By TII News Service
PARIS, MAY 07, 2014: BANK secrecy for tax purposes is coming
to an end as countries and major financial centres commit to automatic exchange
of information between jurisdictions.
The Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters was endorsed
during the OECD’s annual Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris by all 34 member
countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India,
Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Africa.
The Declaration commits countries to implement a new single global standard on
automatic exchange of information. The standard, which was developed at the OECD
and endorsed by G20 finance ministers last February, obliges countries and jurisdictions
to obtain all financial information from their financial institutions and exchange
that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.
"Tax fraud and tax evasion are not victimless crimes: they deprive governments
of revenues needed to restore growth and jeopardise citizens’ trust in the fairness
and integrity of the tax system," OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said. "Today’s
commitment by so many countries to implement the new global standard, and to
do so quickly, is another major step towards ensuring that tax cheats have nowhere
left to hide."
The OECD will deliver a detailed Commentary on the new standard, as well as technical
solutions to implement the actual information exchanges, during a meeting of
G20 finance ministers in September 2014.
G20 governments have mandated the OECD-hosted Global Forum on Transparency and
Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to monitor and review implementation
of the standard.
More than 60 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to early adoption
of the standard, and additional Global Forum members are expected to join this
group in the coming months.
|
