Report of the technical workshop of the Association of African Tax Administrators (AATA) held at Gaborone (Botswana)

Abstract

After the observer from IMF, Mr. Leif Muten, who was Rapporteur for the Session, had delivered his paper, the discussion first focussed on definitional issues. It was clear that the French usage of the word "evasion" being synonymous with.the English word "avoidance" made it difficult to discern a non-repetitious meaning of the two words in the title of the paper, both properly to be translated as "fraud". Some speakers felt, however, that in English, the terms fraud and evasion reflected, one a sin of commission, the other a sin of omission. Other speakers pointed out the unclear border-lines between acceptable avoidance, that is, avoidance measures that could be set aside fcy the authorities without constituting an offense, and abuses that surpassed the concept of avoidance and could be labelled criminal evasion.