YTJN Nairobi Tax Talks RoundUp: Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Develop a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (Day 3 Recap)

Delegates agreed on the importance of preventing disputes before they occur. Yet tools like advance pricing agreements, joint audits, simultaneous examinations, and cooperative compliance programs remain unevenly accessible. Key views included support for a legal basis enabling cross-border preventive cooperation, strong calls for capacity-building, information-sharing, and improved access to timely data, and emphasis on strengthening information systems and exchange-of-information frameworks. Interests were also seen in optional cross-border prevention mechanisms backed by future best practices and CoP-led support.

The third intergovernmental session on the UN Tax Convention, hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, has three main objectives: to review the draft text of the Framework Convention negotiations to reach a common understanding on the articles and protocols and develop a more coherent text in the coming months; to provide updates on progress made during the intersessional period on Protocol 1, concerning the taxation of income from cross-border services, with a view to presenting potential options and approaches for the committee’s consideration during the 4th session in February 2026; and to turn to Protocol 2, where the workstream has begun developing preliminary approaches outlined in the concept note.