Brussels, 31/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Global Forum on Transparency and the Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, hosted by the OECD, released 10 reports on Thursday 27 January assessing jurisdictions' commitment to tax transparency, showing that the measures in Barbados, the Seychelles, San Marino and Trinidad and Tobago fail to meet international standards. Another tax haven, Guernsey, which processes large wads of cash from Europe, has introduced most of the legal measures needed to ensure the exchange of tax information with other countries and has started to exchange this information. Assessment of the measures in Guernsey will take place next year.
Four other reports examine legislation and its implementation in Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Australia, four countries which have legal set-ups and institutional systems that comply with international standards. Denmark and Norway exchange tax information with 100 other countries, Ireland with 50, and their legal and institutional systems allow proper exchanges of information. The last country examined, Mauritius, has changed its legal system but some accounting information is not yet available and a further analysis will be made in six months' time.
The Global Forum on Transparency and the Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes was mandated by the G20 to assess the status of national tax laws and has published annual assessments since 2006 on the legal and institutional systems in place for the exchange of tax information and how relevant legislation is actually applied in more than more than 80 countries around the world to detect failings and draw up recommendations for the authorities. (F.G./transl.fl)