Brussels, 17/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Transparency and tackling tax evasion and aggressive tax planning are, along with burning trade issues (see related article), the main business issues on the agenda of the meeting of G8 leaders (of the USA, Japan, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy) at a summit organised in Lough Erne in Northern Island on Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 June by the British prime minister, David Cameron. The leaders will concentrate on spreading the automatic exchange of information (AEI) among tax offices, and on the transparency of fiscal jurisdictions.
Cameron was keen to show the UK's commitment to these issues by presenting his counterparts with the deal signed by the UK on Saturday with British overseas dependencies (Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Jersey and the Isle of Man) that are described as tax havens. Under the agreement, the countries will commit to the multilateral convention on mutual aid on tax issues drawn up by the OECD, which will enable the UK to keep a centralised database of names and addresses of the owners of trust funds registered in these countries.
The European Union is also taking action, explained the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, because it has laid the foundations for the most comprehensive AEI system in the world (in the updated savings tax directive, due to be completed by the end of the year, and expanding administrative cooperation to new categories of income). In its relations with the wider world, the EU is negotiating to have AEI added to its tax agreements with non-EU countries (the agreements of its member states with the United States, and negotiations with five tax havens, including Switzerland). The Commission also has an action plan against tax fraud and tax evasion, which includes measures to prevent companies from using tax havens and aggressive tax planning to wriggle out of tax.
The need for transparency is another issue that will be addressed at the summit because the darkness shrouding the businesses registered offshore has serious repercussion on developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, which do not have the resources to identify exactly how much money these companies are making in their country from mining, forestry and the like. In this connection, Barroso talked about a number of recent measures from the EU, like updating the accountancy and transparency directives to include reporting requirements on the taxes paid by companies, country-by-country, and special partnerships with a number of countries in Africa to encourage transparency. (FG/transl.fl)