Andorra commits to automatic exchange of information in tax matters

Andorra’s 16 June decision to join the Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters will oblige it to implement a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information being developed at the OECD. The Declaration was endorsed during the OECD’s annual Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris on 6 May by all 34 member countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Africa. The Declaration commits countries to implement a Common Reporting Standard endorsed by G20 finance ministers last February. The standard obliges countries and jurisdictions to obtain all financial information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis. “Signing the Declaration is an important commitment, which shows the significant progress being made in Andorra,” said Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. “We welcome this first step, as part of wider and continuing efforts in Andorra to revise tax policy and improve the transparency of the international tax system.” G20 governments have mandated the OECD-hosted Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to monitor and review implementation of the Common Reporting Standard. The OECD will deliver a consolidated standard during a meeting of G20 finance ministers in September 2014. Additional Global Forum members are expected to endorse the standard following an annual Global Forum meeting that will take place in Berlin later this year.