OECD MULTILATERAL CONVENTION ON MUTUAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANCE IN TAX MATTERS

With taxpayers increasingly operating worldwide, tax authorities are moving from bilateral to multilateral cooperation and from exchange of information on request to other forms of co-operation such as automatic exchange of information. The Convention, provides a comprehensive multilateral framework for such co-operation and complements other initiatives, such as the standardised multilateral automatic exchange model being developed by the OECD and its G20 partners and efforts underway in the European Union to improve automatic exchange.

The Convention also provides for spontaneous exchange of information, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection. A valuable tool for governments to fight offshore tax evasion, the Convention also ensures compliance with national tax laws and respects the rights of taxpayers by protecting the confidentiality of the information exchanged.

Administrative assistance will only be provided upon formal written request of a contracting state and only if there is justified suspicion that tax evasion or tax fraud has actually occurred. Fishing expeditions will not be allowed and the information requesting state will need to mention detailed evidence, such as the name of a specific bank and its location. Furthermore, it should be emphasised that a fundamental principle underlying Article 26 of the OECD model convention is that “in formulating their requests, the requested state should demonstrate the foreseeable relevance of the requested information. In addition, the requesting state should also have pursued all domestic means to access the requested information except those that would give rise to disproportionate difficulties

As of October 2013, the signatories to the Convention are:

• Albania,
• Argentina,
• Australia,
• Austria,
• Azerbaijan (original Convention only),
• Belgium,
• Belize, (Deposit of Instruments of Ratification)
• Brazil,
• Burkina Faso (Letter of Intention to sign Convention)
• Canada,
• Chile (Letter of Intention to sign Convention)
• China, People’s Republic of
• Colombia,
• Costa Rica,
• Czech Republic,
• Denmark,
• El Salvador (Letter of Intention to sign Convention)
• Estonia,
• Finland,
• France,
• Georgia,
• Germany,
• Ghana, (Deposit of Instruments of Ratification)
• Greece, (Deposit of Instruments of Ratification)
• Guatemala,
• Iceland,
• India,
• Indonesia,
• Ireland, (Deposit of Instruments of Ratification)
• Italy,
• Japan,
• Korea,
• Latvia,
• Lithuania,
• Luxembourg,
• Malta, (Deposit of Instruments of Ratification)
• Mexico,
• Moldova,
• Morocco,
• Netherlands, including its Caribbean islands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) and Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten (Deposit of Instruments of Ratification)
• New Zealand,
• Nigeria,
• Norway
• Poland,
• Portugal,
• Romania,
• Russia,
• Saudi Arabia,
• Singapore,
• Slovak Republic,
• Slovenia,
• South Africa,
• Spain,
• Sweden,
• Switzerland
• Tunisia,
• Turkey,
• Ukraine,
• United Kingdom,
• United States.