The Commissioner for South African Revenue Service (Sars) Edward Kieswetter was appointed as the Vice Chairperson of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) at the 17th FTA Plenary held in Athens, Greece, from November 13 to 15, 2024.
This is according to a statement from Sars.
Kieswetter joins Bob Hamilton, the Commissioner of the Canadian Revenue Agency and Chairperson of the FTA, as well as Nina Schanke Funnemark, the Director General of the Norwegian Tax Administration and fellow Vice Chairperson of the FTA.
On his appointment, Kieswetter highlighted the importance of the participation of South Africa in the international tax dialogue.
“Sars has been steadfast in the achievement of its strategic intent to develop and administer a tax and customs system premised on voluntary compliance, and where appropriate, enforce responsibility and decisively,” Kieswetter said.
The strategic intent of SA’s tax authority is supported by nine strategic objectives and Strategic Objective 8 is to “Work with and through stakeholders to improve the tax ecosystem”.
The participation of SA in international forums emphasises the importance of effective partnerships including the FTA, according to the Sars Commissioner.
“Sars can only be efficient and effective if we maintain solid international networks and partnerships which enable cross-border tax cooperation and improve voluntary tax compliance,” Kieswetter said.
“This contributes to our vision of building a smart modern tax administration that can be trusted and admired and our participation in the FTA, the pre-eminent forum on tax administration, is essential to making our vision a reality.”
The FTA which was established in 2002, currently brings together tax commissioners and tax administration officials from more than 50 countries.
The theme of the Athens Plenary was “The transformation of tax administration”.
Kieswetter said that the transformation of tax administration is becoming essential in the pursuit of enhanced domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) as well as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
“Specifically, effective DRM through taxation is essential for financing public investments in infrastructure, education, and healthcare, which are fundamental to achieving the SDGs,” the Sars Commissioner said.
“Taxation serves as a sustainable and predictable source of public finance, particularly in developing countries.”
At the Athens Plenary, the FTA’s Gender Balance Maturity Model was launched and delegates engaged in discussions on important tax administration issues including:
– transformation of tax administrations
– leadership challenges and opportunities
– digital transformation to help realise more seamless and closer to real-time taxation processes
– tax certainty
– the implementation of the Global Minimum Tax
– tax administration capacity building
Reflecting on the plenary discussions, Kieswetter said: “We live in an increasingly complex world within which tax administrations must deliver its mandate of domestic resource mobilisation.”
“We are witnessing a proliferation of tax and financial crime that not only creates significant revenue leakages but also erodes social cohesion. We remain committed to building a smart modern tax and customs administration. Without a well-functioning SARS, our democracy would be unfunded.”
IOL Business