All of the world’s financial centres, under the impetus of the G20, and adopting the standards developed by the OECD, made a commitment in 2009 to putting an end to tax-motivated bank secrecy. Most of the countries have kept their word but major progress must still be made, said OECD Secretary-General.

Morocco has signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, a multilateral agreement developed jointly by the Council of Europe and the OECD. Morocco is the 45th country to sign the Multilateral Convention since it was updated to meet the international standard on transparency and exchange of information and opened for signature to all countries in June 2011.

The OECD has presented to G8 leaders the steps needed to create a fairer and more transparent global tax system.

Vast amounts of money are kept off-shore and go untaxed. The more we do to combat tax fraud and evasion, the more resources we will have to finance growth-enhancing public investment, restore the health of public finances, and put the euro area economy back on a sustained and long-term recovery, said OECD Secretary-General.

Strong competition is an optimizer for our economies. First of all, it is the best catalyst to increase our productivity. This is because a strong competition framework generates the right incentives to attract the most efficient firms into our markets.

Switzerland has become the 58th country to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters during a ceremony at the OECD.

The OECD’s Task Force on Tax and Development met in Seoul, on 30-31 October 2013. Governments, international and regional organisations, civil society and business representatives reviewed progress made since the previous meeting and explored further ways to help developing countries better mobilise their domestic resources.

The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs invites public comments and input on questions related to the tax challenges of the digital economy. The Committee invites interested parties to send their comments in response to this request for input before 22 December 2013.

The international community has taken new steps to strengthen transparency and boost the comprehensive exchange of information between governments worldwide.

Kazakhstan has become the 64th signatory of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, the most powerful international instrument to fight international tax avoidance and evasion.

Tax revenues in Latin American countries continue to rise but are lower as a proportion of their national incomes than in most OECD countries. Revenue Statistics in Latin America 2012 shows that Argentina and Brazil have the highest tax revenue to GDP ratio, while Guatemala and Dominican Republic stand at the lower end.

Offshore tax evasion remains a serious problem for countries and jurisdictions worldwide, with vast amounts of funds deposited abroad and sheltered from taxation when taxpayers fail to comply with obligations in their home countries.

Public comments are invited on discussion drafts that include the proposals produced with respect to Action 2 (Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements) of the BEPS Action Plan.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría has welcomed moves by more than 40 countries – reinforced by EU leaders - to commit to a detailed timetable to step up the fight against tax evasion.

Following the financial crisis in 2008, millions of citizens faced hardship as they set about repairing the damage done to their economies and to public finances. For most people, the necessary sacrifice was bearable as long as it was shared fairly by everyone in society. Unfortunately, the evidence shows that this was not the case when it came to some large global companies.

Bank secrecy for tax purposes is coming to an end as countries and major financial centres commit to automatic exchange of information between jurisdictions.

OECD publishes comments received on Action 2 discussions drafts (Neutralise the Effects of Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements)

Air pollution is costing advanced economies plus China and India an estimated USD 3.5 trillion a year in premature deaths and ill health and the costs will rise without government action to limit vehicle emissions, a new OECD report says.

Andorra has become the 48th signatory to an OECD Declaration that commits countries to end bank secrecy for tax purposes.

Cameroon has become the 65th signatory of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, the most powerful international instrument to fight international tax avoidance and evasion.

Company cars form a large proportion of the car fleet in many OECD countries and are also influential in determining the composition of the wider vehicle fleet. When employees provided with a company car use that car for personal purposes, personal income tax rules value the benefit in a number of different ways.

Taking an important step towards greater transparency and putting an end to banking secrecy in tax matters, the OECD today released the full version of a new global standard for the exchange of information between jurisdictions.

Public comments are invited on request for input on BEPS Action 11 regarding work on establishing methodologies to collect and analyse data on BEPS and the actions to address it.

On 4 August 2014, interested parties were invited to comment on BEPS Action 11 regarding work on establishing methodologies to collect and analyse data on BEPS and the actions to address it. Comments received have now been published.

The new OECD/G20 standard on automatic exchange of information was endorsed today by all OECD and G20 countries as well as major financial centres participating in the annual meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Berlin. A status report on committed and not committed jurisdictions will be presented to G20 leaders during their annual summit in Brisbane, Australia on November 15-16.

The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD congratulated the newly elected President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, for taking a bold first step in his economic reform agenda by substantially cutting fuel subsidies.

The OECD has released statistics on the MAP caseloads of OECD member countries and certain Partner economies for the 2013 reporting period.

Tax burdens and revenue collection in advanced economies are reaching record levels not seen since before the global financial crisis, but the tax mix continues varying widely across countries, according to new OECD research published today.

Public comments are invited on a discussion draft which deals with the work on Action 14 (“Make dispute resolution mechanisms more effective”) of the BEPS Action Plan.

On 18 December 2014, the OECD invited comments from interested parties on the discussion draft on Action 14 (Make dispute resolution mechanisms more effective) of the BEPS Action Plan. The OECD now publishes the comments received.

A public consultation on BEPS Action 14 (Make dispute resolution mechanisms more effective) is scheduled to be held in Paris at the OECD Conference Centre on 23 January 2015.

This paper provides an update of the indicators that measure the tax autonomy of sub-central governments in OECD countries. Over the last decade, tax autonomy at the state level increased, while it hardly changed at the local level. The OECD now has tax autonomy indicators for the years 1995, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Taxes on wages have risen by about 1 percentage point for the average worker in OECD countries between 2010 and 2014 even though the majority of governments did not increase statutory income tax rates, according to a new OECD report.

Public comments are invited on this discussion draft which deals with work in relation to Action 8 of the BEPS Action Plan.

In a boost for international efforts to strengthen co-operation against offshore tax evasion, seven new countries have joined the agreement to exchange information automatically under the OECD/G20 standard.

Taxes are potentially among the most effective ways of cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but they are currently – with very few exceptions – underused; and even where used, they are frequently designed in a sub-optimal way.

The OECD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have launched a new initiative to help developing countries bolster domestic revenues by strengthening their tax audit capacities.

The OECD today releases three new reports to help jurisdictions and financial institutions implement the global Standard for automatic exchange of financial account information.

Healthcare costs are rising so fast in advanced economies that they will become unaffordable by mid-century without reforms, according to a new OECD report.

The OECD presented today the final package of measures for a comprehensive, coherent and co-ordinated reform of the international tax rules to be discussed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October, in Lima, Peru.

Corporate tax revenues have been falling across OECD countries since the global economic crisis, putting greater pressure on individual taxpayers to ensure that governments meet financing requirements, according to new data from the OECD’s annual Revenue Statistics publication.

On 17 December 2015 Greenland signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement‎, re-confirming its commitment to implement automatic exchange of financial account information in time to exchange in 2017.

Malaysia today signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement‎, re-confirming its commitment to implement automatic exchange of financial account information in time to commence exchanges in 2018.

As part of continuing efforts to boost transparency by multinational enterprises (MNEs), 31 countries signed today the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports. The signing ceremony marks an important milestone towards implementation of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project and a significant increase in cross-border cooperation on tax matters.

Despite a continuing slowdown in economic growth, tax revenues in Latin American and Caribbean countries rose slightly in 2014, as a proportion of national incomes, according to new data from the annual Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean publication.

Mr. James Karanja has been appointed as Head of the joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Initiative effective 11 April 2016. Mr. Karanja will lead the development of TIWB, which has been designed to support developing countries to build tax audit capacity.

Bermuda became the 33rd signatory of the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports (CbC MCAA), which is based on Article 6 of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and puts in place the automatic exchange framework for exchanging Country-by-Country Reports, as contemplated by BEPS Action 13.

The OECD and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes announced today that Bahrain, Lebanon, Nauru, Panama and Vanuatu have now committed to share financial account information automatically with other countries.

As part of continuing efforts to boost transparency by multinational enterprises (MNEs), Canada, Iceland, India, Israel, New Zealand and the People’s Republic of China signed today the Multilateral Competent Authority agreement for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports (“CbC MCAA”), bringing the total number of signatories to 39 countries. The signing ceremony took place in Beijing, China.