At last week’s G20 summit, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría reported to world leaders that the past year has seen progress on multiple fronts in the fight against tax avoidance and evasion – thanks in large part to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
The official report explores the key areas of progress, including the movement toward multilateral automatic exchanges of information among tax authorities. The Global Forum, which is responsible for implementing CRS worldwide, now consists of 142 member nations and will oversee the first exchanges of information set to occur in September 2017. As of today, there are 101 jurisdictions committed to CRS, establishing nearly 2,000 bilateral exchange relationships based upon the framework provided by the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement.
The report also discusses the launch of the Common Transmission System – which offers Competent Authorities a secure, confidential, and common platform under which to bilaterally exchange tax information. The CTS recently went live in order to give jurisdictions an opportunity to ensure proper functionality before reports come due in September.
