In March 1993, Dan Witt led a Tax Foundation mission to Moscow with Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Charles McLure, Congressman Bill Frenzel, and representatives of 10 American companies. Professor McLure’s expertise provided critical input that helped establish ITIC’s triangular dialogue among taxpayers, tax authorities and independent experts.

In March 1993, Dan Witt signed cooperation agreements with Russia’s Ministry of Finance and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance to create ITIC. Bill Frenzel also participated in these missions and became ITIC’s Founding Chairman of the Executive Committee.

Stanford economist Charles McLure (right) joined Dan Witt (center) and Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Gorbachev (left) to sign the Memorandum of Understanding in Moscow in March 1993.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Finance Yerkeshbay Derbisov and Dan Witt sign an agreement to launch ITIC in March 1993, while State Revenue Administration Director General Marat Ospanov looks on.

The delegation met with senior officials in the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Finance and State Tax Service as they embarked on the challenge of drafting a Tax Code to support Russia’s fiscal system and the transition to a market economy following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Founding sponsors that participated in these 1993 missions to Russia and Kazakhstan included Bechtel, Baker Hughes, British Gas, Citibank, Chevron, EY, KPMG, Nestle, PepsiCo, and PwC.

From that initial collaboration 25 years ago, ITIC has broadened its information sharing on best practices to 85 countries.