On 29 May, Head of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation Daniil Yegorov chaired the Meeting of Heads of BRICS Tax Authorities via videoconference.
The meeting focused on economic support measures for taxpayers and providing services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Daniil
Yegorov noted that the crisis caused by COVID-19 has accelerated the digital
transformation of state management and public services. Thus, the Russian Federal
Tax Service gave an example of already implemented projects for the remote provision
of tax services, such as tax monitoring that allows tax authorities to have online
access to companies accounts and transactions, a blockchain platform for
cooperation with banks and companies that apply for a preferential loan, as
well as an online service to receive subsidies to pay salaries to employees of
companies affected by the pandemic.
«The entire cooperation process starting from submitting
an application to receiving payments is organized via this service. Employers
can monitor the application status in their personal account. It usually takes
no longer than two or three days. More then 600,000 Russian taxpayers have
already received a total of 31 billion roubles in subsidies,» Daniil Yegorov
noted.
Representatives
of BRICS Tax Authorities also discussed the prospects of taxation of the
digital economy, as well as practical issues of the automatic information
exchange mechanism. They also shared their experience in countering the grey
economy.
«The automatic information exchange is another multilateral tool to combat tax evasion. It is necessary to further develop this initiative and improve the quality of data, including other types of information in the data exchange that affect tax revenues. These mechanisms can only be effective if they are developed and used taking into account the interests of all the parties involved,» Daniil Yegorov said.
Heads of BRICS Tax Authorities have summarized the main outcomes of the meeting in the final communique.
Official website of the Russian BRICS presidency: https://eng.brics-russia2020.ru/allnews/