Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank Group (WBG) launched the Platform for Collaboration on Tax, a joint initiative to intensify their cooperation on tax issues.

In follow up to this launch, on 21 October, FfDO/DESA, in collaboration with the IMF, OECD and WBG, organized a side event entitled “The Platform for Collaboration on Tax: A major step to boost international cooperation in tax matters” during the Second Committee of the 71st General Assembly to introduce the Platform to UN delegates and other stakeholders. The meeting was chaired and moderated by ASG Lenni Montiel and featured a joint presentation by all four participating organizations to describe the Platform, its objectives, guiding principles for cooperation and main activities to be implemented.  

In his opening remarks, ASG Lenni Montiel acknowledged the importance of domestic resource mobilization and modernized tax systems to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the important role the Platform will play in these pursuits. He noted that, “strengthened and better coordinated efforts are needed to effectively implement [policy] guidance in developing countries, taking into account their different needs and capacities, with a view to supporting national plans to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.”

The Platform aims to hold regular discussions among the four international organizations, with a view to strengthening their tax capacity-building support to developing countries. To this end, the Platform will facilitate more systematic information sharing on relevant activities, produce joint outputs and toolkits and improve the interaction and synergies between standard setting and capacity development. Additionally, the Platform will raise awareness about the importance of transparency and effective and comprehensive exchange of information mechanisms for the purposes of addressing tax evasion and tackling illicit financial flows. It will also aim to provide guidance to developing countries on how to frame and address tax issues related to the informal economy. Furthermore, the Platform will provide a venue for coordination and information sharing on a set of high priority tax issues, such as revenue statistics, tax administration diagnostics and natural resource taxation.  

To discuss these issues in a broader context, the Platform will organize a global conference every two years. “I am pleased to inform you that it was agreed that the first global conference of the Platform will be hosted by the UN at its headquarters in New York,” announced Mr. Alex Trepelkov, Director of FfDO. The first conference will be held in February 2018 on the theme “Taxation and the Sustainable Development Goals”.