During the week of May 28th, CIAT Directors Miguel Pecho and Socorro Velazquez participated in several meetings organized and hosted by the United Nations. On May 28th there was a meeting of the “Expert Group on Extractive Industries Taxation.” This one-day session organized by the Financing for Development Office (FfDO) of UN-DESA focused on issues that developing countries face when designing and administering an extractive industries fiscal regime. The view was toward ensuring that the UN tax cooperation work can further support developing countries in this important area of development.

This session was followed by a one-day ECOSOC “Special Meeting on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.” During the morning session, there were two panel discussions on the themes of: (1)“International tax cooperation: Capacity development”; and, (2) “Current issues in countering international tax avoidance and tax evasion.” The afternoon session featured the launch of the “United Nations Transfer Pricing Practical Manual for Developing Countries.” For additional information on this particular event and the “United Nations Transfer Pricing Practical Manual for Developing Countries,” please see: additional information and Manual.

On Thursday and Friday, May 30 and 31st, the Financing for Development Office (FfDO) of UN-DESA and the International Tax Compact (ITC) hosted a technical meeting on a joint project aimed at strengthening the capacity of Ministries of Finance and National Tax Authorities in developing countries to effectively identify and assess their needs in the area of tax treaty negotiation and administration. The ultimate goal of this project is to support the development of a comprehensive set of capacity building tools to be used in developing countries. As a basis, reference was made to the current UN Model Double Taxation Convention.

The fore-mentioned project was initially launched at a Rome meeting on 28-29 January 2013. A total of 25 national participants attended that meeting whose primary objectives were to: (1) identifying the needs of developing countries in the area of tax treaty negotiation and administration and taking stock of the available capacity development tools at the disposal of developing countries; and, (2) determine the actual skills gaps and challenges faced by developing countries in negotiating and administering their tax treaties.

The events were highly informative and provided significant comparative information on the UN position regarding transfer pricing and double taxation conventions of other international organizations.

Socorro Velázquez, CIAT Director of Institutional Planning and Development; and Miguel Eduardo Chest, Director of Tax Studies and Research (CIAT), with delegates from Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay.		Overview of the participants