Seven more countries assessed for tax transparency
14 April 2011
The OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and
Exchange of Tax Information has published evaluation reports on
Aruba, the Bahamas, Belgium, Estonia, Ghana, Canada and
Germany.
The peer review evaluations fall into two
types. Aruba, The Bahamas, Belgium, Estonia and Ghana were
undergoing "Phase 1 tests", which merely checked their legal and
regulatory preparedness for tax information exchange, not whether
it is actually happening. The examinations of Canada and Germany
combined a Phase 1 check with an assessment of their implementation
of tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) in practice - a
"Phase 2 test".
The OECD's summary of the results avoids the
language of pass and fail, but, briefly:
• The Bahamas was found adequate on all Phase
1 counts - except that it needs to increase the availability of
accounting information for international companies, registered
private and foreign-incorporated companies, authorised purpose
trusts and foundations.
• Aruba needs to improve the availability of
information on limited partnerships and some companies. It also
needs to move quickly to bring into force the TIEAs it has signed
over the past two years.
• Belgium has signed 41 TIEAs in the past two
years, but only one of them has ever been brought into force. The
country must ratify a "significant number" of these agreements
before it can move to the next stage (Phase 2).
• Estonia's strict bank secrecy means it is
not ready to sign tax information exchange agreements. It also
needs to improve availability of information on foreign companies
and foundations.
• Ghana does have a legal framework suitable
for tax information exchange, though it has only recently relaxed
its banking secrecy laws. It too needs to improve availability of
information on foreign companies, trusts, and underlying
documentation for accounting records.
Canada and Germany, both members of the
influential G7 group of nations, were fully approved by their peer
reviewers for both Phase 1 and Phase 2. However they were advised
to improve availability of ownership information of bearer shares
and nominees, and the reviewers pointed out that Germany was slow
to respond to requests for assistance.
• The OECD Global Forum has so far published
reports on 25 of its members. Ten were published in January, four
of which - Barbados, San Marino, the Seychelles, and Trinidad and
Tobago - failed their Phase One reviews. Another 35 reviews will be
completed by November for the G20 Summit at Cannes.
Source
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development