Training Program

Senior officials from ministries of finance and tax administrations whose responsibilities include advising ministers on tax policy issues or managing tax administration. Their duties are likely to include policy analysis and evaluation; drafting policy proposals; drafting tax laws; and in tax administrations managing organizational issues, strategic planning, information technology, and other major operational functions.

Participants involved in policy areas are expected to have a degree in economics, law, or a related field, and experience in producing analytical reports. Participants involved in tax administration areas are expected to be senior managers from the top two levels of their agency.

This course, presented by the Fiscal Affairs Department, is designed to broaden participants’ knowledge of the main challenges governments face in designing, administering, and monitoring of a modern tax system. It briefly outlines the theoretical underpinnings of tax policymaking and discusses in detail its practice and implementation with an emphasis on the region the course is directed to. Participants are encouraged to share their experiences in developing strategies to improve their tax systems and how they are implemented and administered.

Through lectures, Q&A sessions and workshops, the course:

• Provides an overview of policy design principles and their implications for tax administration—establishing linkages between tax policy and administration and showing how functions feed into one another;
• Reviews design and administration issues for major taxes that form modern tax systems (e.g., broad-based consumption and income taxes, property taxes, excises, and small business tax regimes) and discusses approaches to tax policymaking and administration in specific economic and institutional settings, such as resource-rich countries, fragile countries, and countries in economic blocs/customs unions, international taxation (e.g., taxation of the digital economy, taxation of multinational enterprises);
• Discusses the organization and operations of tax administrations and the management of tax compliance, drawing on experiences within and beyond the region;
• Gives an overview of emerging and topical issues in tax policy and administration and their implications for tax systems in each region.