Brussels, 18/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 15 April, the finance ministers of the G20 mandated the OECD to lay down, by July, objective criteria to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions in matters relating to “tax transparency”.
“Defensive measures will be considered by G20 members against non-cooperative jurisdictions if progress as assessed by the Global Forum is not made”, the ministers state in a press release, warning non-compliant countries of potential sanctions.
A source close to the dossier told us that the European Commission is ready to try to come into line. However, it is considering broader criteria than tax transparency to draft a European list, which will also include such things as harmful tax competition, as shown in its proposed modification of the accounting directive on public country-by-country reporting (see EUROPE 11530).
The G20 calls on all countries which have not yet committed to implement the automatic exchange of information for 2017 or 2018 to do so “without delay”. This is the case with Panama, which has come under fire since the Panama Papers revelations were broken by a consortium of journalists.
In response to this scandal, the G20 is also calling on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Global Forum on Transparency to make initial proposals for October on ways of improving the implementation of the international standards for transparency, such as the availability of information on beneficial owners (legal persons and legal entities) and the international exchange of this information.
Noting that persistent downwards risks are weighing on global growth, which remains “modest and uneven”, the world's major financial decision-makers reiterated their commitment use all tools - monetary, budgetary and structural - at their disposal to support growth. “We are making tax policy and public expenditure more favourable to growth”, they stress.
In the macro-economic field, the 'G20 Finance' stresses that it promotes increased dialogue between creditors and debtors to make the processes for the restructuring of sovereign debt “more regulated, faster and more predictable”, as well as the inclusion of specific clauses regarding this when issuing public debt securities. “We welcome the progress made by Argentina to put an end to a 10-year row and regain access to the international capital markets”, said the ministers. Supporting the examination of a “possible extension” of the use of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket, they state that discussions will take place on the size of this IMF unit of account, a theme which is close to the heart of the current Chinese Presidency of the G20.
In the financial field, the 'G20 Finance' reiterates that work is underway to redefine certain provisions on the quality and quantity of banks' own funds contained in the so-called 'Basel III' reform, to “safeguard its coherence and maximise its effectiveness without significantly increasing capital requirements in the banking sector”. It also undertakes to speed up the work on the restructuring of the central counterparties for derivative financial products. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer and Mathieu Bion)