THE Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes
published new peer review reports today for 12 countries or jurisdictions, moving
further ahead with its goal to implement global standards on transparency and
exchange of information for tax purposes.
Phase 1 reports on Albania, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Lesotho,
Pakistan and Uganda assessed their legal and regulatory frameworks for transparency
and exchange of information on request. These countries were assessed to have
legal frameworks in place to enable them to move to the next stage of the review
process, which will assess exchange of information practices.
The Global Forum also reviewed exchange of information practices through Phase
2 peer review reports in Lithuania and Sint Maarten. Both were given a rating
for compliance with the individual elements of the international standard and
an overall rating with Lithuania receiving an overall rating of “Compliant” and
Sint Maarten an overall rating of “Partially Compliant.”
Jurisdictions continue to request supplementary reviews that assess steps taken
to address recommendations of the Global Forum to address gaps in their legal
frameworks and exchange of information practices identified in previous reviews.
This included the Marshall Islands, which had been blocked from moving to Phase
2 of its review process due to significant gaps in its legal framework. A supplementary
review concluded that key changes to its legislation now enable the Marshall
Islands to move to Phase 2.
Austria, which was rated “Partially Compliant” in July 2013, has since implemented
a number of recommendations by the Global Forum, leading to an upgrade of its
overall rating to “Largely Compliant” in its supplementary report. The supplementary
report of the British Virgin Islands, which assesses progress made since its
Phase 2 report in July 2013 also concluded that based on significant improvements
having been made, its overall rating be upgraded from “Non-Compliant” to “Largely
Compliant.”
The Global Forum is the world’s largest international tax group, with 127 members
on an equal footing. The Forum has now completed 198 peer reviews and assigned
compliance ratings to 80 jurisdictions that have undergone Phase 2 reviews. Of
these, 21 jurisdictions are rated “Compliant”, 46 are rated “Largely Compliant”,
10 are rated “Partially Compliant” and 3 jurisdictions are “Non-Compliant.” A
further 12 jurisdictions are blocked from moving to a Phase 2 review due to insufficiencies
in their legal and regulatory framework.
In an important step towards the smooth implementation of the OECD’s standard
on Automatic Exchange of Information, the Global Forum has launched a multilateral
process to evaluate confidentiality and data safeguards frameworks in more than
90 jurisdictions which have committed to begin automatic information exchange
by 2017 or 2018.
The Global Forum continues to ensure that the benefits of participation in the
new tax transparent and cooperative environment are available to all. It has
conducted a number of training seminars to help jurisdictions prepare for peer
reviews, sensitize tax auditors in the use of the exchange of information infrastructure
and equip governments to implement automatic exchange of information. Around
200 tax experts participated in seminars in Colombia, Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya.
The Global Forum will also support a new pilot project on Automatic Exchange
of Information announced jointly by Ghana and the UK on the sidelines of the
3rd Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa.
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