New IMF Tax Administration Reform Advisor for South East Europe to Join the CEF

Mr. Steffen Normann Hansen will join us at the CEF next week in the position of IMF Tax Administration Reform Advisor for South East Europe. The CEF therefore continues to host two IMF FAD advisors and their support staff, whose efforts are funded by the Japanese government.

Mr. Hansen is a Danish career administrator with a wealth of experience across all tax administration and customs components of revenue administration. Following more than twenty years of employment in various staff and middle management positions, he has since 1994 held top management positions at both regional and central level, including at the Danish Ministry of Taxation as Deputy Permanent Secretary.

Mr. Hansen has led a number of large-scale and complex development and reorganization projects, including merger of customs and tax agencies, streamlining of organization structures, and full implementation of a modern Compliance Risk Management system. He possesses a wealth of experience in cooperating with the European Commission, as well as familiarity with EU rules and regulations in customs and taxation, and with the EU customs and fiscal blueprints.

He recently left the Danish Tax and Customs Administration to use the gained expertise in the international tax field. Mr. Hansen shared with us that the new position is exactly what he has been looking for, and he is eager to get started.

He initially plans to follow the path laid out by his predecessors in the job, Mr. Norman Gillanders and Mr. Stan Shosbree. Recent years have witnessed major reforms in public sector administration, as governments strive to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of tax administrations. Central to these reforms has been the establishment of sound corporate governance practices, including modern compliance risk management approaches. This is the only way to secure the right revenue paid, and at the same time reduce compliance costs for businesses and achieve customer satisfaction.

Mr. Hansen estimates, “From my experience I know that administrations will have to create the right organization to reach the goals set out in their strategic plans. Therefore they will also need to implement the right change management strategies. Apart from continued focus on the compliance risk management initiatives already in place, my extra emphasis will be on change management strategies.”

We are very much looking forward to continue working with the IMF’s Tax Administration Reform Advisor to help SEE countries’ tax administrations deal with the challenges they face in their attempts of achieving effective and efficient application of modern risk management approaches. Together with Mr. Hansen's assistance we will proceed with turning the IMF analysis of key problems into well-designed and running learning events. For more information on our learning program on taxation please see our catalog of events.