The General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT), in cooperation with the European Commission, held a workshop on the application of the Value Added Tax (VAT) systems.

The three-day workshop came as a part of the GAZT cooperation with the international organizations with accumulated expertise in the preparation and application of tax systems. The workshop was attended by representatives from the GCC countries and a number of the Saudi governmental bodies.

HE Director General of GAZT Tareq bin Abdulrahman Al Sadhan welcomed the participants and wished them great stay in the Kingdom and success in sharing knowledge and expertise in the field of VAT system. 

The workshop has been facilitated by Mr. Wolfgang Berger, a senior policy adviser at the Austrian Ministry of Finance, Mr. Stefan Vossel, a senior VAT adviser at the Tax Office of Bavaria in Germany, Rosen Ivanov, Director of the Tax and Social Security Methodology Directorate, National Revenue Agency in Bulgaria and Mr. Peter Stanchev, an expert of the National Revenue Agency of Bulgaria. 

Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Munif of the Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) gave a presentation on the GCC Unified VAT Agreement.

The workshop was meant to present the best practices in the application of VAT and discuss the coordination between the GCC countries to ensure the proper implementation of the VAT and avoid tax evasion.

The European Commission is the EU's executive arm. It is alone responsible for implementing the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU (directives, instructions, and decisions). 

It supervises the budget and programs approved by the Parliament, negotiates trade agreements, deals with developing countries, draws up budget programs and manages capitals of the EU countries.