Pascal Saint-Amans will resign as the director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) at the end of October, bringing his 15-year career at the organization to a close.
Saint-Amans announced his decision via Twitter and LinkedIn on September 5 “with mixed emotions.” He told Tax Notes that his departure comes as the two-pillar project for addressing the tax challenges of the digital economy winds down and will allow new leadership to take on the next challenges.
“We are at the end of the tax cycle of the deal, a new cycle opening that will last years, that requires an investment for years,” Saint-Amans said. “A new cycle with globalization, a new environment, and I think new leadership will be good for the project and for the organization.”
Grace Perez-Navarro, deputy director of the CTPA, will step in as director from November 1 until she retires on March 31, 2023. Achim Pross, head of the CTPA’s international cooperation and tax administration division, and David Bradbury, head of the CTPA’s tax policy and statistics division, will serve as acting deputy directors.
“This will help us maintain our momentum on the implementation of our two-pillar international reform efforts at a critical time,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in a September 5 statement.
Saint-Amans became CTPA director in February 2012. He first joined the organization in 2007 as head of the International Cooperation and Tax Competition Division, where he oversaw work in areas including tax crimes and money laundering, detrimental tax practices, and cooperation among tax authorities. He is perhaps best known for leading the OECD/G-20 base erosion and profit-shifting project and the two-pillar project for addressing the tax challenges of the digital economy.
Saint-Amans also led the establishment of automatic exchange of financial account information and exchange of information on request among the majority of the 165 members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information in Tax Matters. He also helped to establish the information exchange standards for those two areas within the global forum. Other accomplishments include establishing the Tax Inspectors Without Borders program and building the inclusive framework on BEPS and the inclusive forum on carbon mitigation approaches.
Saint-Amans said he will leave his post on good terms and praised the strong leadership of Cormann, Perez-Navarro, Pross, and Bradbury. He also expressed gratitude to the CTPA team as a whole, which he described as a family.
The outgoing tax chief kept his next move under wraps, only hinting that he will “keep a foot in tax.” However, he ruled out moving to a tax law or accounting firm.
Saint-Amans said he was leaving because he is confident that the October deal, which set the architecture for both pillars, will be implemented.
The decision to step down didn’t come lightly and took much reflection, according to Saint-Amans. He had considered leaving after 137 jurisdictions in the inclusive framework reached a political accord on the two-pillar global tax reform plan in 2021 but stayed longer to help Cormann launch the inclusive forum on carbon mitigation approaches.
“It’s mission largely accomplished,” Saint-Amans said. “But I have been on a mission that sucks your brain oxygen, and at some point, it’s time to move [on].”