EDGE Magazine | Q3 2011


T


he Organisation for Economic


Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Tax Information held its third annual meeting from the 31st of May until the 1st of June 2011 in Hamilton, Bermuda.


Besides the delegates from 101 jurisdictions, many international organisations participated, such as the African Taxation Administration Forum, the Carribean Community Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the European Union, the Inter- American Center of Tax Administrations, the International Monetary Fund, the Carribean Regional Technical Assistance Center, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations and the World Bank.


Tax information exchange standards are seen as a global issue that needs to be addressed globally by a global community. The Global Forum has a three-year mandate from 2009 to 2011 to monitor and peer review the implementation of the standards of transparency and exchange of tax information. The Global Forum also plays a key role in the G-20 nations' efforts to crackdown on tax havens, which help entities to stash away black money. The Global Forum showed a growing commitment to eradicate tax avoidance, being under pressure after the G-20 meeting and street protests in London in the year 2009 and after sanctions were threatened on developing country members for failing to meet OECD requirements in February 2011. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the development banks and the regional tax organisations, as well as the Group of 20 (G-20), are said to have confidence in the work of the Global Forum. G-20 were established in 1999, in the wake of the financial


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crisis, to bring together major advanced and emerging economies to stabilize the global financial market.


The Global Forum has just amended the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. This amendment allows all countries to sign on to cross border tax-cooperation and information-sharing protocols, while the signatories may still opt out in certain areas, such as assistance in tax recovery. The OECD will be put into charge of the arbitrage in case of international tax disputes.


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