By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Commissioner for South African Revenue Service (Sars) Edward Kieswetter has been appointed as the Vice Chairperson of the 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.