Tax officials agree to enhance cooperation and improve mutual agreement procedure

 

Tax officials from 38 countries pledged to increase their cooperation and collaboration to better handle the increased workload associated with implementing  OECD/G-20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) outputs and automatic exchange of information at an October 23-24 meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) held in Dublin, Ireland.

In an October 24 communiqué, the officials said they took a “significant step forward in global tax co-operation,” agreeing to a new strategy for systematic and enhanced cooperation. As a part of the strategy, attendees agreed to create a new international platform, the Joint International Tax Shelter Information and Collaboration (JITSIC) Network, to enhance tax administration cooperation on cross-border tax avoidance. The JITSIC network will expand existing cooperative arrangements between some FTA members to all FTA members that choose to participate.

The group also pledged to improve the practical operation of the mutual agreement procedure by addressing issues of double taxation more quickly and efficiently. Agreement was also reached on the need to invest resources to implement the new standard on automatic exchange of information.

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