The Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters has been endorsed by all 34 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Africa.
The Declaration is a commitment to implement a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information. The standard, which was developed by the OECD and endorsed by G20 finance ministers last February, obliges countries and jurisdictions to obtain financial information from their financial institutions and to exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.
The OECD will deliver a detailed Commentary on the new standard, as well as technical solutions to implement the actual information exchanges, during a meeting of G20 finance ministers in September 2014.
G20 governments have mandated the OECD-hosted Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to monitor and review implementation of the standard.
More than 60 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to early adoption of the standard, and additional Global Forum members are expected to join this group in the coming months, the OECD said.
Source: Tax-news.com