KENYA is the latest country to sign the
Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
Kenya is the 12th African country to sign the Convention and the 94th jurisdiction
to join it.
Salma Ahmed, Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to France signed the Convention
in the presence of the OECD Deputy Secretary General, Douglas Frantz.
The Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax
matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic
exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance
in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of
taxpayers’ rights.
The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe
in 1988 and amended in 2010 to respond to the call by the G20 to align it to
the international standard on exchange of information and to open it to all
countries, thus ensuring that developing countries could benefit from the new
more transparent environment.
Since then, the Convention has become a truly global instrument. It is seen
as the ideal instrument for swift implementation of the new Standard for Automatic
Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD
and G20 countries as well as automatic exchange of country by country reports
under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. It is also
a powerful tool for the fight against illicit financial flows.
By signing the Convention, Kenya takes a further step in fighting tax evasion
and avoidance, building on its participation in the Global Forum on Transparency
and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which it joined in 2010.
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