In a presentation to a working party of the 27 EU member states, excluding the UK, in early February, the European Commission set out plans for a ‘level playing field’ in the EU’s future relationship with the UK after Brexit, which included a tax good governance clause.
The OECD has addressed two further issues in its guidance on CbC reporting (BEPS Action 13) and has released a compilation of alternative approaches adopted in different jurisdictions.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called upon the European Commission to set out more precise hallmarks to support its proposed new disclosure and reporting rules for intermediaries who advise on cross-border tax planning schemes.
Barbados, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Malaysia, Panama and Tunisia have signed the OECD’s ‘Multilateral convention to implement tax treaty related measures to prevent BEPS’, bringing to 78 the number of signatories.
Eight members of the OECD’s forum on tax administration (FTA): Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US, have launched a pilot for a new International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP) that will use CbC reports and other information to facilitate co-operation
The EU has agreed to move Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Panama, Tunisia and the UAE from its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions to the lower-risk category of ‘subject to close monitoring’.
The OECD has published the comments received on its December discussion draft on model mandatory disclosure rules for the common reporting standard (CRS).
Panama has become the 98th jurisdiction to sign the CRS Multilateral competent authority agreement, enabling automatic exchange of financial account information between tax authorities.