South African Revenue Service (Sars) Commissioner Edward Kieswetter has been appointed as vice chairperson of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Forum on Tax Administration (FTA).

The announcement was made during the FTA Plenary held in Athens, Greece from November 13 to 15.

Kieswetter joins Canadian Revenue Agency Commissioner and FTA chairperson Bob Hamilton and Norwegian Tax Administration director general and fellow FTA vice chair Nina Schanke Funnemark in leading the FTA.

Sars says a diverse bureau joins the chairperson and vice chairpersons in setting the direction of the FTA work for the coming two years.

It notes that the elevation of Kieswetter puts South Africa in a strategic role within the OECD FTA to influence the bureau to serve the interests of developing countries.

“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. Sars’s strategic intent is supported by nine strategic objectives. Strategic objective eight is to ‘Work with and through stakeholders to improve the tax ecosystem,’ says Kieswetter.

“Our participation in international forums underscores the importance of effective and beneficial partnerships, including with the likes of the FTA. Tax risks are not confined within national borders,.

“A tax risk anywhere in the world, is a tax risk everywhere.  No country is a fiscal island. 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.

“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,” he adds.

The FTA was established in 2002 and brings together tax commissioners and tax administration officials from over 50 countries.

Sars says the FTA is the only head of tax administration-level forum that harnesses the collective expertise and experience of its members to share knowledge, undertake research of common interest and develop new ideas and approaches to enhance tax administration around the world through thought leadership, knowledge-sharing of best practices and the development of new practical tools.

The Athens plenary convened under the theme of ‘The transformation of tax administration.’

“The transformation of tax administration is becoming ever more crucial in the pursuit of enhanced domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Specifically, effective DRM through taxation is essential for financing public investments in infrastructure, education and healthcare, which are fundamental to achieving the SDGs. Taxation serves as a sustainable and predictable source of public finance, particularly in developing countries,” said Kieswetter in his opening presentation to the plenary.

Delegates to the Athens plenary engaged in robust discussions on key burning tax administration issues including, amongst others, 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 and tax administration capacity building.

The Plenary also saw the launch of the FTA’s Gender Balance Maturity Model.

“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,” adds Kieswetter.