REPRESENTATIVES from more than 60 countries and jurisdictions will sign tomorrow, an innovative multilateral convention to reduce the opportunity for tax avoidance by multinational enterprises.

The signing ceremony for the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent BEPS will take place during the annual OECD Week, which brings together government officials and members of civil society from OECD and partner countries for debate on the most pressing social and economic challenges confronting society.

The signing ceremony marks a new and important milestone in the international tax agenda, moving closer to the goal of preventing base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) by multinational enterprises. The new Convention, which is the first multilateral treaty of its kind, will allow jurisdictions to transpose results from the OECD/G20 BEPS Project into their existing networks of bilateral tax treaties. It was developed through a negotiation involving more than 100 countries and jurisdictions, under a mandate delivered by G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors at their February 2015 meeting.

The OECD/G20 BEPS Project delivers solutions for governments to close the gaps in existing international rules that allow corporate profits to "disappear" or be artificially shifted to low or no tax environments, where companies have little or no economic activity. Revenue losses from BEPS are conservatively estimated at USD 100-240 billion annually, or the equivalent of 4-10% of global corporate income tax revenues.