PublicationsSeminar – Structure of a Modern Tax Administration 21 October 2009
(Jointly Organised By NUS Faculty of Law & Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore)
The seminar reviewed four core areas of focus for modern tax administrations. First, tax administration and tax policy need to function in a "policy partnership". Thus, it is imperative to view tax administration as the counterface of tax policy and vice versa. Second, the way a tax administration is structured will have a strong influence on its operational efficiency and revenue productivity in an environment that enables seamless exchange of information across directorates. Management structures should be primarily aligned with key "customer" (taxpayer) groups under rationalised tax concepts rather than by geographic boundaries. Such a structure needs to be buttressed with functional departments that separate out particular specialisations such as assessment, audit, debt, legal, intelligence and analysis. This will facilitate more efficient use of information and provide a better service for customers. Third, a central focus for modern tax administration must be on the taxpayers themselves and the quality of service provided to them. This is fundamentally about moving to a more open and trusting relationship between tax administrations and their "stakeholders" that should encourage more voluntary compliance. The number of stakeholder events and at what levels, could be a good indicator of this kind of enabling relationship. Fourth, up-to-date Information and Communication Technology (ICT) must form a central part of a modern tax administration. ICT enables the effective use of data and information for both tax administration and analytical purposes. For example, on the one hand ICT could be used to reduce processing costs; and, on the other, to expand analytical capability, transforming data and information into systems to knowledge. This, in turn, helps improve policy development as well as internal management decision making.
Speaker : Dr Partho Shome, Chief Economist, HMRC, UK
No. of Participants : 105
May 18, 2009: Singapore International Financial Centers
An Interdisciplinary Roundtable (by invitation only)
In cooperation with the University of Illinois College of Law
The current global financial and economic crisis has raised new questions about the future of international financial centers. Onshore governments are seeking broader international and domestic regulatory measures that threaten to disrupt transactions housed outside their borders. Anti-terror finance rules are putting new hurdles in the path of international financial transactions. International regulatory bodies are seeking enhanced powers that could undermine the use of multi-jurisdiction transactions. Roundtable conveners seek to create scholarship that can help keep jurisdictional competition on the policy agenda.
Roundtable conveners:
| » | Professor Andrew Morriss, University of Illinois College of Law |
| » | Professor Larry Ribstein, University of Illinois College of Law |
| » | Professor Houman Shadab, Mercatus Center, Washington, DC and from July 2009, the New York Law School |
| » | Professor Hans Tjio, National University of Singapore |
Details for the event:
| Date: | 18 May 2009 |
| Time: | 9:00 am to 1:30 pm (including lunch) |
| Venue: | Lee Sheridan Conference Room, Eu Tong Sen Building, Faculty of Law, NUS |
No. of Participants : 32
