GFDD’s Global Roundtable Examines Role of National Tax Systems in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

The August edition of the Global Foundation’s online broadcasting program “Global Roundtable” will have the pleasure to host Michael Lennard, Chief of International Tax Cooperation and Trade in the Financing for Development Office of the United Nations, in the Foundation’s New York office.

The upcoming program will focus on questions of international cooperation in tax matters, particularly designing a state tax
system that “promotes inclusiveness, encourages good governance, matches society’s views on appropriate income and wealth inequalities and promotes social justice’’. In this regard, further examination will be given to the UN and OECD Model Double Tax Treaties between Developed and Developing Countries, the Manual for the Negotiation of Bilateral Tax Treaties between Developed and Developing Countries, collaboration between intergovernmental
organizations, G-20 countries and civil society in implementing the Development Working Group’s report “Supporting the Development of More Effective Tax Systems.”

As a distinguished expert in trade, investment, environmental and tax treaty matters, in the course of the Global Roundtable program, Mr. Lennard will emphasize the critical role of the Financing for Development Office and the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax
Matters to provide effective secretariat support for sustained follow-up within the United Nations system to the agreements and commitments reached at the International Conference on Financing for Development and the outcomes of other major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields.

About the Financing for Development Office
The Financing for Development Office was established in the Department
of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) to monitor the implementation of policies adopted at the International Conference on Financing for Development that was held in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico. The important outcome of the Conference was the Monterrey Consensus, in which developed, developing and transition economy countries pledged to undertake important actions in domestic, international and systemic policy matters.

About the Committee of Experts
on International Cooperation in Tax Matters
The Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters as a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council is responsible for keeping under review and update, as necessary, the United Nations Model Double Taxation Convention between Developed and Developing Countries and the Manual for the Negotiation of Bilateral Tax Treaties between Developed and Developing Countries. It also provides a framework for
dialogue with a view to enhancing and promoting international tax cooperation among national tax authorities and assesses how new and emerging issues could affect this cooperation. In all its activities, the Committee gives special attention to developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

About Michael Lennard
Michael Lennard is currently serving as Chief of International Tax Cooperation and Trade in the
Financing for Development Office (FfDO) of the United Nations. His work has a particular focus on ensuring the fairness and workability of international tax norms, including achieving a greater developing countries’ input into those norms, and encouraging cooperation to improve tax systems and administrations, as a spur to sustained development. Previously Mr. Lennard was a tax treaty adviser in the OECD Tax Treaty Secretariat in Paris and prior to that he worked on tax treaty and
other international tax matters at the Australian Tax Office. He had earlier worked in the Australian government’s Office of International Law. Mr. Lennard has degrees from the University of Tasmania, the Australian National University and Cambridge.

Related Link:
www.gfddglobalroundtable.org