On 28-29 March 2023, IOTA had the pleasure of hosting the 30th Forum of Principal Contact Persons in Budapest, Hungary. The jubilee event brought together a great number of PCPs from the IOTA member tax administrations who joined the activity both personally and online.
This year's Forum took place in a newly developed format that provided participants with a “360 degrees view” of IOTA activities in 2023 and created a more interactive atmosphere for PCPs with the so-called “ice-breaker” sessions. Welcome remarks by Alix Perrignon de Troyes, Executive Secretary of IOTA, and Ferenc Vágujhelyi, Commissioner of the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NTCA) set the floor for the meeting.
The two days of discussions explored topics like how the organisation plans to implement its new Strategy 2023-2027 and the latest developments in the communication activities including the concept of the new IOTA Blog. Highlights of the Forum also included the Working Program 2023, the development of IOTA's international cooperation, technical assistance, and other key aspects of IOTA's activities, along with the latest improvements on the new IOTA Web Portal’s horizon.
On the first day of the Forum, members of the IOTA Secretariat delivered presentations covering the following range of topics:
- Introduction of new PCPs and Shadow PCPs presented by Alix Perrignon de Troyes, IOTA Secretariat
- Forward look on IOTA activities in 2023 presented by Alix Perrignon de Troyes, Eugenijus Soldatkovas, Roman Bichevoy IOTA Secretariat
- IOTA Communications and the new IOTA Blog, Erika Szabó, IOTA Secretariat
- Membership Engagement presented by Roman Bichevoy, IOTA Secretariat
- Induction Session for Newly Appointed PCPs presented by Roman Bichevoy, Eugenijus Soldatkovas, and Massimo Morarelli IOTA Secretariat
During the second day of the Forum meeting, the plenary session’s presentations revolved around the following themes:
- IOTA International cooperation presented by Roman Bichevoy, IOTA Secretariat
- Update on Development of IOTA Web Portal presented by László Muzslay, IOTA Secretariat
- Update on the Preparation for the 27th General Assembly of IOTA presented by Eugenijus Soldatkovas IOTA Secretariat along with the Georgian Presidency
PCPs could raise questions during the Q&A at the end of each plenary session. Furthermore, they were actively involved in group discussions and panel debates in which participants could benefit from in-depth discussions on the specific aspects of the IOTA work. The group discussion sessions were led by the International Taxation Expert Team of IOTA: Alexandros Roukalis, Ivana Donchevska, Massimo Morarelli, Oksana Stepanenko along with Jonathan Heath.
After the open Q&A session between the PCPs and the members of the IOTA Secretariat, the 30th Forum of Principal Contact Persons was closed by Alix Perrignon de Troyes, Executive Secretary of IOTA who outlined the main conclusions and next steps to be taken based on the work presented and discussed during the two-day event.
All the materials, presentations, and the full recording of the event will be soon available for IOTA Principal Contact Persons on the event’s webpage. A special thank you to everyone who joined us personally or online and to the photographer András Láng-Miticzky (NTCA) for capturing the commemorative photo of us.
