Tax Investigation - the International Fiscal Association  

What is the IFA and what does it do?

The International Fiscal Association (IFA) was established in 1938 and has its headquarters in the Netherlands. It is the only non-governmental international organisation dealing with fiscal matters and provides a valuable resource for those agencies concerned with tax investigation.

IFA objectives are the study and advancement of international and comparative law with regard to public finance, specifically international and comparative fiscal law. It is also concerned with the financial and economic aspects of taxation and tax investigation. IFA exerts its influence both through its Congresses and at the level of its Branches. In many countries the IFA Branch plays an active role where issues of international taxation are concerned, and it takes account of fiscal developments and changes in local legislation. Here's why it's an important and necessary body:

• International tax issues have become more numerous and of greater importance as the world's economies have become more international. The IFA has members from 91 countries so is ideally placed to co-ordinate efforts concerned with tax investigation as well as developing principals of international taxation.
• Since the end of the Second World War, IFA has played an essential role in providing possible solutions to problems arising in the practical implementation of fiscal and tax investigation issues. It has been able to do so because its membership consists of high level representatives from both the private and the public sectors, including the Courts, Universities and international governmental and non-governmental organizations. The IFA facilitates dialogue between experts from different cultures by acting as a forum for discussion.
• The IFA runs practical research programmes that are of enormous benefit to tax investigation. The David R Tillinghurst Research Programme is a study of the impact of financial and technological innovation on the taxation of income and activities. This analyses the impact of the steep increase in the modes of communication now available to us across the world, including satellite systems, on traditional taxation concepts.
• Income tax treaty arbitration deals with issues on arbitration of disputes arising under bilateral income tax treaties, including how arbitration would work in practice. Another issue the research programme will address is cross-border deferred compensation issues including pensions. A further objective is practical application of tax treaties. The studies are conducted by international experts in taxation and tax investigation, under the general supervision of the IFA's permanent scientific committee, and the completed results are expected to become available at the IFA's Kyoto Congress in 2007.
• Membership of the IFA is open to both individuals and corporations
• IFA has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. In that capacity, it is represented at meetings of the Ad Hoc Group of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters. IFA also maintains close contact with the fiscal activities of the EU, the CIAT, the ICC, the OECD and various other organisations, including its Sister Organisation, the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.

An illustration of IFA's unique role in the world of taxation, and by implication of tax investigation, where the public and private sectors are natural adversaries, is the fact that at each Congress a joint IFA/OECD Seminar is held with Panellists belonging to both organisations to discuss issues of common interest

As the world goes global, organisations such as the IFA have an increasingly prominent role to play.

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