The decision to establish the Coordination Council and approval of the Regulations on it was made at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of Governments on May 31, 2001 in Minsk. The Decision participants are 10 CIS states (except for Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan).

In accordance with the Regulation on the Council, the preparation of materials for the meeting of the Council is carried out by the tax service of the state, whose representative is the chairman of the Council, in cooperation with the CIS Executive Committee.

The Council includes the heads of tax services from 10 CIS member states. The Council interacts with the CIS Executive Committee (the Council includes a representative of the CIS Executive Committee with an advisory vote - Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee - Executive Secretary of the CIS).

The main directions of the Council's activities are:

• cooperation and interaction between the tax services of the member states of the Commonwealth, which are responsible in accordance with national legislation for tax policy and tax administration;
• development of proposals for the improvement and harmonization of national legislation governing tax policy and tax administration;
• creation of optimal conditions for the functioning of the free trade zone;
• development and assistance in the implementation of the adopted interstate and intergovernmental agreements and decisions in the field of optimization of tax policy and tax administration.
• ensuring the clearness of the tax legislation of the CIS member states in order to create a unified tax space that would ensure equal conditions for economic activity;
• strengthening of interstate tax control in the field of foreign economic activity;
• intensification of the exchange of information between the tax services of the CIS member states in the field of control over the actual movement of goods, works and services in mutual trade when collecting indirect taxes on the principle of “country of destination” between the CIS member states;
• coordination of the activities of tax services to control the production and turnover of alcohol and tobacco products;
• development of mutually beneficial cooperation with other bodies of sectoral cooperation of the member states of the Commonwealth and national structures, whose functions include issues of tax policy and tax administration, in accordance with the current national laws and norms of international law;
• interaction in the field of exchange of experience and training.

Since the beginning of its activity in 2001, the Coordinating Council of the Heads of Tax Services of the CIS Member States has been carrying out work aimed at ensuring to business entities the level of tax legal relations corresponding to generally accepted international approaches. For this reason, the elimination of double taxation has become one of the main areas of cooperation between tax services.

A unified international legal regime of taxation for mutual investment and trade has not yet been created in the CIS space. Realizing the principle of tax sovereignty, each state has passed legislation obliging to make tax payments from the income of not only national, but also foreign companies. Similar rules apply to individuals. Moreover, the approaches of states to the amount of tax liabilities for non-residents and the circumstances when such liabilities arise differ. A number of states are ready to more level the conditions for national and foreign persons. This means that when transferring many incomes, tax is withheld on average in the amount of 15-20%. In other states, taxation of non-residents is carried out only upon the occurrence of certain circumstances and on a limited list of types of income. However, whatever the volume of the tax liability for a foreign company or citizen, their activities become economically ineffective, since they are also subject to taxation at the place of registration.

The claims of both states for the right to tax the income of a subject of foreign economic activity can have a negative impact on such important indicators characterizing interstate relations as the volume of trade, lending and investment in a different form.

In this regard, the management of tax relations in the field of international economic relations necessitated the formation in the CIS member states of an organizational and economic mechanism for eliminating double taxation.

This mechanism is fully implemented through the conclusion and application of agreements on the avoidance of double taxation, the provisions of which establish clear rules for the distribution of jurisdiction between states for taxation of subjects of one state that receive income or have property in another CIS member state. Agreements are a kind of connecting thread for the tax systems of states, and their number increases with the development of cooperation between states.

The structures of agreements, the basic principles that have been laid down in their articles are similar to each other: when concluding them, states use recommendations and standard models developed by international organizations. At the same time, each agreement has distinctive features, which is due to the economic characteristics of the state's development and the historically established aspects of bilateral cooperation.

In addition to the rules that determine the country where taxation should take place and the size of the tax liability, the agreement also contains a mechanism for eliminating double taxation (the procedure for offsetting tax paid abroad to the amount of the national tax), the conditions for the mutual agreement procedure when considering controversial issues, as well as the procedure for the exchange of information ... These are issues that relate to the daily work to ensure tax administration of payers engaged in foreign economic activity.

Since an agreement is a tax law, the provisions of which are simultaneously applied by two states to the same person, to the same income or property, it is important that the competent services of the states equally understand and comply with its provisions.

In general, in the CIS member states there are no significant differences in the administration of agreements that would distinguish the procedure for their application from generally accepted approaches. At the same time, there are peculiarities formed by the practice of each of the tax administrations. To clarify the requirements of the taxation procedure in international transactions, the tax authorities of the states are in constant contact with each other.

As a result of such interaction, the question of the expediency of combining into a single document the normative prescriptions of governing the administration of agreements issued by all CIS member states was put on the agenda. Over the years, states have developed a certain practice, introduced national rules and procedures related to the application of agreements. These circumstances led to the interest of all tax administrations in the formation of an information collection on this topic, which should include information on the conditions for the application of agreements in the CIS member states, samples of certificates and documents necessary to obtain preference agreements, confirmation of the amounts of taxes paid abroad, requirements on filling out and conditions for submitting documents.

All this information is necessary to inform taxpayers about the requirements of the CIS member states to foreign organizations and citizens who receive income and own property on their territory in order to eliminate double taxation.

On September 25-26, 2001, the first organizational meeting of the Council was held, at which the issues of the election of the Chairman, the program of priority measures and the rules of procedure of the Council were considered.

It should be emphasized that the 25th meeting of the Coordination Council of the heads of tax services of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, chaired by the Tax Committee under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, was held in Dushanbe on August 24, 2018.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the tax departments of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, as well as Tajikistan, representatives of the CIS Executive Committee, the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, as the basic organization of the CIS member states for training, professional retraining and professional development of personnel in the field of taxes and taxation, and the Republic of Korea as an observer.

They discussed issues of tax administration in the era of the digital economy, services for taxpayers, the use of types of services, the use of simplified "special" taxation regimes by small businesses in the CIS member states for 2017.

During the 25th meeting of the Coordinating Council of the heads of tax services of the CIS member states, a draft Protocol on the exchange of information in electronic form between the CIS member states for the implementation of tax administration was also considered.

The XXVI meeting of the Coordination Council of the heads of tax services of the CIS member states was held in Russia in November 2019. It was devoted to the topic of electronic services for taxpayers and digital delivery channels. The authority to conduct it was transferred to the Federal Tax Service of Russia during the XXV meeting of the CCHTS of the CIS member states, which took place in Dushanbe.

At the XXVI meeting of the CCHTS, the authority to hold the XXVII meeting was transferred to the Republic of Azerbaijan.