Astana, November 3, 2011 – The Russian version of new World Bank publication “Risk-Based Tax Audits: Approaches and Country Experiences” was presented to the general public today in the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“I would not surprise you saying that the main task of the modern tax administration system is not just to collect taxes”, started her welcoming speech Sebnem Akkaya, World Bank Country Manager in Kazakhstan, “Policy makers around the globe are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of policies that will promote business development and create an environment conducive to voluntary compliance. This requires an environment where a vast majority of taxpayers comply with their tax obligations without intervention from tax officials”.
In February 2011, the Government of Kazakhstan jointly with the World Bank launched a five year Tax Administration Reform Project aimed at modernization of tax service. “In Kazakhstan risk management is being introduced in many public agencies, including Tax Service. The aim is to improve business climate and ease doing business in the country, as well as to promote voluntary taxpayer compliance with tax regulations and to increase administrative efficiency. The work is underway, and already now we have certain results”, said Daulet Yergozhin, Chairman of the Tax Committee of the Kazakhstan Ministry of Finance.
The presented publication highlights key concepts of risk based audit selection, the specificities of treatment for different segments of taxpayers, and details on implementation matters such as the requirement for data management tools, software, and hardware. The authors of the publication are practitioners and international experts in the area of tax administration reform in their respective countries, among them representatives of Kazakhstan Tax Committee Mr. Yerzhan Birzhanov, and Mr. Aidar Mekebekov.
“Risk management is a modern tool in compliance management used in most developed tax systems and aims at focusing compliance efforts on high risk taxpayers while facilitating honest taxpayers”, said Munawer Sultan Khwaja, WB Senior Public Sector Management Specialist, one of the authors of the publication, during the presentation event. “First the book was published in July in English. Due to favorable comments received from tax authorities around the CIS countries and requests for its Russian translation, now we have obtained the Russian version. We hope this will be of interest to policymakers in developing and transition countries, researchers, and other development agencies looking for ideas on how to support good governance”.
The publication provides country specific case studies of different stages for selection of taxpayers based on risk assessment provided by the very sophisticated systems of UK, Sweden, and the Netherlands to those who have developed the system recently, like Bulgaria and the new entrants in this area like Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
This publication is available at the Public Information Center located in the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the office of the World Bank Country in Kazakhstan. The Public Information Center is jointly established by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the UN office in Kazakhstan.
The World Bank’s overall mission in Kazakhstan is to help the Government in achieving diversified and sustainable economic growth and improving the living standards of population. To date, the Bank has provided 37 loans to Kazakhstan for the total amount of over US$ 5.5 billion.
