Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

Tax Reform Technical Group Holds Meeting in Chuuk

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): August 12, 2009 – The FSM Tax Reform Technical Group held a meeting in Weno, Chuuk on July 7-9, 2009 to further review tax reform legislations. The technical group completed its review of the draft Unified Revenue Authority Act (URA) in the previous meeting held in April of 2009, so at this meeting, they focused on reviewing draft legislations for the Revenue Administration Act (RAA), the Net Profits Tax (NPT) Act, the National Import Value Added Tax (VAT) and State Model VAT Acts.

The technical group reached agreement on the substance of the draft RAA and NPT legislations but there were substantive issues on the National and State VAT legislations that needed to be addressed before they recommend the legislations to the Executive Steering Committee (ESC).

For the RAA, the technical group recommends ESC endorsement and that the same Revenue Administration Act needs to be passed by the National as well as each State Government.

For the NPT Act, the technical group recommends that the ESC consider the draft Act giving consideration to the policy issues and questions that they submitted with their decision.

The staff will do more research on the remaining substantive issues for the VAT Acts as well as seek input from the legal advisor authoring the bills, Mr. Lee Burns, who will need to give more input to address the issues.

The technical group will meet again in Guam, prior to the next ESC meeting that will be held in Guam on August 24th and 25th.