Sixth Virtual Meeting of the Community of Practice on Tax Expenditures

The sixth virtual meeting of the Community of Practice on Tax Expenditures (TEs) showcased benchmarking experiences from the Ministries of Finance of Rwanda and the Netherlands. The session focused on the role of a well-established benchmark tax system in identifying, estimating, and reporting on TEs. Within this context, it also explored how developing and refining the benchmark is an ongoing process rather than a one-time exercise, as well as the implications that changes to the benchmark have for other stages of the TE policy cycle.

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  • Building on the momentum and vast interest generated by the Regional Workshops on Tax Expenditures, ATI, CEP and IDOS have initiated a Community of Practice (CoP) on Tax Expenditures (TEs). The objective of the Community of Practice is to provide all attendees from ATI partner countries and other interested parties with a platform to continue discussions regarding TE estimation, evaluation, reporting, and reform. In doing so, the CoP aspires to leverage the collective expertise of its members to enhance TE governance across finance ministries, revenue administrations, parliaments, and beyond.

    The first meeting, held in October 2024, provided a high-level overview of tax expenditures governance, featuring two presentations from S. Tunny Cooper (Liberia Revenue Authority) and Pande Putu Oka Kusumawardani (Ministry of Finance of Indonesia). The second session, organized in December 2024, discussed TE reporting and transparency, with a presentation by Alban Romaric Alladaye (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Benin) and the launch of the newest version of the GTETI (1.1) by Lucas Millan-Narotzky (CEP). The third meeting convened in February 2025 had TE evaluation in focus with presentations by Gerard McGuinness and Cillian O’Neill (Department of Finance of Ireland) and Tantely Ravelomanana (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Madagascar). The fourth meeting addressed the topic of TEs and their impact on climate change and the environment, with inputs from Lucas W. Davis (University of California, Berkeley, USA) and Juan Carlos Brenes Brenes (Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica). Ahead the Fourth Financing for Development conference (FfD4), the fifth meeting provided insights on the governance of tax expenditures in Brazil by Debora Freire (Ministry of Finance), and lessons on implementation in developing countries, by Hazel Granger (ODI Global and TaxDev).

  • 13.00-13.05Welcome and Introduction
    13.05-13.25Rwanda: The Role of the Benchmark Tax System
    Elysee Nyuzwenimana (Tax Policy Analyst, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Rwanda)
    13.25-13.45The Netherlands: The Role of the Benchmark Tax System
    Matthijs van Tiggelen (Policy Advisor at the Tax Policy and Analysis Unit (TPAU), Ministry of Finance, the Netherlands)
    13.45-14.25Discussion
    14.25-14.30Closing

  • The presentations of the previous meetings are available HERE.