Black of Queen Victoria.

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The new postal system gave amazing results, while tripling the number of cards in a week. Only the first day of retail sold 60,000 copies of these stamps. The new system quickly found acceptance in other countries and a few years was widely available internationally.

The Universal Postal Union states that the stamps in circulation internationally must contain the name of the issuing country in the Latin alphabet. This obligation is exempt from the UK by being the first country issuing stamps.

Source: Wikipedia