The Pacific Islands Tax administrators Association held its annual meeting in Vanuatu last week.
Carson McNeil, from the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center, said the emphasis was on learning from other countries, so Pacific issues can be dealt with in the region.
He said there’s a move toward voluntarily tax compliance, although there is some reluctance.
“The current processes have been in for a long time, decades,” McNeil said. “It’s a question of change, and I presented on the risk management in terms of compliance, that the responses that we need to provide is a mixture of enforcement and assistance, carrot and stick…and that self assessment is the way forward under that concept.”
He said a lot of countries in the region are undergoing reform, sometimes with few resources in terms of policy design and implementation.
