Translated with AI assistance
From 1 January 2027, the BRICS Tax Support Network is set to become operational. Through it, companies will be able to obtain official information about the tax systems of BRICS countries, business rules, and available services, and, if necessary, send specific questions to the tax authorities of another BRICS country. The decision was made by the heads of tax administrations at a meeting in New Delhi.
Essentially, this is about creating a single entry point for cross-border businesses into the BRICS tax systems. If a company lacks general information, it can use the network to clarify, for example, registration procedures, the taxation of a specific transaction, or the tax refund procedure with the tax authority of the relevant country.
“Tax authorities should not be the only ones to benefit from cooperation. Taxpayers must see concrete results. The BRICS Taxpayer Support Network turns our interaction into a practical service for businesses,” said Daniil Egorov, head of the Federal Tax Service of Russia.
The mechanism has already been tested. In 2025, the Russian Federal Tax Service launched a pilot exchange of business inquiries with the tax authorities of Brazil, China, and India. The FTS acted as an intermediary: a Russian company submitted a question about taxation abroad, and the service forwarded it to its foreign counterparts and returned the clarification received to the business. Later, the pilot also covered Iran and the UAE; the questions concerned company registration, certain types of transactions, international corporate structures, and tax refunds.
At the same time, the BRICS Tax Knowledge Library – BRICS Tax Knowledge Hub – is being created. It is planned to collect official materials from national tax authorities: rules and procedures, guides for businesses, links to electronic services, and answers to real questions from taxpayers. Thus, companies will be able to find some information independently, while more complex issues can be forwarded through the network to the relevant tax authority.
BRICS already has another digital tool in operation – the Marketplace of Digital Solutions for Tax Authorities – BRICS Tax Collaboration Tool. This is an open catalog of technologies and practices used by the tax administrations of the association’s countries: from digital services for taxpayers and tax control tools to big data analytics. Its purpose is, first and foremost, the exchange of technological solutions among the tax authorities themselves.
The current system has grown out of a broader restructuring of BRICS tax cooperation. In 2024, the countries established a permanent Forum of Heads of BRICS Tax Administrations, and then moved from individual meetings to working groups and joint digital projects.
At the same time, the BRICS countries agreed to launch the BRICS Tax Cross-Learning Lab – a joint educational platform for tax authority staff. Some lectures will be publicly available. In addition, a separate forum has been created for regular discussions on international taxation and transfer pricing – the rules that determine the value of transactions between related companies in different countries.
The practical value of the new system lies in reducing one of the most frustrating costs of entering a foreign market: the need to independently determine whom to contact with a tax question and how reliable the information found is. If the network operates in the announced format, companies will gain an official channel for obtaining clarifications directly from the tax administration of the relevant country — particularly useful when registering a business, conducting cross-border transactions, claiming tax refunds, and operating international corporate groups.
