Senior tax officials from 20 countries in Europe and Central Asia recently met in Georgia to discuss ways to tackle tax avoidance and to implement the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) proposals.
The event – held in Tbilisi on July 17-18, 2018 – was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, the Parliament of Georgia, the National Bank of Georgia, and the Georgia Revenue Service in co-operation with the OECD and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
Participants discussed, among other things, policy responses to fighting tax avoidance, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented by the practical implementation of international standards on tax transparency and BEPS.
Specifically, delegates discussed the implementation of measures to address BEPS, including those on harmful tax practices, treaty shopping, the use of country-by-country reporting information, and improving dispute resolution, focusing on the specific issues faced by developing countries.
The meeting brought together senior officials from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, FYROM, Georgia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, as well as representatives of international organizations providing technical assistance, such as the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.