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Bhutan’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme launched in partnership with India.
Key updates
- TIWB, a joint initiative of the UNDP and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), launched its programme in Bhutan.
- India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
- This programme is expected to be of about 24 months’ duration.
- India in collaboration with the UNDP and the TIWB Secretariat aims to aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
- The focus of the programme will be in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.
- India being a global leader in this respect has a very important role to play in South-South Cooperation in tax matters.
About Tax Inspectors Without Borders
- It is jointly launched by UNDP and OECD in 2015.
- It is intended to support developing countries to strengthen national tax administrations through building audit capacity and to share this knowledge with other countries.
- The TIWB Programme aims to strengthen tax administrations of developing countries by transferring technical know-how and skills to their tax auditors, and through the sharing of general audit practices and dissemination of knowledge products with them.
- The TIWB Programme complements the efforts of the international community to strengthen cooperation on tax matters and contribute to domestic tax mobilisation efforts of developing countries.
- The objective of the TIWB Initiative is to enable sharing of tax audit knowledge and skills with tax administrations in developing countries through a targeted, real time “learning by doing” approach.
- TIWB facilitates expert audit assistance in areas such as transfer pricing; thin capitalisation; advance pricing agreements; anti-avoidance rules; consumption taxes ; high net-worth individuals; pre-audit risk assessment and case selection; audit investigatory techniques; and industry-specific or sector-specific issues.
- TIWB does not cover assistance relating to customs matters nor is concerned with providing policy support, advice on legislative changes, issues related to (re)negotiations, international tax treaties, or litigation.
- TIWB Secretariat acts as a clearing house and interface for requests to participate in the TIWB Programme by proposing Experts to Host Administrations (responsible for Expert selection).
How does TIWB work?
- Selected experts will work with local tax officials directly on current audits and audit-related issues concerning international tax matters and general audit practices relevant for specific cases.
- This is a specialized area of tax audit assistance, given its focus on providing assistance on real, current cases.
- For each TIWB audit assistance programme, the goal will be to enhance capacity in the tax audit practice of the developing country tax administration (Host Administration).
- Through TIWB Programmes, the Host Administration benefits by improving the quality and consistency of its audits, which in turn brings greater certainty and potentially more revenues for the Host Administration.
Source: PIB
