Israel and Niue become the 91st and 92nd jurisdiction to sign OECD’s Convention on Tax Assistance Among Countries

In Paris on the occasion of the COP21, the Honourable Billy Graham Talagi, Minister for Ministry of Natural Resources of Niue signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in the presence of Deputy Secretary General Rintaro Tamaki.

Previously, Israel signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, making it the 91st jurisdiction to join the world’s leading instrument for boosting transparency and combating offshore tax evasion.

The Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of taxpayers’ rights.

Developed by the OECD and the Council of Europe, the Convention provides a comprehensive multilateral framework for international tax co-operation. Its coverage includes administrative assistance between tax authorities for information exchange on request, automatic exchange, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in the collection of tax debts.

Since the G20 put financial sector transparency and tax evasion on the international agenda in 2009, the Convention has become a central element of international cooperation efforts. It is seen as the ideal instrument for the swift implementation of the new international Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD and G20 countries.

In October, on the occasion of the meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Barbados, Niue signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement which operationalises the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information, which Niue has committed to implement with first exchanges by 2017.

The Convention will also be critical for implementation of automatic exchange of country by country reports under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting(BEPS) Project, and is a powerful tool in the fight against illicit financial flows.

The 92 jurisdictions participating in the Convention can be found at: www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/Status_of_convention.pdf