#SGM2022 Highlights:

BOGOTA, Colombia– The Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) Stewards officially approved the Transparency Principles for Tax Policy and Administration during its General Assembly held on the first day of the GIFT Stewards General Meeting (SGM) 2022 last  August 2, 2022.

“This is an exemplary collaborative effort that particularly engaged the Tax Equity Initiative of the International Budget Partnership and the Global Tax Program of the World Bank. The contributions of the GIFT network to the global architecture of fiscal transparency is now further strengthened and reinforced by these new principles. This may be very useful once we have a government who is open to have a serious consultation about its tax system  and these principles may establish useful normative systems for such a dialogue. But this is something that we still need to test, practice, learn from and share,” said Juan Pablo Guerrero, GIFT Network Director.

University of Sheffield Professor Andrew Baker, co-author of the foundational research document, Making Tax Work: A Framework for Enhancing Tax Transparency, from which the Principles were originally drawn, also said that the principles offer a robust framework for evaluating tax systems, enriching public debates and as a guide or template for action to improve national tax governance and tax systems performance.

“We built these standards on the basis that a government needs to state the principles that it is going to use to guide its tax system. So we start right at the beginning by saying this is where a government should begin to engage with its population. There can be very strong social and economic implications in the way that tax systems are designed. We suggest that governments open those projections for consultation and debate,” added University of Sheffield Professor Richard Murphy, co-author of Making Tax Work. 

Juan Pablo Guerrero also invited GIFT Stewards to endorse the principles to revenue authorities of their countries and expressed openness to present it to them for further consideration. After an open discussion that offered to support the dissemination and awareness of the principles and deepen discussions on revenue transparency, the GIFT Stewards officially adopted the Transparency Principles for Tax Policy and Administration. 

Find out more information about the Principles via: https://fiscaltransparency.net/tax-transparency-principles/