Continued collaboration towards tax transparency through exchange of information
Tax Transparency and Exchange of Information occupied centre-stage on the international tax agenda at the recent Africa Initiative and OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) Plenary meetings.
Commissioner Kieswetter, who also serves as a Vice Chair of the Global Forum, welcomed progress on the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) and the adoption of the second version of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
“South Africa transmitted CRS data to 76 partner jurisdictions, whereas 96 partner jurisdictions concluded their exchange obligations with South Africa. Without going into specifics on the number and value reported between SARS and its partners, the Global Forum’s Annual Report states that in 2020, information on more than 75 million financial accounts worldwide, covering total assets of around EUR 9 trillion, was automatically exchanged”.
“As business models increasingly evolve to be more digital, non-local and virtual, and physical borders less relevant in the production and movement of goods and services, national tax bases are under constant threat of erosion. Working with Tax Administrations to improve the tax ecosystem to foster greater collaboration and co-operation is essential to leverage the benefits of tax transparency and exchange of information. We are progressing on our journey with rebuilding a SMART, Modern SARS with unquestionable Integrity, which is Trusted and Admired. Key to this is augmenting our human capabilities by leveraging enabling technologies and data through artificial intelligence with use of sophisticated machine learning algorithms. As we are increasing and expanding the use of data, EOI and AEOI form a valuable data source that supplements our vast third-party data repository enabling the detection of taxpayers & traders who do not comply. Non-compliance would be hard and costly, therefore I urge taxpayers and traders to do the right thing and voluntarily comply,” said Commissioner Kieswetter.
The complete media statement issued by SARS can be accessed here, whilst the statement of the outcomes of the Africa Initiative meeting can be accessed here and the statement of the outcomes of the OECD Global Forum Plenary can be accessed here.
02/12/2021
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