The Pacific Islands Tax Administrators Association (PITAA) and Pacific Technical Financial Technical Assistance (PFTAC) are conducting a weeklong workshop on Taxpayer Registration.
The regional workshop on Taxpayer Registration officially commenced on Monday, 26th August and is expected to conclude on Friday, 30th August at Tanoa International Hotel, Nadi.
Attending this workshop are tax administrators from the 15 Pacific Member Countries actively participating, networking, and exchanging their experiences.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, PITAA Head of Secretariat, Mr. George Mow highlighted the four major components of a typical tax system, that is registration, filing/lodgement, reporting/returns and payment.
Mr. Mow said that registration is the beginning of the process, and the other three areas cannot function effectively when there is inaccuracy in the registration process.
“In other words, tax registration is crucial for an effective revenue administration,” added Mr. Mow.
The primary objectives of this workshop are to:
- Enhance participants’ understanding of good practices in tax registration processes.
- Explore strategies for simplifying and streamlining registration procedures.
- Discuss effective techniques for taxpayer identification and record-keeping.
- Action planning to implement improvements to tax registration in each participating country.
Present at the official opening ceremony together with PITAA HoS was PFTAC Revenue Administration Advisor, Mrs. Katrina Williams who hopes that the weeklong regional tax registration workshop will be a good learning and rewarding experience for all the participants.
Mrs. Williams also mentioned how happy she is to see so many women in revenue administration attending this workshop, given that women make up 75% of the attendees.
Participants in this regional workshop will have the chance to network, improve their skills, and exchange knowledge.
One of the attendees from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Kiribati, Ms. Karua Touakai said that the first day of the taxpayer registration workshop has been interesting and informative for her.
“The sessions and the activities are interactive, and the facilitators are going out of their way making sure that all the participants are involved, and I feel that makes the discussion constructive as well”, she added.
By delivering tax registration training for Pacific revenue administrations, PITAA and PFTAC are ensuring that member countries’ capacity to build better tax registration processes and systems based on international best practice.