The taxpayers' movement has grown out of the desire of citizens to protect themselves from the increasing tax claims from the state. It works towards a society with lower taxes and more individual freedom. It wishes to stimulate efficiency and economy in the public sector. It supports legislation to limit tax burdens, prevent unjust harassment by tax collectors, and provide clear information about government taxation and expenditure.
Taxpayers associations have existed in almost 100 years. The first associations were established in Australia and Sweden and have unbroken existence since 1919 and 1921. The biggest associations today are to be found in central and northern Europe and in the USA .
In the beginning of the decade of 2000 there are more than 50 taxpayers associations around the world in 40 countries on 6 continents, most of them members of the World Taxpayers Associations. For contact information to most of these associations and the names of their leaders and e-mail addresses please see www.worldtaxpayers.org
The steady growth of the numbers of associations has made it meaningful and important to establish regional cooperation among the different taxpayers associations with the purpose to share experience in tax legislation and administration. Also about the running of taxpayers associations, this specific type of non governmental organisations of greatest importance for individuals, companies and for the whole society.
Taxpayers Australia was established in 1919 and Japan Taxpayers Association in 1977, reorganized in 2003. With the establishment of the Korean Taxpayers Association in 1999, the Beijing International Taxation Research Society Taxpayer Branch and Korean Taxpayers Union in 2003, the Philippine Taxpayers Union in 2004, and the establishing of the Kazakhstan Taxpayers Association, KTA, and the Japanese for Tax Reform in 2005 there is a need to establish a regional cooperation like the Asia – Pacific Taxpayers Union, APTU. All associations are welcome to become members of the World Taxpayers Associations.
Practical Rules for the Asia – Pacific Taxpayers Union , APTU
- APTU is a knowledge and experience sharing union of taxpayers associations in Asia and the Pacific Region.
- 2. APTU is a non-profit/non-government union.
- APTU has no membership fees and no budget.
- APTU's objective is the protection of taxpayers rights in Asia-Pacific regions. Members of APTU adopt their own policies and views on taxes and government spending and on other issues and are not required to agree with the policies and views of other members of the union.
- Members of the APTU would meet annually, or such other times as the mutual agree, rotating in one of the countries of their members. First meeting was held 18- 20 October 2005 in Beijing hosted by the Beijing International Taxation Research Society.
- Hosting association for the annual meeting take the responsibility to edit an agenda for the conference, normally lasting for 2 – 3 days, hearing the view of the tentative agenda of the participating associations at least three weeks in prior to the conference. The last point of discussion shall always be to set date, time and hosting associations for the next meeting.
- Hosting association covers the costs for the administration of the meeting, place, premises and if possible meals for the meeting, but not - in normal cases - room and board for participants from the gusting associations. This allows the gusting associations to bring as many participants as they find reasonable. This rule can be changed or decided by mutual agreement.
- The participating associations of this union are recommended, but not required, to be member of the World Taxpayers Associations. Invitation to the annual meeting should always be sent to the Secretary General of the World Taxpayers Associations, Mr. Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg, who has written this constitution and has the privilege to participate at the meetings of the union.
- If within this region, more taxpayers associations will be established, they shall always be welcomed as members of this informal group of knowledge and experience sharing associations. New members should apply for membership of the APTU and shall be considered and determined by Peter McDonald, Fengjiang Liu and Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg.
- In order to get a better understanding and knowledge the APTU meetings should start with information about the hosting country and its history, religion, culture, political system, economy and tax system.
- At the founding meeting of APTU on 19 November 2005 in Beijing , China , Mr. Peter McDonald, the former National Director of Taxpayers Australia was elected chairman of APTU and Mr. Fengjiang Liu, Standing Vice President of the Beijing International Taxation Research Society, Taxpayers Office, was elected Secretary General of the APTU. The election was unanimous.
Korea Taxpayers Association invited all members of the APTU to participate at the APTU-meeting 2006 in Korea in cooperation with Korean Taxpayers Union, 12 - 15 October 2006 .
Asia-Pacific Taxpayers Union , APTU
Member associations from Australia , China , Japan , Kazakhstan , Korea , Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines
Australia
Taxpayers Australia , established 1919
Mr. Tony Greco , CEO
tgreco@taxpayers.com.au / www.taxpayer.com.au
P.O Box 292, East Kew, Vic 3102 Australia
1405 Burke Road, East Kew, Vic 3102 Australia
Tel: +61 419 369 038
Fax: +61 3 9819 7720
Tax Justice Association Inc, established 2005
Mr. Peter McDonald, National Director
admin@taxjustice.com.au / www.taxjustice.com.au
17 Hawkes Road Warrandyte
Victoria 3113, Australia
Tel: +61 3 9844 1134
Fax: +61 3 9844 1134
Mobile : +61 419 300 879 |
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China
Taxpayer Branch, Beijing International Taxation Research Society, established 2003
Mr. Fengjiang Liu , Vice President
FJLIU66@163.com / www.bjnsr.com.cn / www.bejingtaxpayers.com
No.1, 3 District, Anyuan Dong Li, Chaoyang District, Beijing , China . 100029
Tel: +86 10 64919265
Fax: +86 10 64919270
Mobile : +86 1391 123 2182
Inner Mongolian Taxpayers Association
Shuiyi Zhang, Vice President
Address: No.80, WuLanChaBu East Road , Hothot, Inner Mongolia .
Tel: +86 0471 4901605
Fax: +86 0471 4904226 |
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Japan
Japan Taxpayers Association, established 2003
Professor Hirohisa Kitano, President , kitano8@amber.plala.or.jp
www.taxpayers.jp/e-index.htlm (English). www.taxpayers.jp/home.html (Japanese)
KK Building 4F , 2-129, Minamiikebukuro, Toshimaku, Tokyo 1710022, Japan
Tel: +81 3 5960 6672
Fax: +81 3 5960 6651
Japanese for Tax Reform, established 2005
Mr. Masaru Uchiyama , (Mr. You) President, mobile +81 9 0322 47476
mryou@jtr.gr.jp / www.jtr.gr.jp
No.2 Nakata Bldg 7F 1-3 15 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan .
Tel: +81 3 5545 7280
Fax: +81 3 5545 0931 |
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Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan Taxpayers Association, KTA, established 2005
Mr. Daniyar Tenelov , Executive Director,
DTenelov@szp.kz
Street, Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan
Tel: +7 3272 50 50 83 – 87
Fax: +7 3272 50 50 89
Kazakhstan Tax Standards Formation Fund, established 1998
Ms. Natalya Yantsen , Director, mobile +7 3007660242
taxfund@mail.ru
212A Raimbek Ave. , office 409,
Almaty 050034, Kazakhstan
Tel/fax: +7 3272 706949
Tel: 7 3272 706908 |
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Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan Taxpayers Association, established 2004
Mr. Abdrashitov Zakir, Executive Director,
Zakir@mail.ru taxpayer@aknet.kg
Ms. Irina Kemple, Founder and former Executive Director
taxadvic@elcat.kg
40 Erkindik Boulevard Apt. 6, Bishkek 720001, Kyrgyzstan
Tel: +996 312 65 48 84 , 6549 49 , 6 31 50, 66 27 33
Fax/Tel: +996 312 66 27 33 |
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Korea
Korean Taxpayers Union, established 1999
Professor Rhee Pil-Woo , President
ktun @ktun.or.kr
#1317 YuksamB/D, 642-19 Yuksam-Dong, Kangnam-Ku, Seoul, Korea
Tel: +82 2 6249 9626 Fax: +82 2 539 8823
Korea Taxpayers Association, established 2001
Mr. Kim Sunteak, President
koreatxorg@paran.com / www.koreatax.org
403 Bugui Building
11-1 Gyobukdong Jongnogu
Seoul Korea 110-090
Tel: +61 419 300 879 Tel: +82 2 720 9817
Tel: +82 2 736 1930. Fax: +82 2 736 1931
Mr. Robert Young Suk Lee , Director Department of Improving Korean Tax System myrobertc@naver.com
11-1 Bugui Bldg, Gyobukdong Chongnogu, Seoul , Korea 110-090
Tel: +82 2 7361930. Fax: +82 2 736 1391 |
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Philippines
Philippines Taxpayers Union, established 2004
www.taxpayersunion.org
Mr. Vernie Atienza , Chairman and President
vpatienza@atenista.net
Mr. Perry Doroja , Executive Vice President
PerryDoroja@yahoo.co
Unit 313, Chateau Verde, Valle Verde I, Pasig City ,
Metro Manila , Philippines 1600.
Tel: +532 671 2697.
Fax: +532 671 743 |
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World Taxpayers Associations, established 1988 55 members from 41 countries on 6 Continents of the World - a united front for lower taxes,
less waste, accountable government and taxpayers rights all over the world.
Co-opted member: Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg , Founder and Secretary General of the World Taxpayers Associations, former President of the Swedish Taxpayers Association for 16 years. BTW@worltaxpayers.org / www.worldtaxpayers.org
Torsvikssv. 28, 181 34 Lidingo, Stockholm , Sweden
Mobile : +46 70 325 0011. Tel/fax: +46 8 765 30 02 . |
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Three more associations in the Asia-Pacific area, not yet members of the APTU:
Malaysian Taxpayers Association.
taxpayers@malaysia.com www.freewebs.com/malaysiataxpayers
Minimal Government Movement (MGM) in the Philippines .
Mr. Nonoy Oplas, minimalgovernment@gmail.com
http://gobyernopinoy.blogspot.com/ http://funwithgovernment.blogspot.com/
Pakistan Taxpayers Association.
Mr. Saleem Ahmed. saleem@finosys.com |
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Long history of regional cooperation of taxpayers
associations in different parts of the world
Nordic Cooperation, since 1961
The first regional cooperation started among the Nordic associations when they started informal yearly meetings in 1961 ( Denmark , Finland , Norway and Sweden ). The contacts between the leaders and the individual specialists have proven to be most valuable in the Nordic countries. This is probably one reason for the growth of the Nordic associations where Sweden and Finland exhibited associations with almost 200.000 paying members (= 5% of all households in Sweden ).
European cooperation, since 1969
www.taxpayers-europe.org
Taxpayers Association of Europe, TAE, was established in Luxemburg in 1969 and has a board from the member associations. All associations in Europe are members. With the establishment of the European Union the task of TAE has become more evident: to reduce agricultural subsidies, to avoid any kind of taxes on EU-level, to accept tax competition between the EU-members and to ban any attempts to force EU taxes on the low taxed countries of Europe. Secretary General of Taxpayers Association of Europe is Mr. Michael Jaeger, michael.jaeger@taxpayers-europe.org or TAEbdst@aol.com
US-cooperation, since 1980 th
Since the 1980 th national conferences are held every second year for any taxpayers association or group in the United States . The purpose is education and training in recruiting members, lobbying politicians, using email as an instrument, media contacts etc. Organizer of this two day event has been the National Taxpayer Union, NTU. President of NTU is Dr. John Berthoud, JBerthoud@ntu.org
World Taxpayers Associations, WTA, since 1988
www.worldtaxpayers.org
After the tax revolt in California in 1977 a strong wind for lower taxes swept over the world, which helped and inspired political leaders such as Ronald Reagan in the US and Margreth Thatcher in the United Kingdom to lower income taxes drastically from pretty high levels in many countries. In Sweden the highest marginal income tax was 85% for rather modest incomes, which caused high salary increases and a severe inflation. Strong leadership took over many taxpayers associations during this time and worked in the same direction.
Mr. Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg, Secretary General of the Swedish Taxpayers Association, took the lead and united existing taxpayers associations over the world and officially established the World Taxpayers Associations on 29 September 1988 with the support of other associations at the Foreign Press Club in Washington D.C. (until 2000 named Taxpayers Associations International).
Mr. David Stanley, chairman of the National Taxpayers Union and Iowans for Tax Relief, USA , is elected chairman of the WTA since 2004.
Taxpayers Associations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia , cooperation, since 2002 For the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia an informal regional cooperation was established in 2002 at a conference in Kiev for the 15 associations in the former Soviet Republics : “International Committee for the Protection of Taxpayers Rights in Eastern Europe and Central Asia ”. Taxpayers associations from the following countries participate in this exchange of experience: Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Ukraine , Russia , Bulgaria , Georgia , Armenia , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan . Mrs. Larissa Apasova is full time Director for this cooperation located at the office in Kiev of the Ukrainian Taxpayers Association, UTA, appu@carrier.kiev.ua Mr. Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg introduced the idea to establish this group in order to share information of the legislation and treatment of taxpayers in the different countries of the former Soviet republics.
East African cooperation, since 2004
The smallest regional cooperation in one of the biggest areas is the “East African front of Taxpayers Associations” with associations from Kenya , Tanzania and Uganda . The intention is to grow to other English speaking countries in eastern part of Africa, and possibly to all of Africa . Asia-Pacific Taxpayers Union , since 2005
Established in Beijing 17 October 2005 with eight associations from the following seven countries:
![]() Australia , China , Japan , Kazakhstan , Korea , Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines . |
