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30/07/2019 - The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) published today nine peer review reports assessing compliance with the international standard on transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR).
These reports are part of the second round of Global Forum reviews, which assess jurisdictions against the updated standard, which requires beneficial ownership information of all relevant legal entities and arrangements, in line with the definition used by the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations.
Five jurisdictions – Costa Rica, Croatia, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru – received an overall rating of "Largely Compliant". Two others – Botswana and Vanuatu – were rated "Partially Compliant" and one – Guatemala – was rated "Non-Compliant".
Six of these reports follow up on provisional ratings allocated in 2017 at the very end of the first round of reviews to evaluate the efforts made by these jurisdictions to meet the transparency standard and to satisfy the criteria set by the G20 to avoid being identified as jurisdictions that have not sufficiently met the standard.
The provisional ratings of Largely Compliant are now confirmed in the second round of evaluations for Costa Rica, Lebanon, the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru. Two other jurisdictions failed to meet the 2017 expectations.
Vanuatu is rated overall Partially Compliant with the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request, as important legislative progress made in 2017 to ensure the availability of accounting information for offshore companies has not been sufficiently implemented in practice or supervised. Guatemala received an overall rating of Non-Compliant with the international standard, as exchange of accounting and banking information is blocked. It becomes the second jurisdiction rated Non-Compliant, with Trinidad and Tobago.
The review of other jurisdictions that received provisional ratings in 2017 will be finalised in October.
The Global Forum is the leading multilateral tax body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information.
In the ten years since the Global Forum was restructured, transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes have risen all around the world. The Global Forum remains committed, through its robust peer review process, to ensuring that these high standards are maintained. The Global Forum also runs an extensive technical assistance programme to provide support to its members in implementing the standards and in helping tax authorities to make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.
For additional information on the Global Forum, its peer review process, and to read all reports to date, go to: www.oecd-ilibrary.org/taxation/global-forum-on-transparency-and-exchange-of-information-for-tax-purposes-peer-reviews_2219469x.
For further information, journalists should contact Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, (+33 1 4524 9108) or Dónal Godfrey, Acting Head of the Global Forum Secretariat (+ 33 1 4524 8743).
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