Advances are being achieved in bringing greater transparency to financial centres around the world, but progress on exchange of information on tax issues is more limited, according to the OECD.
Striving to achieve greater 'fairness' and increased co-operation on tax issues around the world, OECD’s Global Forum on Taxation has drawn up standards of transparency and effective exchange of information designed for all countries to implement and adhere to.
The OECD’s latest report, entitled ‘Tax Co-operation: Towards a Level Playing Field – 2008 Assessment by the Global Forum on Taxation’, aims to determine the extent to which these standards are in fact being met by the 83 OECD and non-OECD economies. It acknowledges mixed results, however.
Although detailing advances in the availability of ownership information and access to bank information for tax purposes by several countries, it does make known that only a small number of offshore financial centres have demonstrated their compliance by expanding their network of exchange-of-information agreements.
Among those countries spear-heading reforms in terms of tax transparency is the Isle of Man. A new Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the United Kingdom signed on Monday forms part of a wider willingness to co-operate, with 11 such agreements having now been signed.
However, according to the report, significant restrictions to bank information access for tax purposes remain in three OECD countries – Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland – and in a number of offshore financial centres including Liechtenstein, Panama and Singapore. The report also accuses several offshore financial centres who initially committed to implement the OECD’s standards of reneging on their agreement.
Among the key findings of the report are that 66 new Double Tax Conventions (DTCs) and four new TIEA’s have entered into force, 17 of which have been signed since the beginning of 2007, including 9 by the Isle of Man. Of the 83 economies, 11 still do not have exchange agreements in place, either in the form of DTCs or TIEAs.
On request for information in criminal tax matters, 78 economies were able to obtain and provide banking information, including both Belgium and Malta. Belgium now exchanges bank information on request for civil and criminal tax matters under its new DTC with the US and Malta complies where reciprocal arrangements exist.
Bearer shares, often used as a vehicle for tax evasion by concealing ownership, have been abolished in Cyprus, Belgium, the US and Samoa – here, with the result that their owners can now be identified.
In Andorra, under new laws, all companies are required to file accounts with a government authority. Audits of public and limited companies must be carried out where certain thresholds pertaining to assets, turnover and number of employees are exceeded.
.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy & Cookies
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment