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Armando Lara Yaffar was also
in the Global Tax 50
2014, and
2013 |
By virtue of his role as the chairman of the UN Tax
Committee, Armando Lara Yaffar is a mainstay of the Global Tax
50.
With the BEPS Project taking centre stage in the tax world
for much of 2015, the UN followed the OECD's lead by committing
to better international tax cooperation. Lara Yaffar's
organisation also threw its weight behind country-by-country
reporting (CbCR).
The impact of this should not be understated – with
193 members, the UN is engaged with far more countries than the
OECD could ever hope to be, and holds sway outside of tax and
business.
Other policy areas to which the UN committed were
strengthened transparency, greater access to beneficial
ownership information and a focus on the appropriateness of tax
incentives.
A key event in the UN calendar this year was the launch of
the Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme in July.
The programme, which is a joint initiative from the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) and the OECD, aims to supplement
the auditing abilities of developing countries in the
international tax arena.
"The Tax Inspectors Without Borders programme is an
innovative and practical way of supporting developing countries
to mobilise more domestic resources for development," says
Helen Clark, UNDP administrator. "With its country-level
presence and local knowledge, UNDP is well-placed to partner
with the OECD and the best audit experts to scale-up this
important work. TIWB can support countries to realise the
post-2015 agenda."
At the UN's third international conference on financing for
development, held in July in Addis Ababa, the UN and OECD
resisted calls for a global tax body. It was also agreed that
the UN Tax Committee would hold two annual four-day meetings,
rather than the one which it held in the past.
The director general of the Mexican Ministry of finance and
Public Credit, Lara Yaffar was also involved in the negotiation
of a double tax treaty between the Philippines and Mexico at
the start of the year. He led the delegation from his native
Mexico, while the Philippines team was led by his UN colleague,
tax expert Kim Jacinto-Henares.