Panama, Bahrain, Lebanon, Nauru, Vanuatu pledge to combat tax evasion through automatic information exchange

Panama was among five countries that this week pledged to share financial account information automatically with other countries, the OECD announced May 11.

Panama, Bahrain, Lebanon, Nauru, and Vanuatu agreed to begin automatic exchanges in 2018. To date, 101 jurisdictions have made commitments to automatically exchange financial account information beginning in 2017 or 2018.

“We are now seeing an unstoppable movement toward information sharing, on the basis of a single common standard developed by the OECD and endorsed by the international community,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said.

Gurría added that the political commitment to fight tax evasion now be implemented, and actual exchange must take place.

“Actions must now speak louder than words,” Gurría said