The OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has adopted a progress report to the G20 based on 59 peer reviews.
Governments have now signed more than 700 agreements to exchange tax information, said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.
‘Although 700 agreements is impressive, are these agreements delivering the information tax administrations need to counter all forms of non-compliance – tax fraud, evasion, and avoidance? For effective information exchange, regular discussions between the competent authorities in tax administrations must ensure that requesting administrations don’t have to jump through too many hoops to get information and that responding administrations have access to this information,’ he added.
Critics have claimed that tax information exchange agreements ‘do not work’. John Christensen, Director of the Tax Justice Network, argues that the OECD ‘is unsuitable to lead global attempts to tackle offshore secrecy’.
The OECD should ‘stand aside and allow a suitably politically upgraded UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation on Tax Matters to take over responsibility for carrying forward the vital agenda of ending tax havenry’, he said.
The OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has adopted a progress report to the G20 based on 59 peer reviews.
Governments have now signed more than 700 agreements to exchange tax information, said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.
‘Although 700 agreements is impressive, are these agreements delivering the information tax administrations need to counter all forms of non-compliance – tax fraud, evasion, and avoidance? For effective information exchange, regular discussions between the competent authorities in tax administrations must ensure that requesting administrations don’t have to jump through too many hoops to get information and that responding administrations have access to this information,’ he added.
Critics have claimed that tax information exchange agreements ‘do not work’. John Christensen, Director of the Tax Justice Network, argues that the OECD ‘is unsuitable to lead global attempts to tackle offshore secrecy’.
The OECD should ‘stand aside and allow a suitably politically upgraded UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation on Tax Matters to take over responsibility for carrying forward the vital agenda of ending tax havenry’, he said.
