Tax Dispute Resolution Board held its First Meeting

The first meeting of the Tax Dispute Resolution Board held on Monday, 28 October 2019, at the Revenue and Customs Conference Hall with the participation of General Director of Afghanistan Revenue Department, representative of Deputy-Finance Minister and directors of revenue.
Creation of Tax Disputes Resolution Board which has been explained in Article Fifty-fifth of the taxation act, its board members selected after successfully passing a transparent examination process that had been announced previously by the suggestion of Ministry of Finance and approval of the president.
At the meeting, DG of Afghanistan Revenue Ms. Amina Ahmady expressed her happiness for the creation of the Tax Dispute Resolution Board and called it a step towards reforms. She said, “ Decisions of tax dispute resolution board must be according to the law and shall be implemented equally to all taxpayers, onward each of the taxpayers who do not agree with the decision of Tax offices can refer to the tax dispute resolution board and submit their objections.”
The fundamental propose of Tax Dispute Resolution Board creation is to deal with taxpayers’ complaints, and objections so that if taxpayers are not satisfied with the tax office’s decision, they can submit their case to the Tax Dispute Resolution Board within thirty days.
The Tax Dispute Resolution Board is an independent board and has five members, their role and responsibilities are as follows:
Authorizations:
• Approving and modifying the tax assessment amount.
• Order of payment for any tax amount that is payable and yet not been settled.
• Submission of case to tax offices for re-assessment of tax amount in accordance with board decision.
• Issuance of any order that seems necessary for tax dispute resolution.
• Approving or amending tax decision.
• Rejecting tax office decisions and making new decisions.
• Rejecting tax office decisions and referring taxpayer cases to the tax offices for deep review of the case considering tax dispute board resolution suggestions and guidance.

Responsibilities:
• Issuance of written decision after board meeting as soon as possible.
• Notifying both parties from the decision within seven days of decision issuance.

In the meeting, the participants discussed the future plans of the board after their introduction, and it was decided that the board will prepare plans of its public awareness campaigns and provincial trips to inform the taxpayers regarding board and its activities and submit their report to the Minister of Finance.