The Pacific Island Tax Administrators Association (PITAA) and the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC) is conducting a regional training workshop
on tax audit from April 24th – 28th at Lava Hotel in Apia, Samoa. The workshop was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Customs and Revenue for Samoa, Honorable Tuala Tevaga Iosefo Ponifasio. The PITAA and PFTAC workshop is specifically designed for front-line tax auditors from the sixteen (16) PITAA members. The weeklong workshop aims to provide training for new and developing tax auditors, presenting tax audit approaches, and encouraging robust discussion amongst participants to enhance their understanding of good audit practices. Mr. George Mow, the Head of Secretariat for PITAA, expressed gratitude to Samoa for their support, stating: “Samoa has always been a strong supporter of PITAA and PFTAC over the years. In PITAA, Samoa has served on our governance executive committee and has always been an advocate of regional efforts and initiatives benefiting the Pacific.” The Honourable Minister highlighted the crucial role of tax administrations in their respective countries as both administrators of tax law and as revenue collectors. He also emphasized the importance of tax audits. “Tax auditing is a very important part of managing compliance risk, deterring tax avoidance, promoting willing participation and voluntary compliance,” said Hon. Ponifasio “Tax audit is one tool available to tax administrations to use in conjunction with a risk-based approach for identifying taxpayers to audit and the type of audit required to meet tax administration outcomes.” He also shed light on some of the initiatives of the Ministry under their new compliance improvement plan. He encouraged participants to share knowledge, absorb learnings from the workshop, and build networks. In addition, PFTAC’s Revenue Administration Advisor Mr. John McAlister. reflected on the opportunity participants have in this workshop to learn from the wisdom of tax auditors with a range of experiences, over many years, and from the experience gained in more than 20 countries. He said “this workshop is an important opportunity to develop both sides of compliance: encourage voluntary compliance and develop skills to effectively, fairly, respectfully but firmly deal with non-compliance. By the end of the workshop, on Friday, 28 April, participants will have gained knowledge to enhance their tax audit skills, to share with others to improve tax audit capabilities at home and build confidence in applying wisdom to this important area of government service. The workshop is being held at the Lava Hotel, Apia, Samoa, with a total of thirty seven (37) regional participants from sixteen (16) member tax administrations in the Pacific.
Source: PITAA
