From September 21 to 25, 2026, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), with the support of UNDESA, held the Regional Workshop “Addressing Multinational Tax Avoidance in the Tourism Sector: Testing a Risk Assessment Tool” in Panama City, Panama.

The workshop brought together officials from tax administrations and ministries from 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to test and refine a risk assessment tool developed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The tool is designed to build the capacity of tax administrations in developing countries to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities to aggressive tax avoidance practices by multinational enterprises in their most important economic sectors. In this case, the sector analyzed was tourism.

The CIAT Executive Secretariat delivered a presentation on how advanced analytics and artificial intelligence can strengthen tax risk management, using the tourism sector as a practical case study. The presentation also addressed the application of artificial intelligence to transfer pricing analysis in tourism companies that are part of multinational groups.

Throughout the program, participants applied and assessed the risk assessment tool, exchanged experiences, and analyzed potential indicators and sources of information for identifying and prioritizing risks.

The workshop also provided an opportunity to incorporate lessons learned from the pilot implementation of the tool in two African countries and one Caribbean country. The latter shared its preliminary experience in identifying vulnerabilities and developing action plans during the activity. The comments and contributions generated throughout the sessions will help refine the tool and its supporting guidance for future use.

CIAT thanks UNDESA and all participants who contributed to the success of this activity.

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