- Fowler Elected Into UN Tax Committee of Experts
The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Tunde Fowler, has been elected as 1st Vice Chairman of United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Head of Communication and Servicom Department, FIRS, Wahab Gbadamosi.
According to the statement, Mr. Eric Nil Yarboi Mensah, Chairman of Ghanaian Revenue Authority, emerged the 2nd Vice Chairman.
The election took place in Geneva, Switzerland, where the global UN Committee of Tax Experts is holding its meeting. The committee is meeting for the first time after the appointment.
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guteress, announced the appointment of the 25 members in a United Nations Economic and Social Council notification dated August 10, 2017. The 25 tax experts were headhunted across the globe to sit on the committee and proffer solutions to issues on international taxation and cooperation.
Five out of the 25 new entrants into the committee are Africans. They are Fowler, who is also the Chairman of African Tax Administrations Forum; Elfrieda Stewart Tamba, Chairman of the Liberian Revenue Authority and Chairman of West African Tax Administrators Forum; Margaret Moonga Chikuba, Chairman of the Zambian Revenue Authority.
Others are Eric Nil Yarboi Mensah, Chairman of Ghanaian Revenue Authority and George Omondi Obell, Chairman of the Kenyan Revenue Authority.
The appointment is in accordance with the United Nations resolution—the Economic and Social Council resolution 2004/69, which established that “only 25 tax experts selected from among all countries of the world are needed to join the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, within an interval of every four years.”
Their mandate is to brainstorm always and offer, from their wealth of experience, knowledge of how the world can manage taxation for international development and cooperation.
Michael Lennard, Chief of International Tax Cooperation at the United Nations, in a brief remark as the meeting commenced, underscored the importance of the important work the team need to do given the centrality of tax to development today.
He said, “Developing tax now involves more countries, more civil societies, including NGOs more Small and Medium Enterprises, more individuals, not just more Multinationals. More women. There is a lot more women on our tax committee this year and more young people. There is a bigger debate on
“Enlarging the people involved in this debate not just in subject matter, but also generationally which I think is important in this matter.
“I also commend the organisers for addressing some of the trickiest, most nuanced areas of taxation, the ethical dimension, the issue of tax transparency and the issue of tax competition: a very, very difficult area. They are all the more important because of their difficulty.”
