MOF organizes MENA-OECD seminar on Tax Treaties
Posted on: November 16th, 2009
Industry: Government
Country: United Arab Emirates
To strengthen the framework of strategic cooperation between United Arab Emirates and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and in line with UAE’s lead in establishing a regional dialogue on key issues from tax treaties, Ministry of Finance (MOF) has organized the second edition of its MENA-OECD seminar. Taking place in Dubai between 15th and 19th November, the seminar focuses on the design and implementation of the tax treaties under the theme “Establishing a Solid Network of Tax Treaties in Middle East and North Africa.” It is being attended by representatives of public tax authorities of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan.
The seminar series intends to build on the first edition of the meetings, held in October 2006, which formed the first regional dialogue based on the principles of the OECD to share experiences, data and analysis of key issues facing negotiators while evaluating international treaties. Those meetings resulted in signing a memorandum of understanding between all parties to continue the seminar framework from 2007to 2009.
Commenting on the seminar’s importance, Yousuf Bin Hajar, Regional and International Financial Relations Department: “This initiative confirms UAE’s commitment towards objective tax treaties that create a stable environment for investment. It also demonstrates our desire to create and strengthen strategic partnerships with countries that we have trade and economic relations with. UAE began signing bilateral agreements concerning double taxation avoidance in 1987 and today the number of these agreements stands at 49. The UAE leads the MENA region in this respect.”
UAE plans to renew the agreement with OECD to host similar seminars for the next three years till 2012 to ensure that the Emirates’ expertise in setting objectives for bilateral agreements and the strategies to achieve these goals can be shared with the rest of the region. UAE is well versed with actions needed to avoid direct and indirect double taxation, the mechanisms to avoid discrimination in tax treatment, rules of sharing income from taxation, preventing tax evasion and resolving cross – border tax disputes.
The seminar series will examine numerous tax case studies and words that carry more than one meaning in the writing of treaties, avoidance of grammatical errors, taxation on business profits and individual services, and taxation on investment income. The modernization process of OECD principles regarding tax treaties for 2010 and development of Arabic versions of these treaties will also be shared.
“UAE has adopted a more open development strategy and a rational fiscal policy that enabled it to achieve high growth rates over the years. It has managed to build a strong asset base in other countries and has expanded its non-oil sector. The strategy of developing additional national income sources has enabled UAE to achieve macroeconomic stab.” concluded Bin Hajar.
