The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research (SGATAR) was convened on October 14-17 in Jeju, South Korea. Wang Jun, administrator of the State Administration of Taxation, attended the meeting with the China tax delegation. On October 14-15, Wang Jun attended events such as the Forum of the Head of Delegations, and held bilateral talks with some delegations and the Tax Policy and Management Center of OECD. Wang Jun proposed that great efforts should be made to promote international exchange and cooperation on tax affairs as a way of facilitating the opening-up and development of world economy.

On the Forum, Wang Jun put forward three recommendations on the reform of SGATAR.

The first is to establish efficiently running SGATAR organs. A decade ago, representatives at the meeting discussed the issue of how to avoid international double taxation, but now, how to solve avoidance of international double taxation is a concern. As economic globalization goes deeper, it is necessary to strengthen tax cooperation in Asia Pacific and establish a Secretariat for daily operation of SGATAR.

The second is to create a broader and more impactful international tax cooperation system. OECD has played a significant role in promoting international tax cooperation, but as developing countries attended the meeting as observers only, they are not typical enough. The UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters has been active in promoting international tax cooperation, but since it is not an inter-governmental organization, its coordination is limited. In the context that multinational corporations as the objects of tax administration have realized operation on a global scale and the accounting standards as the foundation of tax administration have been globalized, it is necessary for tax administration and international cooperative institutions to quicken the pace of globalization. Great efforts are needed to find solutions on how to create a more typical and impactful international tax cooperation platform and an organic system closely related to regional platforms.

The third is to create international and regional tax exchange mechanisms that are closely associated with leadership meetings. In recent years, international tax cooperation within the OECD framework has achieved great-leap-forward development, which is partially because such cooperation is closely related to the G20 Leaders’ Summit. It is recommended that SGATAR should be linked to APEC meetings, to play a more important role at a higher level.

During the meetings Wang Jun had extensive contacts with heads of tax authorities of South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Mongolia, and held in-depth discussions on issues like stimulating economic development, deepening the tax reform, and strengthening international cooperation on tax affairs. Wang introduced China’s economic progresses, and stressed that the country is making new headways while maintaining stability in economic development with solid fundamentals. He also inquired about the online declaration and Internet invoice launched by relevant countries. The heads of tax authorities said that they had paid great attention to China’s economic development, highly praised China’s macro-economic policies, with strong confidence in China’s economic development. The heads of tax authorities highly appreciated the tax reform implemented by the Chinese government such as the switching from business tax to VAT, expressed hopes of drawing on and sharing successful experience of both countries, in an effort to improve tax administration and better serve social and economic development.

Wang Jun also held talks with Pascal, director of Tax Policy and Administration Center of OECD. He introduced China’s progress on tax reform, and raised suggestions on strengthening the mechanism for international tax coordination. Pascal highly appreciated China’s pilot program of switching from business tax to VAT, admitted the active role of the reform in stimulating China’s economic development, argued that China should continue to implement the reform, and agreed with Wang Jun’s suggestions on strengthening the mechanism for coordinating international tax affairs.

During the event, a joint statement was adopted by the annual meeting on October 15 and was released on October 17. Attendees had reached consensus on the strengthening of tax information exchange as a way of coping with cross-border tax evasion, reducing the loss of tax revenues, and implementing management of tax arrears. It is the first time SGATAR made a joint statement since its establishment.

Wang Jun, on behalf of the State Administration of Taxation, signed the China-Korea Bilateral Advance Pricing Arrangement with Kim De-Jung, director of National Tax Service of South Korea. This is the 10th advance pricing arrangement China signed with the National Tax Service of South Korea [Accounting Services].

Representatives from seven international organizations (OECD, IMF, ADB, CIAT, etc) and seven observer countries have attended the meeting. Founded in 1971, SGATAR is the unique official tax organization in Asia-Pacific region. Currently SGATAR has 16 members. China became a formal member of the organization in 1996. The country hosted the 28th and 38th SGATAR Annual Meeting in 1998 and 2008.

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