Canada has weathered the global economic crisis comparatively well but will have to become more productive to sustain its high standard of living, according to OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Canada.

To tackle rising inequalities we need to reassess the way in which our economies grow. By placing inclusiveness at the heart of the growth debate we can open up opportunity so that every citizen can realise their potential, to contribute to, and benefit from, more equitable economic growth, said OECD Secretary-General.

This note presents selected country highlights from the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 with a specific focus on digital trends among all themes covered.

More than one in four adult are obese in Canada. As a result, Canadians live on average 3 years less due to overweight. The impact on the economy is large: overweight accounts for 10.6% of health expenditure one of the highest rates across all countries analysed. Overweight lowers labour market outputs by the equivalent of 579 thousand full time workers per year. Combined, this means that overweight reduces Canada’s GDP by 3.6%.

This paper discusses the results of the 2011-2012 OECD LEED study of measuring green growth in the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg). The study paid particular attention to the challenges of measuring the transition to a low-carbon economy in cross-border areas as they have additional levels of complexity when it comes to measuring and monitoring their low-carbon transition.

The Secretary-General opened the Netherlands-OECD Global Symposium on “Financial Resilience throughout Life” alongside Her Majesty Queen Máxima and held bilateral meetings with several Dutch authorities.

The Dutch education system and the skills of the Dutch population are very strong overall. But there are concerns that too many people in the Netherlands are not developing the “right” skills to succeed or taking sufficient responsibility for maintaining and further developing their skills in adulthood.

As part of continuing efforts to improve the international tax framework, the OECD has released the first analysis of individual country efforts to improve dispute resolution mechanisms.

This note presents selected country highlights from the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 with a specific focus on digital trends among all themes covered.

Following recent Turkish media reports, the OECD would like to clarify that it has published no recent review of Turkey. The publication of the 2014 Economic Survey of Turkey is planned for July.

This note presents selected country highlights from the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 with a specific focus on digital trends among all themes covered.

The OECD Business and Finance Scoreboard accompanies the OECD Business and Finance Outlook by providing a commented overview of selected indicators and data related to corporate performance, banking, capital markets, pensions and investments.

A more open world economy brings about new opportunities, stimulates creativity and innovation. It enables poorer countries to catch up and exploits global economies of scale. But globalisation also brings challenges, as it might spread the benefits unequally among people and regions, some of which are less well positioned to seize its potential. These benefits and challenges also apply for competition policy in a globalised world.

Mexico has one of the highest rates of obesity: nearly one in three adults are obese. As a result, Mexicans live on average 4.2 years less due to overweight, the largest reductions in life expectancy of all countries analysed. The impact on the economy is large: overweight accounts for 8.9% of health expenditure; and lowers labour market outputs by the equivalent of 2.4m full time workers per year.

Furthering efforts to fight against international tax evasion and bank secrecy, members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes have issued 12 new peer review reports.

Officials from revenue bodies, the banking sector and OECD met in Rome on 10-11 October to discuss ways to enhance the relationship between tax administrations and the banking industry and thus improve tax compliance.

The average tax and social security burden on employment incomes increased in 26 out of 34 OECD countries in 2011 according to the new OECD Taxing Wages publication. Tax payers in Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Slovak Republic were among those hit with the largest increases.

Colombia and Mexico are a step closer to beneffiting from cross border tax co-operation and information sharing. Colombia has signed, and Mexico has deposited its instrument of ratification for the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

The amount of cross border portfolio investment exceeds 35 trillion USD. To encourage growth and cross-border investment more than 3000 tax treaties around the world based on the OECD Model reduce source taxation on a reciprocal basis.

New data show that across OECD countries the average tax and social security burden on employment incomes increased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 35.6 per cent in 2012. It increased in 19 out of 34 countries, fell in 14, and remained unchanged in 1.

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.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria welcomed today Liechtenstein’s announcement of plans to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and take further steps to increase transparency and international co-operation.

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

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.

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.

Personal income tax has risen in 25 out of 34 OECD countries over the past three years, as countries reduce the value of tax-free allowances and tax credits and subject higher proportions of earnings to tax, according to new data in the annual Taxing Wages publication.

The governments of 86 countries have taken a key step towards preventing value added tax from weighing on trade while also safeguarding state revenues by endorsing the first internationally agreed framework for applying national VAT rules to cross-border transactions.

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.

As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approach their expiry date, we must focus our efforts on ensuring a brighter, more inclusive and sustainable future for all. We face a plethora of common issues: growing inequalities; changing consumption patterns and population dynamics; increasing natural resource scarcity; and ongoing illicit financial flows.

Public comments are invited on the discussion draft on the Transfer Pricing aspects of cross-border Commodity transactions released as part of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy's work on Action 10 of the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.

The agreed mandate authorises the formation of an ad-hoc negotiating group, open to participation from all states. The group will be hosted by the OECD and will hold its first meeting by July 2015, with an aim to conclude drafting by 31 December 2016.

On 16 December 2014, the OECD invited comments from interested parties on a discussion draft on the transfer pricing aspects of cross-border commodity transactions. This work relates to Action 10 of the BEPS Action Plan. The OECD is grateful to the commentators for their input, and now publishes the comments received.

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 a discussion draft which deals with work in relation to Action 8 of the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting

On 4 June 2015, interested parties were invited to comment on a discussion draft on Action 8 (Hard-to-value intangibles) of the BEPS Action Plan.

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.

Major implementation milestones are being met by members of the world’s leading forum on tax transparency as the international community continues to move ahead towards greater tax transparency. The imminent shift to the automatic exchange of information will send a strong warning to tax evaders.

Governments have taken an important step towards ensuring that consumption taxes on cross-border transactions are effectively paid in the jurisdiction where products are consumed, while minimizing the risks that uncoordinated tax rules distort international trade.

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.

Senegal today signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. Senegal is the 11th country of the African continent to sign the Convention and the 93rd jurisdiction to join it. Simultaneously to signing the Convention, Senegal today also became the 32nd signatory of Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports (CbC MCAA).

The world’s leading forum on tax transparency published 10 new peer review reports today, pointing to ever-increasing compliance with the internationally-recognised standards to curb tax evasion through the exchange of information.

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.

In a continued effort to boost transparency in international tax matters, the OECD has today released its standardised electronic format for the exchange of Country-by-Country (CbC) Reports between jurisdictions – the CbC XML Schema – as well as the related User Guide.

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.

Delivering on the OECD/G20 international tax agenda, through implementation of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the automatic exchange of financial account information, took centre stage when Heads of Tax Administration met on 11-13 May in Beijing, China.

The OECD has today released its standardised IT-format for providing structured feedback on exchanged Common Reporting Standard information – the CRS Status Message XML Schema – as well as the related User Guide.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) published today 10 new peer review reports demonstrating continuing progress toward implementation of the international standard for exchange of information on request.

Today, Kuwait joined the 83 current signatories to the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement ("CRS MCAA"), the key international framework agreement for putting in place the automatic exchange of information on offshore financial accounts foreseen by the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

Switzerland, represented by Ambassador Ulrich Lehner , today deposited its instrument of ratification for the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters ("the Convention") in the presence of OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.