The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Public Finance Reform Project and Business Forum of Uzbekistan Project in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan co-hosted the business forum.

Currently tax legislation contains the provisions for the institution of tax representatives and consultants, which facilitate provision of qualified legal services for the taxpayers in resolving their tax issues starting from private consulting and ending with protection of their rights and legitimate interests in the court and tax authorities, which conforms to the European and international practices. In this case tax consultants play the role of the people with special knowledge and skills.

Implementation of the institution of tax consultants is an important and essential prerequisite in the making of the law-run governance in Uzbekistan. But this development is hindered by a number of challenges, overcoming which is essential for further successful and effective operation of domestic tax consulting.

In the framework of implementation of the Law on Tax Consulting of Uzbekistan, a number of regulatory acts were adopted to regulate the tax consulting system and the Tax Consulting Council was created under the Ministry of Finance with the mandate to coordinate the activities of the government bodies, non-government non-profit organizations, and public associations on organization of the activities of tax consultants and draft proposals for development of the tax consulting sector.

In order to review the best experiences in establishment and operation of the institution of tax consultants, in November 2008 the UNDP Public Finance Reform Project with the support of the Czech Trust Fund arranged a study tour to the Czech Republic for a group of experts involved in implementation of the tax counseling practices in Uzbekistan.

Considering that the institution of tax consultants is still in the making and there are a number of challenges in establishment of the independent community of tax consultants and codification of relationship of this community with the tax authorities and taxpayers, the objective of the roundtable was to develop conceptual approaches to the creation of tax consulting system incorporating international experiences and local context as well as recommendations for establishment of the Republican Chamber of Tax Consultants.

The issues of the current state of tax consulting, legal framework, the issues of licensing, liability, insuring the activities of tax consultants, main requirements to the qualification and skills, pre-service and in-service training of tax consultants, development of tax counseling standards and policies, and enhanced liability of the consultant for his/her work were discussed in the course of the Business Forum.

Expansion of the pre-service and in-service training of tax consultants and the procedures of exams and the role of public institutions in the development of the institution of tax counseling has particularly drawn the interest of the participants.

The representatives of the Senate and the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Finance, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, international organizations, Chamber of Tax Consultants, the Association of Accountants and Auditors, Chamber of Auditors, Association of the Faculty of Business Disciplines, and independent experts attended the workshop.