IN the aftermath of the release of the “Paradise Papers”, 200 delegates from more than 90 delegations met in Yaoundé, Cameroon for the 10th meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes which now includes 147 countries and jurisdictions.
The Global Forum adopted the first report on the status of implementation of the AEOI Standard a few weeks after almost 50 countries started exchanges of information under the new standard on automatic exchange of information, with another 53 countries starting in September 2018. The principle of annual implementation reports and peer reviews were agreed at the meeting to ensure effective implementation and a level playing field.
The Global Forum published peer reviews of Curaçao, Denmark, India, Isle of Man, Italy and Jersey. The publications bring to a total of 16 the number of second round reviews of the Forum’s 147 member countries and jurisdictions based on its international standard of transparency and exchange of financial account information on request. The standard was reinforced last year to tackle tax evasion more effectively, particularly in areas covering the concept of beneficial ownership.
Delegates at the Yaoundé meeting also agreed that the countries and jurisdictions working within the Global Forum as well as within the Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) could provide support to the European Union on its current listing exercise to identify third country jurisdictions that fail to comply with tax governance standards
In other developments at the meeting, the Global Forum’s Africa Initiative will continue the work in order to benefit from advances in tax transparency. Other regional initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Asia are also helping to improve cross border taxation through effective use of exchange of information, both on request and automatically.
“Cameroon was proud to host the 10th Global Forum meeting as tax evasion and avoidance represent huge loss of revenues that countries could invest in public services” said Alamine Ousmane Mey, Minister of Finance, Cameroon. “The work of the Global Forum is key for developing countries, including those of Africa, and we are looking forward to keep working with our peers to strengthen global tax transparency ”.
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