In accordance with the base erosion and profit-shifting (BEPS) project, the OECD on September 16 released its first recommendations to G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors for a coordinated international approach to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises. The reports address seven of the 15 items listed in the BEPS action plan.
On 29 October 2014, 51 countries endorsed the new G-20/OECD standard for automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters by signing a multilateral competent authority agreement, based on the OECD’s “Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters”.
The signing of the agreement activates the automatic exchange of information, with which the subsequent bilateral exchanges will come into effect between the respective signatories. It is expected that the first automatic exchange of information will take place by early adopters as per September 2017 and the others are expected to follow in 2018.
