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ISSN 1684-9833 • Year 3 / No.9 /May 18, 2012

The Executive Secretariat Informs The CIAT Executive Secretariat inaugurates the “Initiatives Portfolio” section within its website

The Executive Secretariat Informs The CIAT Executive Secretariat inaugurates the “Initiatives Portfolio” section within its website OECD Task force on tax and development The CIAT-IRS Ecuador International Seminar on “Taxation as a solidarity contribution” concluded successfully The Tax Administrations Inform Argentina – Tax collection in April Bolivia - Tax Administration collects to April BOL 13,202 millions, 36% more than in 2011 Brazil’s federal collection grows and reaches R$ 82.3 billion Chile - SII of Chile grants 1,143,649 refunds to taxpayers having submitted returns before April 19 El Salvador - Policy of fiscal transparency France - New Minister of Economy and Minister of the Budget of France Guatemala - Signs agreements with Nordic Countries Honduras – DEI reaches 95% of collection in April Peru-The tax base has grown by 9.2 percent Events IBFD News Training Post of the Month New in the Web Other Documents

In recent years, CIAT has been displaying considerable efforts for strengthening its relationships with various organizations that deal with tax policy and administration issues. The main purpose has been to coordinate agendas, promote synergies to strengthen the organization’s action capacity for the benefit of its member countries and thereby comply with the recommendations of several international forums, which almost by consensus agree on the need to join efforts to avoid the negative consequences that may result from isolated actions of international organizations.

Such efforts have exponentially increased CIAT’s action capacity in terms of presence in our member countries and number of products developed and offered.

In this sense, the “initiatives portfolio” is an additional effort of CIAT for not only disseminating general aspects of the activities it is capable of carrying out, but also selected activities requiring strategic partners in order to bring about more efficient and effective results.

Specifically, the “Initiatives Portfolio” endeavors to provide the necessary information that may encourage the international community to join efforts with the CIAT Executive Secretariat in evaluating new projects or in selecting from among those that have already been scheduled.

Access the Initiatives Portfolio and we will evaluate all your proposals and comments on the suggested activities.

OECD Task force on tax and development The OECD Task Force on Tax and Development held its Third Plenary meeting in Cape Town, South Africa on 9-10 May. The meeting was hosted by the South African Revenue Service and co-chaired by its Commissioner, Mr. Oupa G. Magashula and Jos van Leeuwen, the Netherlands representative.

Participants were OECD and non OECD member-country representatives, as well as officials from international and regional organizations, civil society and the business sector. CIAT was represented by Socorro Velazquez, Director of Planning and Institutional Development.

Participants reported on several initiatives and the progress made since the previous meeting on 11-12 April 2011 and explored further ways to help developing countries better mobilize their domestic resources.

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CIAT is a public international organization which groups the tax administrations of 40 countries, (31 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.

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Several topics of great interest were addressed. Among those are: 1) The development and testing of the ‘Tax Inspectors Without Borders’ initiative. Within the framework of the Task Force, the OECD will develop this initiative to deploy the right experts at the right time in the right places, to help, for example, with complex international tax audits filling an important gap in the current provision of assistance.

2) The Task Force agreed that tax policy design is also key to better ensure the mobilization of domestic resources. In particular, addressing tax incentives is a key challenge in both OECD and non-OECD countries alike and the Task Force welcomed the OECD’s proposed new service to undertake tax and investment reviews.

3) The Task Force welcomed increased international cooperation in the area of Transfer Pricing including the support delivered to Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Vietnam by the joint OECD, EC, and World Bank program. The need for developing countries to better influence the setting of international tax standards, was fully acknowledged. As a mechanism to enable developing countries to feedback their experience on the applicability of OECD standards and guidelines, the Task Force noted the recently established Global Forum on Transfer Pricing and welcomed the development of a practical transfer pricing needs assessment tool to support developing countries.

The CIAT-IRS Ecuador International Seminar on “Taxation as a solidarity contribution” concluded successfully The Internal Revenue Service of Ecuador together with the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations successfully carried out an International Seminar on “Taxation as a solidarity contribution” from 2-3, May 2012, in Quito, Ecuador.

The seminar was attended by 125 participants from international delegations such as Paraguay, Chile, Spain; and national delegations such as ministries, academic members of the country, besides officials of the Internal Revenue Service.

The event was opened with the words of the CIAT International Cooperation Coordinator, the Director of the Fiscal Studies Center of Ecuador, and the Director of the Internal Revenue Service of Ecuador, Econ. Carlos Marx Carrasco who highlighted the key challenges of the tax administrations to transform the vision of taxation as a “tax burden” into an efficient tool for social equity, so that it becomes a key element of a new way to manage taxes according to the institutional philosophy.

The seminar counted on the distinguished participation of international panelists, from the University of Huelva, Dr. Antonio Hidalgo Capitan, from the Carlos III University of Madrid, Dr. Santiago Diaz de Sarralde; and Dr. Lucy Winchester from the Economic Commission for Latin America. It is also worth mentioning the outstanding presentation of the National Secretary for Planning of Ecuador, Dr. Fander Falconi, as well as those of Dr. Manolo Rhodes Beltran, National Director of the Legal Department of the IRS, and Mr. Lenin Mario Solis and Econ. Nicolas Oliva Perez from the Fiscal Studies Center of Ecuador.

This seminar was characterized for being a high-level academic event dealing with relevant issues such as visions for the development, direct, progressive,

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redistributive and efficient taxation; ideology of the legal discourse; how to measure the efficiency of investment and public expenditure with the budget by results?; alternatives for the construction of fiscal citizenship and environmental taxation.

The Tax Administrations Inform Argentina – Tax collection in April The tax collection in the month of April 2012 reached a total of 49,436 millions pesos, which represents and increase of 24.4% in relation to the same month of last year.

Carlos Alberto Sánchez Correspondent Bolivia - Tax Administration collects to April BOL 13,202 millions, 36% more than in 2011 In the first four months of 2012, the National Tax Service (INS) collected 13,202 million of Bolivians, an amount that represents 36% more than in previous management period and, in absolute terms, a 3,465.3 million increase.

Juana Patricia Jiménez Soto Correspondent Brazil’s federal collection grows and reaches R$ 82.3 billion The collection performance of the federal revenues continued to rise in March. The total collected in the month reached U.S. $ 82.3 billion, representing a real increase of 10.26% based on the IPCA, and a cumulative of 7.32%.

During January, February and March, the total amount collected was 256.8 billion, which represented a nominal increase of 13.55% and a cumulative of 7.32%, compared to R $ 240.1 billion in the first three months of 2011.

Annual Prediction - Despite the results, the Assistant Secretary of the Federal Revenue, Zayda Manatta, preferred to stay within the government’s official prediction of a yearly growth of 4 and 5%, with emphasis on the average rate of 4.5%.

This prediction, as every year, may be reviewed by the federal Revenue in May, “after a new evaluation of the macroeconomic factors, changes in legislation and exemptions promoted by the government,” said Zayda.

Administered Revenues - Revenues administered by the Federal Revenue Secretariat of Brazil-RFB also maintained an increasing trend, reaching R$ 80.4 billion, representing a real growth of 10.18% based on the IPCA, compared to March 2011 and a cumulative of 6.68%. The total collected in the first three months of the year reached R$ 247.6 billion, representing a nominal increase of 12.88%.

Financial Area -. The financial area adjustment statement increased by 65.50%, against 25.09 to the others, and the monthly estimates is 55.30%, while the others showed a negative rate of 10.42%.

Flávio Antonio Araujo Correspondent Nilton Tadeu Nogueira Dirin/Corin/RFB

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Chile - SII of Chile grants 1,143,649 refunds to taxpayers having submitted returns before April 19 The Internal Revenue Service (SII) reports that it authorized 92.7% of the taxpayers’ requests for tax refunds made by those who submitted their income tax return between April 1 and April 19.

This represents 1,143,649 refunds for an amount of $ 424,052 million, equivalent to 75.7% of the total requested amount, which is 6.2% more than last year, over the refund authorizations distribution in the last three years.

Bernardita Moraga Correspondent El Salvador - Policy of fiscal transparency The right to access public governmental information and transparency are issues of the national political agenda, which has generated interest in society and institutions, to strengthen democratic practices and values. Aware of this need, the Vice Finance Minister Mr. Roberto de Jesus Solorzano opened the Experts Forum on Strategic Lines of Fiscal Transparency Policy Analysis, in the framework of Transparency and anticorruption National Policy.

Ramón Pérez Gómez Correspondent France - New Minister of Economy and Minister of the Budget of France Based on the proposal by the Prime Minister, the President of the Republic, Mr. François Hollande has appointed : Mr. Pierre Moscovici, Minister of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade and Mr. Jérôme Cahuzac Minister of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade in charge of the Budget.

Guatemala - Signs agreements with Nordic Countries

The picture shows the President of the Republic, Mr. François Hollande, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and the new cabinet.

Guatemala has signed on May 15, in Paris, France, seven Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) with the Nordic countries. (Kingdom of Norway, Kingdom of Sweden, Republic of Finland, Republic of Iceland, Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of Greenland and the Faroe Islands).

Manfredo Chocano Alvarado Correspondent Honduras – DEI reaches 95% of collection in April Authorities in the Income Executive Directorate (DEI) confirm that the tax collection in April reached 94% of the planned goal.

The Income Tax collection in April was 3,520 millions of lempiras, 257 millions more than the previous year. The compliance rate is 89% and the difference is 11%, as a result of the Decree 42/2011 declared unconstitutional and the Decree 17/2012 which reformed the payments abroad with a 10% rate...read more Grace de La Paz Saravia Correspondent

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Peru-The tax base has grown by 9.2 percent Mrs. Tania Quispe, head of the National Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT), said this morning that her institution is also developing an intense work to improve tax collection by expanding the tax base and supervising compliance with tax obligations for the National Ttreasury.

She detailed that the number of taxpayers registered in the RUC in March 2012 grew 9.2 percent over the same month last year, thanks to the work of identification of independent individuals and enterprises engaged in economic activities through third parties information and execution of an integration campaign to the formal economy.

Clara Urteaga Correspondent

Events Tax secrecy and tax transparency – the relevance of confidentiality in tax law Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business)and Orebro University, Sweden Rust, Burgenland July 5 – 7, 2012 The main purpose of this research project is to assess not only the ways in which different countries regard the treatment of tax information and tax secrecy, but also its impacts. The conference will deal, among other topics, with the collection of data, the sharing of information domestically as well as internationally and the access to taxpayers’ data not only by the public but also by individuals.

IBFD News International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) Cooperation-CIAT - IBFD This section includes a selection of the IBFD news about aspects of tax policies and tax administration. This information is available on the CIAT website and in Fridays Tax News alert.

Training Enrolment open for the Specialized Program on Tax Law and Tax Administration The Externado University of Colombia and CIAT within their cooperation agreement are inviting all Tax Administrations officials of the CIAT member countries, as well as the general public, to participate in the Specialized Program on Tax Law and Tax Administration. In order to participate, a registration form must be filled out and send to capacitacion@ciat. org indicating the name of the specialized program and the rest of the requirements. Registration forms will be received until May 17, 2012....Tax Law and Tax Administration

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CIAT Courses registration call Given the importance of offering a permanent training that keeps the tax professionals up to date with the issues of tax administration, customs and transfer pricing, we announced that we have opened the registration for the following courses: • Course on Tax Ethics and Tax Citizenship 2nd edition.

• Course on Transfer Pricing 5th edition.

To participate, please fill the inscription form and send it to capacitación@ciat.org indicating the name of the course with the other requirements.

Post of the Month May 14, 2012 Fiscal importance of Tax Administrations of Latin America Written by: Miguel Pecho May 05 2012 Y como en Lisboa, en Santiago (ii) Written by: Raúl Zambrano

New in the Web Improving the performance of the tax administration: evasion control and taxpayer assistance 46th CIAT General Assembly Santiago, Chile, April 23 – 26, 2012 This document comprises the lectures presented during the 46th CIAT General Assembly carried out in Santiago de Chile, Chile from the 23th to the 26th of April, 2012. The central topic is developed around 3 subtopics: 1. The use of Information and Communication Technologies to improve Performance and facilitate Compliance. 2. Satisfaction and Quality of Service provided by the tax administration to the taxpayer . 3. Measurement of VAT and Income Tax evasion by individual and corporate taxpayers .

Ours Document Centro American fiscal view N°41 Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales March 2012 In this fourth edition of the Centro American Fiscal View: research on the economic and fiscal current circumstances, an analysis of the world growth estimates for 2012 is presented, where the degradation of the economic activity during the last months can be observed.

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EI Pensamiento y Práctica de la Planificación en América Latina “Idea and practice of planification in Latin America” Jorge Leiva Lavalle CEPAL Serie Gestión PúblicaLC/L.3465 March 2012 Nº 75 / 59 pp.

This work quickly covers the idea and practice of planification in various Latin American countries, pointing the main ideas that have guided the development policies in the last sixty years, beginning with the deployment of planification in the three decades following the second world war, its retreat in the last two decades of the twentieth century and the revaluation of its benefits in recent years.