The growing outward projection of the Tax Agency gives increasing importance to the scope of its international relations. The Tax Agency maintains permanent channels of communication, collaboration and mutual assistance with other tax authorities and international organisations, both in Europe and Latin America and in other geographical areas.

From this international aspect of the Tax Agency arose the need to create a specific and appropriate organic unit, which would ensure the coordination of activities of an international nature, thus institutionalizing an area of great importance for the Agency.

For this reason, the International Relations Coordination Unit ( UCRI ) was created by Resolution of December 26, 2004 of the President of the Tax Agency, in which it is assigned the functions of developing and coordinating the Agency's relations with foreign bodies and institutions and international organizations that are not specifically assigned to other bodies.

The coordination functions of the UCRI concern many interlocutors: internally , to all areas and officials participating in international meetings and projects, and externally , is the only point of contact for institutional relations and cooperation with other tax administrations and international organizations.

At this point, it is necessary to clarify that the UCRI does not have inspection or information exchange functions, which are assigned to other bodies, and its work is limited to tax issues, there being a General Subdirectorate of International Relations in the Department of Customs and Special Taxes to develop the functions of coordination of institutional relations and cooperation within its own scope.

In the exercise of its functions, the UCRI manages the participation of the Tax Agency in various international organizations, which are:

• The Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission ( DG TAXUD ) , within which two initiatives are worth highlighting:

  • The European Union Tax Administration Summit ( Tax Administration EU Summit – TADEUS ) , a meeting forum for the general directors of the tax authorities of the member states of the European Union with the European Commission, whose essential purpose is to improve administrative cooperation within the European Union and to discuss how to address common challenges.

  • The Programme, a cooperation programme funded by the European Union focused on improving the functioning of the internal market tax systems, which enables participating countries, their tax authorities and officials to collaborate in the fight against fraud, evasion and aggressive tax planning. Its objectives also include contributing to the uniform implementation of EU legislation on information exchange, supporting administrative cooperation and helping to reduce administrative burdens and compliance costs.

• The Tax Administration Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( FTA - OECD ) , a body whose purpose is to establish a forum of general directors of tax administrations from the five continents in which to identify, debate and influence global trends and develop new ideas to improve the equity and efficiency of tax administrations, reduce administrative burdens and improve voluntary compliance and legal certainty. The FTA helps to implement within tax administrations the standards created by other bodies of the OECD and partners, such as the Fiscal Affairs Committee, the Global Forum on Transparency and Information Exchange or the Inclusive Framework of BEPS . Currently, the FTA has 52 members. Furthermore, within the FTA , a platform has been established to combat tax evasion and to collaborate within the framework of bilateral and multilateral treaties and information exchange agreements, the so-called Joint International Task Force on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration– JITSIC , in which 42 tax authorities participate, the Spanish one being one of them. The UCRI is the Tax Agency's point of contact to manage interactions with the JITSIC .

• The Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations ( CIAT ) , an international organization focused primarily on the American continent, whose mission is to offer a comprehensive service for the modernization, strengthening and technical development of the tax administrations of its member countries (currently 42).

• The Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations ( IOTA ) , an international organisation that carries out its functions within the European territorial scope, whose main objectives are to promote cooperation between its members, support them in the implementation of their development programmes, identify good practices and promote their adoption, and constitute a consultation forum for its members. Currently, IOTA has 45 full members.

In addition, the UCRI coordinates the participation of Tax Agency officials in technical assistance and cooperation and capacity building activities through the following programs and organizations:

• Program Tax Inspectors without Borders , joint initiative of the OECD and the United Nations Development Program that offers technical assistance and knowledge in tax auditing to developing countries.

• Program Global Relations of the OECD , a program through which the members of the OECD commit to contributing to the economic development of both members and non-members They are, creating a platform for the exchange of knowledge in various matters, including tax.

• Collaboration with the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies ( FIIAPP ) in the international cooperation projects on tax matters of this foundation of the Spanish public sector. Some examples of collaboration with the FIIAPP are:

  • twinning or twinning , an instrument of cooperation between the public administrations of the member states of the European Union and the beneficiary countries, financed by the European Commission.

  • The EUROsociAL Programme is a cooperation programme between the European Union and Latin America that contributes to reducing inequalities, improving levels of social cohesion and strengthening institutions in 19 Latin American countries by supporting their processes of designing, reforming and implementing public policies, focusing its action on the areas of gender equality, democratic governance and social policies.

  • The Cuba - European Union Expert Exchange Programme , also funded by the European Commission, whose main objective is to assist the Cuban government in the modernization of its public administration.

The UCRI , in its capacity as a single point of contact with the Tax Agency, also channels cooperation and technical assistance requested by other international organizations (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank), international cooperation agencies from other countries and bilateral requests.