Abbreviation | ATAF |
---|---|
Formation | August 2008 |
Type | IGO |
Headquarters | Pretoria, South Africa |
Region served | Africa |
Executive Secretary | Logan Wort |
Main organ | Secretariat |
Staff | 26 |
Website | ataftax |
The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) is an international organisation which provides a platform for cooperation among African tax authorities. First conceived during a meeting of 30 African tax commissioners with representatives of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in August 2008, it was launched in November 2009 in Kampala, Uganda. [1] [2] Through mutual cooperation between member states, ATAF works towards increasing the level of voluntary tax compliance whilst combating tax evasion and avoidance. ATAF is supported by a group of donors including the UK's Department for International Development, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the African Development Bank, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Irish Aid, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Finland), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands), the OECD, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. [3] It collaborates with African regional economic organisations, the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrations, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations, the Centre de Rencontres et d'Etudes des Dirigeants des Administrations Fiscales, the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations, and the International Centre for Tax and Development. [4]
As of October 2015, there are 37 member nations: [5]
ATAF offers an online course in tax treaties as well as an executive master's in taxation, in partnership with two Senegalese schools and the Mauritius Revenue Authority. It also offers short courses on taxation and development in partnership with the International Centre for Tax and Development. [6] In 2015, ATAF launched the African Tax Research Network (ATRN), which will hold an annual congress for researchers to share their work. [7] In collaboration with the International Centre for Tax and Development, it will also offer research methods training and dissemination workshops to members of the ATRN.
ATAF hosts technical working groups on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, Indirect Taxes, Exchange of Information, and Transfer pricing. In April 2015 it held a consultative conference on BEPS, and provided feedback from its members to the OECD. [8] On exchange of information, ATAF has begun a three-year pilot program which aims to help African countries meet the standards to join the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. [9]
In October 2015, ATAF held its second international conference on tax in Africa, with the theme "Tax Compliance and Limiting Illicit financial flows". [10]
A tax treaty, also called double tax agreement (DTA) or double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA), is an agreement between two countries to avoid or mitigate double taxation. Such treaties may cover a range of taxes including income taxes, inheritance taxes, value added taxes, or other taxes. Besides bilateral treaties, multilateral treaties are also in place. For example, European Union (EU) countries are parties to a multilateral agreement with respect to value added taxes under auspices of the EU, while a joint treaty on mutual administrative assistance of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is open to all countries. Tax treaties tend to reduce taxes of one treaty country for residents of the other treaty country to reduce double taxation of the same income.
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Exchange of Information is an umbrella term which refers to international co-operation in the field of taxation through the exchange of information on taxpayers between tax authorities.
A tax haven is a term, often used pejoratively, to describe a place with very low tax rates for non-domiciled investors, even if the official rates may be higher.
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Transfer mispricing, also known as transfer pricing manipulation or fraudulent transfer pricing, refers to trade between related parties at prices meant to manipulate markets or to deceive tax authorities. The legality of the process varies between tax jurisdictions; most regard it as a type of fraud or tax evasion.
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