Strengthening Capacity of Developing Countries to Increase Domestic Resource Mobilization for Investment in Sustainable Development

The project aims to support developing countries in protecting and broadening their tax base by strengthening the capacity of their National Tax Administrations and Ministries of Finance to effectively negotiate, implement and administer double tax treaties, as well as by strengthening their capacity to identify, assess and implement the most suitable instruments to protect and broaden their tax base. This will help improve the investment climate and combat tax evasion, and thus increase tax revenues for investment in sustainable development.Within the context of current activities and ongoing international efforts, FfDO aims to provide continuity to the work already carried out and, at the same time, respond to the specific demands of developing countries for assistance in addressing issues related to international tax cooperation, in particular with respect to base erosion and profit shifting. The project will cover the translation into French of materials and publications developed by FfDO (available free of charge to tax officials from developing countries), including the Online Primer on Double Tax Treaties, the Online Primer on Transfer Pricing and the updated revision of the United Nations Handbook on Selected Issues in Protecting the Tax Base of Developing Countries, to ensure their wider accessibility to tax officials from Francophone countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Building on these materials, as well as through the development of ad-hoc resources, FfDO will deliver three capacity development workshops under this project, aimed to provide tax officials from developing countries with a wide range of tools to address their capacity development gaps in the area of international tax cooperation and protection of the tax base. In the area of double tax treaties, FfDO will continue cooperating with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to hold the 3rd UN-OECD Workshop on the Negotiation of Double Tax Treaties, a practical seminar with the purpose of providing participants with first-hand experience on the negotiation of bilateral tax treaties, as well as knowledge about problems commonly encountered in interpreting and applying them. This event will be followed by a UN Workshop on the Administration of Double Tax Treaties for Developing Countries, more specifically aimed at strengthening capacity in implementing the provisions contained in double tax treaties, with the ultimate goal to prevent the erosion of the tax base of developing countries due to the inefficient administration of tax treaties. To provide practical guidance on how to identify and assess the most suitable instruments to protect and broaden the tax base of developing countries, FfDO will then deliver a UN Workshop on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting for Developing Countries. This capacity development event will analyse a range of specific topics related to base erosion that are of particular relevance to developing countries, including the taxation of services, base-eroding payments of interest, royalties and other rents, general anti-avoidance rules, and the taxation of the extractive industries.