From March 7 to 10, 2017, the International Seminar on Exchange of information was held for the first time in Chile. The activity was organized by the SII, in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) and with the support of GIZ of Germany.

The conference took place at the central office of the General Comptroller of the Republic, and attended by 68 government institutions representatives, mainly from tax administrations in Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Chile. Among them, 26 SII officials.

The activity is part of the OECD’s efforts to tackle tax evasion and tax avoidance, increasing cooperation between tax authorities at the international level in the exercise of multi and bilateral actions. In addition, these meetings help countries to develop their knowledge for implementing international standards for the homogeneous exchange of information.

The exchange of tax information constitutes an essential control mechanism for the different states, being an elementary instrument to avoid both the loss of revenue derived from the lack of knowledge on the income obtained by national taxpayers in other States, as for these latter, to enable them to correctly determine the residents’ tax obligations.

Opening the session, SII Director Fernando Barraza, along with welcoming the participants, underlined that “with regard to the role of the Tax Administrations, it is a priority to seek joint actions to improve tax transparency, enhancing cooperation and exchange of information to identify fraud risks. For this reason, it is essential to strengthen and jointly develop preventive strategies at international level. Holding this seminar will clearly be a contribution to this end, he emphasized.

The seminar was attended by María José Garde, President of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes; Alberto Barreix, Principal Technical Leader at the Inter-American Development Bank; Gonzalo Arias, Director of International Cooperation and Taxation of the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations; And Ana Cebreiro, from the World Bank, among other experts.

In the context of the seminar, and in presence of the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Valdés, the meeting “Perspectives on the exchange of information for tax purposes” was held, with as objective to divulgate the progress on transparency and information exchange at both local and international levels to relevant actors of the Chilean society.

The activity took place on March 6, at the Cineteca Cultural Center of the Palace of La Moneda and was attended by representatives of the public and private sectors.

In his words to the audience, Minister Valdés highlighted the importance of such events and the relevance of the exchange of information, because “they contribute to protect the national treasury and constitute a step that is key for rooting the market system in a more credible manner for the common citizen, “he emphasized.

For his part, the Director of the SII thanked the participants for their presence and emphasized the progress and the commitments made by our country in the field of information exchange, and the contribution they made to reducing tax evasion and tax avoidance.

The topics covered in the meeting were: “Information exchange standards”, by María José Garde, President of the Global Forum on Transparency and the Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes; “The importance of the exchange of information”, by Gonzalo Arias, Director of Cooperation and International Taxation of the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations; And “The new requirement on the final beneficiary”, presented by Leonardo Costa, Consultant of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The session concluded with the panel discussion “Public perspective and private perspective on the exchange of information”, in which participated María José Garde and the consultants of the Inter-American Development Bank Armando Lara and Fernando Velayos. The activity was moderated by Alberto Barreix, Principal Fiscal Leader at IDB. The panel discussed the supports that could be required by the private sectors’ tax administrations.

Left to right: Fernando Barraza (Director SII), María José Garde (Global Forum / OECD), Alberto Barreix (BID), Ana Cebreiro (World Bank) and Gonzalo Arias (CIAT).

Eng. Fernando Barraza, Director of Internal Tax Service (SII) of Chile.

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