On February 20 and 21, 2018, officials of the CIAT Executive Secretariat met in La Paz with authorities of the National Tax Service (SIN) of Bolivia, with the purpose of knowing the results and indicators of the two projects financed by the Secretariat of State for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO); one focused on the effective implementation of provisions for the control of abusive manipulation of transfer prices, and another on the improvement of compliance levels of economic sectors relevant to the Bolivian economy.

Officials of the CIAT Executive Secretariat with Mr. Mario Cazon, President of SIN.

The aforementioned efforts have allowed the strengthening of the process for the selection of taxpayers to be audited and the creation of an area dedicated to the management of tax risks. Likewise, a system has been designed that allows the identification of risks with a high probability of default in the most relevant sectors of the country’s economy, which has led to the selection of cases that are currently under analysis. Similarly, in the field of transfer pricing, risks have been identified that gave rise to audits in relevant sectors of the economy. On the occasion of the visit, Mr. Mario Cazón, President of the SIN, expressed his commitment to continue strengthening the capabilities of the SIN in these areas and revealed his decision to modernize the Institution using technology and training personnel on a constant basis.

On February 26 and 27 with the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII) of El Salvador, and on March 1 and 2 with the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) of Guatemala.

Officials of the CIAT Executive Secretariat with Mr. Sergio Gómez, General Director of DGII; Mr. Ramón Pérez Gómez, Sub-director of Taxes, and Mr. Luis Fernando Díaz, Management Advisor.

The General Director of the DGII of El Salvador, Mr. Sergio Gómez, has expressed the country’s interest in continuing to promote transparency and the exchange of information for tax purposes. To date, the DGII has made use of this instrument in the framework of audits, which have allowed obtaining necessary information to continue with them. Likewise, the country has passed the peer reviews in phase I and II of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information. On the other hand, the DGII is working on the strengthening of the massive controls with the support of the SECO-CIAT Program and the SUNAT of Peru, having identified sources of information, which after being processed together with the information available in the bases of the Institution, has allowed to detect inconsistencies.

For its part, Guatemala has had an unprecedented development in the area of transfer pricing control, having managed to identify risks and initiate audit cases. In one of the cases, a significant adjustment was generated that has generated effective collection. With regard to the strengthening of electronic invoicing, great progress has been made in the design and development of processes, estimating to advance with its implementation in the coming months. Likewise, in the framework of the electronic invoice project, work has been done on the Taxpayers Registry, mainly in the design and filtering. The authorities of the SAT and its Directorate have expressed their maximum commitment to promote these projects.

From right to left: Mr. Leonel Villamar, Intendent of Control; Mr. Abel Cruz, Acting Head of the SAT; Mr. Gonzalo Arias, CIAT Director of International Cooperation and Taxation; Mrs. Silvia Liliana Castillo Martínez, Director of SAT; Mrs. Adriana Estevez Claveria, Director of SAT and the consultants Orlando Plá, Enrique Bolado and Carlos Pérez Gómez.

On March 1, a workshop on international taxation was held at the SAT of Guatemala, in which Mr. Gonzalo Arias, Director of International Cooperation and Taxation of CIAT, and the consultants Carlos Pérez Gómez, Central Administrator of Transfer Pricing Control of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) of Mexico, Enrique Bolado, General Director of International Treaties for the Tax Legislation Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, and Orlando Plá, former Partner of the tax area of Baker Mc Kenzie of Mexico, exposed the importance of the topic for Guatemala, its current challenges and international trends.

Once again, we thank SECO for the valuable support it offers to our member countries and we highlight the commitment shown by the beneficiary countries of the CIAT-SECO Cooperation Program to fully capitalize on this support.

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