As you may recall, the Center for Taxpayer Rights originally planned to hold this conference in October of 2020, at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.  We are thrilled to have the African Tax Institute at the University as the host for the conference.  Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were obliged to postpone the conference until October 2021; and even now, we have had to concede that we must hold the conference virtually.

Accordingly, we have planned 4 days of panels and workshops on this important topic, running from 05 October to 08 October 2021.  You can find a copy of the agenda here.

On 05 October, we will be holding a free workshop on the Role of Tax Clinics and Taxpayer Ombuds/Advocates in Promoting Access to Justice and Protecting Taxpayer Rights.  This workshop will run from 14:00 to 16:00 South African Summer Time (SAST).  You can find your corresponding timezones here.

Over 06 to 8 October, 2021, we will hold six panels, two each day, along with current developments updates.  Panel topics include:

• Taxpayer Rights as human rights;
• Taxation as a means to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa and other developing countries;
• Independent administrative appeals and the promotion of integrity and fairness in the tax system;
• The role of legal privilege in the protection of taxpayer rights;
• Digitalization of tax administration and the implications for protection of taxpayer and human rights; and
• Barriers to access to justice and their impact on achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

Holding the conference online has one upside – it dramatically increases our accessibility!  We have always held our registration fees for in-person conferences to the minimum level possible, but the online format is allowing us to set very reasonable registration fees.  In addition to the free Tax Clinic/Ombuds/Advocate workshop, the registration fee for attendees from OECD countries is $100 USD total for all three days of panels.  The registration fee for attendees from non-OECD countries is $75 USD total for all three days of panels.  We are also able to provide significantly discounted registration for LLM/JD/PhD students — $40 USD for students from OECD countries and $35 USD for students from non-OECD countries.  We hope this will help build the next generation of scholars and advocates in the field of taxpayer rights.

And if you miss a panel because of scheduling conflicts or time zone issues, our goal is to make available to attendees rough recordings of the panels later in the day, so you can catch up.

So … I hope you will register for this important conference and join the discussion about taxpayer rights as human rights.  We are also in the process of editing the videos from the 5^th International Conference on Taxpayer Rights, held online in May, 2021.  In the meantime, you can access the agenda and materials from the 5^th ICTR here.