The First Conference of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum was held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, China during 18th to 20th April 2019, themed as “enhancing taxation cooperation and improving business environment”. The Forum was organized by the Chinese State Administration of Tax, participants are representatives from 85 countries or regions, 16 international organizations, research institutions and multinationals. Four main results were announced at the end of this Forum, namely establishing the One Belt One Road Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism (consisted of the Council and the Secretariat) , founding the Confederation of Tax Administration Capacity Promotion, announcing the Wuzhen Declaration for enhancement of mutual cooperation, and compiling a Two-Year Action Plan for the Tax Administration Cooperation.
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The Two-Year Tax Administration Cooperation Action Plan, or the Wuzhen Action Plan 2019-2021 orients on the topic “construing the growth-friendly taxation environment. Some highlights from the specific plans are as follows:
- The Tax Administration Cooperation Forum will be held annually as the permanent platform for communication and exchange of information between all Council members.
- All members are to conduct taxation certainty research and manage tax matters with the rule of law.
- Speed up the dispute resolution processes regarding tax issues and minimize disputes by introducing periodical measures.
- Every Council member is encouraged to establish training institutions for tax administration capacity educations, for instance, Mainland China, Macau China and Kazakstan have already established their own tax affairs academy for a One Belt and One Road.
- Clarify the necessity of certain information and documents regarding tax and taxation for reducing the unnecessary workload.
- Research actively and design strategies and methods to digitize tax administration.
- Every Council member should join one or more working teams for the actual coordination, organization and supervision of the execution of the Action Plan. Each working team will be found by the end of June 2019 and a work plan must be submitted to the secretariat before 1st Nov. 2019. An interim progress report is required from every working team in 2020 and a final evaluation report before the Third Forum in 2021.
China has entered into double tax treaties with 111 countries and regions by the end of 2018. An OECD Multilateral Taxation Centre was established in Yangzhou by China as its efforts to promote international taxation cooperation, insofar 22 programs have been offered to officials from some 50 countries. This First Forum on Tax Administration Cooperation is promoting a more concrete tax cooperation mechanism in addition to the existing taxation networks, which has been highly appraised by the OECD and representatives of the participating parties.
Global Connect Admin B.V.
Xuan Hao
