Directorate General of Taxes to Host the Annual Meeting of Tax Authorities in Asia-Pacific Region

By: the Directorate of International Taxation

Directorate General of Taxes as Indonesia’s tax authority have been long developing its reputation as one of those tax authorities with active participation in providing inputs and thoughts at every regional and international forum of taxation. This year, Directorate General of Taxes will be in a leading role once again in our position as the host to the 49th Annual Meeting of the Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research (SGATAR).

SGATAR was established in 1970 under the auspices of the Ministerial Conference for the Economic Development of South East Asia wherein Indonesia, along with Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam, were the founding members. The first annual meeting was held in the following year in the Philippines. Today, SGATAR consist of 17 members after Australia and New Zealand joined in in 1974, Korea Republic (1982), Hong Kong (1997), Mongolia (1997), People’s Republic of China (1997), Chinese Taipei (1997), Macao (2007), and Papua New Guinea (2007).

The mission of SGATAR, as a main forum for co-operation amongst tax authorities in Asia-Pacific, is to provide a platform to enhance the performance of tax administrations in Asia-Pacific region by promoting collaboration and communication amongst members’ tax administrations. Furthermore, the four objectives are to enhance capacity building for members through the sharing of best practices and strengthening training programs, to promote bilateral and/or multilateral co-operation in taxpayer compliance and other special projects, to undertake research and keep abreast of international and regional developments in tax law and administration, and to relay members’ views to international forums.

For the 49th Annual Meeting, SGATAR shall raise current significant issues in taxation. While the heads of delegations forum will cover the topics of taxation in digital era, implementation of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, capacity building in tax expenditure and compliance risk management – together with the yearly agenda of presentations of tax reform in respective jurisdictions, the working groups’ sessions will discuss transfer pricing and the mutual agreement procedure, automatic exchange of information, and digitalised service of taxation.

After Bali in 2009, Directorate General of Taxes have chosen Yogyakarta, a city full of cultural-historical value and was awarded as the ASEAN City of Culture for 2018-2020, as the hosting city for 2019. With the prospect of approximately two hundreds foreign visitors attending the meeting, Directorate General of Taxes are committed to combining local hospitality with variety of Javanese cultural attractions à la Yogyakarta as the main theme.