ICC Hails Progress On Automatic Exchange Of Information

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

03 November 2014

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has welcomed an agreement reached this week by over 90 countries to automatically exchange tax information, describing the development as an important milestone for the international tax reform agenda.

On October 29, 2014, 51 jurisdictions signed a Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the automatic exchange of information that will enable "early adopters" to begin sharing data by September 2017. Other nations will exchange data automatically from 2018.

The agreement was endorsed by all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Group of Twenty (G-20) countries, as well as a number of other major financial centers participating in the seventh annual meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.

Christian Kaeser, Global Head of Tax at Siemens and Chairman of the ICC Commission on Taxation, said: "The fact that 51 countries are able to agree on and conclude to these principles proves that international alignment in tax-related matters is not impossible. From the perspective of the business community, international consistency is an important prerequisite to avoid double taxation – a phenomenon still widely unresolved and a major obstacle to cross-border business."

The ICC reiterated its commitment to provide feedback to the OECD on behalf of businesses in support of the OECD's work to develop proposals to overhaul international tax rules.

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