Annual Summit Sets The Pace

This year’s annual tax summit organised by the Kenya Revenue Authority to explore solutions to various challenges facing tax administrators in Africa will be held on 13^th and 14^th October, 2021. The 7th Annual Tax Summit, 2021 brings together global experts, tax practitioners, academia, private sector players, and senior government officials. The two-day event will be held virtually to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The second of the COVID-19 era, the 7th Annual Tax Summit 2021 is billed to be among the biggest events in tax this year, forming a key activity during the taxpayers’ month of October. The theme of the summit is Redefining the Taxation Landscape: Global Trends, Developments & Impact.  Under the sub-theme of Revenue Mobilization Within a Rapidly Evolving Taxation Landscape: Global Trends, Analyses & Resolutions, the summit will explore how best tax administrations can achieve their objectives, especially through tax base expansion, service enhancement, business process and people re-engineering, revenue protection, and trade facilitation.

The event will be graced by KRA Board Chairman Ambassador Francis Muthaura, KRA Commissioner General Githii Mburu as well as Cabinet Secretaries Ukur Yatani (National Treasury), Joseph Mucheru (ICT) and a mix of local and international stakeholders. Summit participants include actors from various tax authorities, key stakeholders from private sector, policy experts, thinktanks, academia, media and civil society. They will deliberate on solutions to various tax challenges affecting tax administrations in Africa.

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The Summit is also a public participation platform aimed at enhancing discussions, providing status of interventions in Tax and Customs administration and feedback from stakeholders on solutions and ideas in fostering tax and customs administration.

The summit seeks to find ways of improving African tax systems by sharing ideas, innovations and strategies successfully implemented in other jurisdictions. Also, it will explore ways to enhance the capacity of tax officials on the continent by interactions through networking, knowledge exchange and collaboration.

In addition, it seeks to build capacity in creating a platform for tax policymakers and tax administration officials on the continent to collaborate on improving tax policy decisions that will positively enhance domestic revenue mobilisation. The other objective is to establish a continental cooperative framework for addressing tax challenges and pursue more taxing rights for African countries, including taxing of the digital economy and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS).

The Tax Summit has evolved into a strong annual dialogue platform for exchange of ideas, knowledge, insights and solutions to support efficiency and effectiveness in tax administration.

Topics of discussion

The conference has a rich menu of topics on tax administration in Africa and benchmarking of best practices. They include:

The OECD inclusive framework & its impact on Africa: opportunities for developing countries: With Marcio F. Verdi CIAT, executive Secretary, American Centre of Tax administration, as keynote speaker, discussions will focus on a new two-pillar plan to reform international taxation rules and ensure multinational enterprises pay a fair share of taxes wherever they operate.

COVID-19 recovery and way forward: people & processes: The keynote speaker Edward Kieswetter, Commissioner General, South Africa Revenue, will headline this session, which will look at how Tax administrations have had to think through the role of re-skilling, safety and health, and adaptation for the modern tax profession.

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Taxation for economic diversification & growth: Mrs Chia-Tern Huey Min, Deputy Commissioner Internal investigations and indirect taxes, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), will lead the session as keynote speaker. Discussions will focus on how taxation can enhance, and not compromise, economic diversification and capital formation. The session will also pick lessons from countries that have successfully implemented a taxation regime that supports diversified economies.

Enhancing service delivery in tax administration: The keynote speaker for this topic will be Chantel Botha, Managing Director, BrandLove Customer Experience South Africa. Panellists will discuss what constitutes exceptional service and how to take tax administration experience to the next level.

Other plenary topics include The role of tax administration in f******g illicit financial flows: The African experience. This comes at a time when estimates suggest that developing countries lose about $1 trillion each year due to illicit financial flows.

Impact of African continental free trade area (AFCTA) in intra-Africa trade: challenges & prospects. The summit will assess Africa’s preparedness for this ground-breaking moment in the continent’s history.

To register for the 7^th Annual Tax Summit, visit http://www.summit.kra.go.ke

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