On 17-18 November 2015, a new regional meeting as well as a governmental workshop on BEPS was held for the Latin America and the Caribbean region to discuss the outcomes of the BEPS Project and the ways that the countries can explore to be involved on an equal footing in the implementation and the monitoring phase of the measures adopted. The meeting was hosted in San José, Costa Rica, by the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica in cooperation with the OECD, the Inter-American Center for Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

The Vice-Minister of Taxes of Costa Rica, Fernando Rodriguez Garro; Alberto Barreix, Principal Technical Leader at the IADB; Gonzalo Arias Esteban, International Co-operation and Taxation Director at the CIAT, welcomed the participants and delivered opening remarks. Carlos Vargas Duran, Director General of Taxes of Costa Rica and Ubaldo Gonzalez, Senior Advisor at the OECD, co-chaired the meeting.

Forty-nine participants that included tax officials from 16 different countries, representatives from the Business Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC), Latindadd, the BEPS Monitoring Group and business community from the region, attended the meeting and provided feedback on the delivery on the BEPS Package, as well as views on how to develop a more inclusive framework to include all interested countries on an equal footing in the monitoring and implementation phase.

Discussions focused on the options for an inclusive framework to implement BEPS measures and beyond, on the toolkits being elaborated to meet developing countries’ specific needs as well as existing and possible new capacity building initiative for the Latin American and Caribbean countries including through an increased cooperation between the OECD and the CIAT in particular with training sessions.

For more information, see the co-chair summary.

Group photo

From left to right: Mr. Martin Portillo,COSEFIN Representative, Gonzalo Arias of CIAT; Mrs. Monica Calijuri of CAPTAC-DR; Mr. Alberto Barreis of IDB; Mr. Antonio Anson of IMF; Mr. Juan Francisco Redondo of AEAT and Mr. Ubaldo Gonzalez of OECD.

Participants at the meeting.