TRADE & FINANCE
THE
OECD-G20
PARTNERSHIP
ON TAX
GABRIELA RAMOS
OECD G20 Sherpa
30
The outstanding results delivered
over the last decade to progress
the international tax agenda would
not have been possible without the
partnership established between the
OECD and the G20 in this area. In just
7 years, we have seen the development
and global adoption of the tax
transparency standards to combat tax
evasion, as well as the delivery of a
comprehensive package of measures
to update the international tax rules
and tackle BEPS (Base Erosion and
Profi t Shifting). Setting standards and
making commitments to implement
them is just the start of our work
together however. This year, the focus
of the international tax agenda has
shifted to implementation of these
standards, while the G20 members are
also working with the OECD to consider
how tax policy can be used as a tool
to achieve their broader objectives of
strong, sustainable, balanced but also
innovative, clean and inclusive growth.
The impact of tax evasion and the
use of off shore structures to hide the
true ownership of assets was brought
back to the headlines this year with
the release of the “Panama Papers”.
More than ever it is clear that with
robust tax transparency standards now
established, the focus of OECD and
G20 eff orts must be on ensuring their
consistent and global implementation
– no country should be able to benefi t
from failing to meet their international
commitments and there should be “no
place left to hide”. Reinforcing their
eff orts in this area, the G20 Finance
Ministers endorsed in July the objective
criteria developed by the OECD to
identify non-cooperative jurisdictions
(against which defensive measures will
be subsequently considered by the
G20), while we also saw key remaining
jurisdictions commit to implement the
automatic exchange of fi nancial account
information no later than 2018. More
than 100 countries and jurisdictions
have now made that commitment,
and the OECD and G20 members
have agreed on the procurement of a
common transmission system that will
be available to all interested countries
for the secure, global exchange of
this data. To the benefi t of our citizens
and of our public fi nance, the near
prospect of automatic exchange of
tax information has already generated
around 50 billion euros in additional
revenues through voluntary disclosure