The Financing for Development Office (FfDO) of UN-DESA organized, in cooperation with the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), a 2-day UN Workshop on Protecting the Tax Base of Developing Countries with the participation of representatives from developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The workshop focused on base erosion issues with respect to the taxation of services and featured the presentation of draft materials comprising the UN Practical Portfolio on Taxation of Income from Services, with a view to seeking developing countries’ inputs and feedback to ensure that these materials address their concerns and capacity development needs in this area.

First, an overview of the taxation of income from services under domestic laws and tax treaties was provided. Then, the relevant risks of base erosion were discussed and available options to address them were analysed, including possible changes in domestic legislation and bilateral tax treaties. Finally, administrative approaches to deal with these risks were considered.

This workshop was held back-to-back with a 3-day UN Course on Double Tax Treaties (Panama, 1-3 June 2015) aimed at providing participants with an introduction to selected tax treaty issues regarding the taxation of cross-border services.