Enabling tax avoidance

The OECD has issued a new report Ending the shell game: cracking down on the professionals who enable tax and white collar crimes, calling on countries to increase their efforts to better deter, detect and disrupt the activities of professionals who enable tax evasion and other financial crimes. The report considers the different strategies countries can take against professional service providers which play a large part in the planning and pursuit of criminal activity, referred to in the report as ‘professional enablers’.

The OECD notes that ‘the majority of professional service providers are law-abiding and play an important role in assisting businesses and individuals understand and comply with the law’. However, it is hoped that this new report will help countries deal with ‘the small subset that use their specialised skills and knowledge to enable clients to defraud the government and evade their tax obligations’. The report will be presented at the virtual OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum on 24 March 2021.