THE Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has published seven peer review reports assessing compliance with the international standard on tax transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR).

These reports assess jurisdictions against the updated standard which incorporates beneficial ownership information of all legal entities and arrangements, in line with the definition used by the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations.

Two jurisdictions – Guernsey and San Marino – received an overall rating of “Compliant.” Four others – Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and the United States were rated “Largely Compliant.” Kazakhstan was rated “Partially Compliant.” The jurisdictions have demonstrated their progress on many deficiencies identified in the first round of reviews. Main challenges in this second round are associated with ensuring the availability of beneficial ownership information, an element of the standard that was strengthened in 2016.

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement the international tax transparency standards both the standard of exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of information. This objective is achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive technical assistance programme to provide support to its members in implementing the standards and helping tax authorities to make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.

The Global Forum also welcomed three new countries into its membership – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cabo Verde and Swaziland. This takes its membership to 153 members who have come together to cooperate in the international fight against cross border tax evasion.