Cooperation between Ukraine and IOTA

Cooperation between Ukraine and IOTA has been going on since 1999. During the 7th IOTA General Assembly, held in Tallinn (Republic of Estonia) in September 2003, a decision on Ukraine’s associate membership was approved (approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as of 14.06.2004 № 784).

In connection with changes in provisions on the IOTA membership status approved by Resolution of the 8th General Assembly “On IOTA Membership and Strategy” and amendments to IOTA Statutes adopted during the 9th General Assembly starting in 2006, all tax administrations of European states, which were IOTA associate members, acquired a full member status. IOTA associate membership is provided only for tax administrations of non-European states.

During the 10th IOTA General Assembly in Budapest in May 2006, Ukraine was admitted to full IOTA membership by an absolute majority of votes. Full IOTA membership was approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as of 27.04.2006 № 582.

IOTA Regulations define general membership conditions, functions of the supreme body, namely General Assembly, other constituent and technical bodies, powers of IOTA President, its Executive Board, internal auditors and Executive Secretariat.

During the 20th IOTA General Assembly, which was held in July 2016 in Bucharest (Romania), according to the voting results, Ukraine was elected as IOTA President for the first time for 2016/2017. President’s responsibilities include chairing the annual General Assembly, convening and chairing meetings of the Executive Board, carrying out instructions of the Executive Board and General Assembly and representing the Organisation in communication with external partners and members. As part of Ukraine’s IOTA presidency in 2016/2017, two meetings of the Executive Board were held in Kyiv. IOTA General Assembly was held on June 28-30, 2017.

Annual IOTA technical activity programs are drawn up with participation of all IOTA members. As follows, each tax administration is given an opportunity to suggest for inclusion in the program exactly those issues that are most relevant to it. Thematic seminars and symposia cover various areas of activity in tax administration, ranging from methods of improving work in service of taxpayers, combating tax evasion, tax fraud and ending with introduction of the most modern information technologies in acceptance and processing of tax reporting, audit and accounting.

Workshops on practical experience are very popular, as each participant presents own practice and after ways to solve certain problems are discussed during plenary discussions. In this format, regular events are held on taxation, transfer pricing and VAT fraud.

Important area of IOTA activity is the work of industry groups and forums, namely events that are held on a regular basis with participation of the best experts in relevant spheres. Task of such activities is to develop and address specific issues, prepare detailed guidelines, manuals of good practice, etc. through ongoing active consultations. Currently, IOTA has industry groups and forums in the areas of: debt management, personnel management, communications, use of data obtained from automatic information exchange, implementation of BEPS action plan, detection and combating the VAT fraud.

IOTA Technical Inquiry Service works effectively, allowing the member state’s tax administration to receive prompt and detailed response to a request based on information received from other members. Noteworthy is the IOTA website, through which member states have an access to many information resources, including foreign tax laws, publications and manuals, information on the structures, functions of tax administrations and other government agencies of foreign countries. In addition, IOTA publishes a magazine for taxpayers “Tax Tribune”.

Ukraine joined the implementation of a new IOTA initiative – the ISORA Questionnaire in early 2018.

The ISORA Questionnaire is an international survey on tax administrations developed by IOTA in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Inter-American Center for Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also it is important development that aims to simplify data collection and improve international comparability of data across a wide range of states.