13/10/2014 - OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría welcomed today the Principality of Monaco’s commitment to strengthen international tax co-operation after it became the 84^th jurisdiction participating in the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

 

“Monaco has taken many positive steps towards improving transparency in recent years,” Mr Gurría said after a ceremony at OECD headquarters with José Badia, the Principality of Monaco’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. “Today’s signing is an important new signal that Monaco is seriously committed to the international fight against offshore tax avoidance and evasion.”   Mr  Gurría noted that the continuing increase in signatories to the Convention reflects the growing levels of support for the exchange of information on request and signals growing recognition that automatic exchange of information is becoming the new international  standard.

José Badia, Principality of Monaco’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and William Danvers, Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD. Paris, France. Photo: OECD/Marco Illuminati

 

The Multilateral Convention provides for all forms of mutual assistance: exchange on request, spontaneous exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection, while protecting taxpayers’ rights. It provides the option to undertake automatic exchange, while requiring an agreement between the Parties interested in this form of assistance.

 

The Convention will be a key agenda item during the annual meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes on 28-29 October in Berlin, Germany. Representatives of more than 40 countries and jurisdictions are expected to sign a Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Financial Account information, which will signal their commitment to launching automatic exchange in the near future.

 

The 84 jurisdictions participating in the Convention can be found at:  http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/Status_of_convention.pdf.

 

For more information, journalists should contact Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) on + 33 6 26 30 49 23, Grace Perez-Navarro, Deputy Director of the CTPA on +33 1 45 24 18 80, or the OECD Media Office (+33 1 45 24 97 00).