Mauritius hosts ATAF capacity building workshop

The Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA), in collaboration with the AfricanTax Administration Forum (ATAF), hosted the Intermediate Seminar on Tax Audit from 27 to 31 January 2020 at the seat of the MRA Training academy for auditors
of the MRA. 

This intermediate tax audit workshop was the second phase of the ATAF blended tax
audit program as a follow up of the online tax audit course. It was oriented towards providing the participants with an opportunity to learn the application of different audit techniques while auditing various tax types and industries
as well as adopting the correct communication techniques with taxpayers. It needs to be mentioned that the 1st ATAF Blended Learning Course on Tax Audit was held in 2013 and up to now, 33 MRA auditors have completed the online module with the next step being
to progress with the Advance Level Blended learning.

The workshop also exposed participants in identifying international tax risks which
indeed remains a major challenge in light of Base Erosion Profit Shifting. All the sessions of the seminar were interactive as participants had to complete on
the spot case studies which covered the following issues:

• Uncovering of VAT Fraud and the management
  of the fraud by the tax administration with a particular emphasis on the
  operation of Electronic Fiscal Devices

• Communication approach between an auditor
  with his/her supervisor or taxpayer or other taxpayers

• The Four Ear Model-(Matter layer,
  Self-revealing layer, Relationship layer and Appeal layer)

• Treatment of Bad Debts

The course was facilitated by one person from ATAF and four resource persons from
Swaziland, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Uganda who imparted their expertise and
experience to the MRA auditors present. At the end of the workshop, the participants expressed their satisfaction as they will apply the techniques in their daily audit activities.

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