Blog

08
Apr

Pressure to end tax evasion grows as the Global Forum publishes new reviews

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has just completed peer reviews of another 11 jurisdictions

Reports on Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Malta, Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Slovak Republic evaluate whether their national laws allow transparency and international exchange of tax information (Phase 1). The review of Korea also looked at the effectiveness of Korea’s exchange of information in practice (Phase 1 plus Phase 2). These reports bring to a total of 70 the number of peer review the g Global Forum has completed since March 2010.

The Global Forum also issued 3 supplementary reports – for Barbados, Bermuda and Qatar – which assess whether these jurisdictions have acted upon the Forum’s recommendations to improve agreements and legislation. All three jurisdictions’ compliance with the international standards has progressed significantly. The Phase 2 reviews for Bermuda and Qatar will take place in the second half of 2012 and for Barbados in the first half of 2013.

These in depth reviews identify deficiencies and make recommendations on how the jurisdictions should address these concerns. The legal and regulatory framework is improving quickly in many jurisdictions. Previously, 11 jurisdictions were not able to move to the second phase in the review process. As a result of work by Barbados to establish a network of international agreements to underpin information exchange in tax matters, Barbados can now move to its Phase 2 review.

The reports of Costa Rica and Guatemala, however, conclude that they will not yet move to the next stage of the review process because the deficiencies in their legal frameworks are serious. This will be reconsidered once reports on their progress are received.

source:oecd.org