The summit, which was dominated by talk of global economic matters including the European single currency, ended on Tuesday.
Key elements of these reports were summarised in a statement issued by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development, which also announced a new initiative to target what it said was “the misuse of corporate vehicles such as shell companies”.
This initiative, it said, would address the issue of tax base erosion and profit shifting by some multinational firms, with findings due to be presented to the next G20 Summit.
The announcement of progress on the tax evasion-tackling front coincided on Tuesday with a report in the London-based Times which, as reported, caused a sensation with its revelation of a little-known and apparently hugely effective Jersey tax-avoidance scheme known as K2.
The Times story was widely re-reported by other media outlets, and quoted an accountant as saying that using K2 would enable someone to slash a hypothetical tax bill of £127,000 to just £3,500, “equivalent to a personal income tax rate of 1.25%”.
Significant progress
Among the reports the OECD noted hat been released to the G20 leaders was an update by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which found that “significant progress” had been made since the last G20 Summit in Cannes in November 2011.
In its update, The Global Forum reports that more than 800 cross-border exchange of information agreements have now been signed, and that since the Cannes summit, four more countries – Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece and India – have signed a multilateral Convention to counter tax evasion, bringing the number of signatories to 35.
The Global Forum is now in the process of launching “a number of reviews” to assess whether cross-border exchange of information is being implemented effectively, the OECD statement added.
Another report, this one from the OECD and entitled Tackling Offshore Tax Evasion, shows “growing adherence to automatic exchange of tax information”, the OECD said, while there was also an update on the so-called Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, which provides for a “wide range of tools” that are designed to facilitate cross-border tax cooperation.
To read the OECD’s statement, click here.
