A decade ago it would have been hard to imagine a dispute between the OECD and\u00a0Tax Justice Network getting headlines in the tax world. For a start, there was no\u00a0Tax Justice Network. Second, the OECD's work on tax abuse (limited as it was) went largely unnoticed by anyone in civil society, and one suspects they\u00a0preferred\u00a0things that way.<\/p>\n
In late 2002 the \u00a0Tax Justice Network appeared on the scene. I\u00a0suspect\u00a0the OECD would now quite readily name it as its biggest critic. The latest issue of concern, raised by the\u00a0Tax Justice Network, is the OECD's\u00a0Global Forum peer review process, about which I wrote yesterday<\/a>.\u00a0International\u00a0Tax Review has now picked up this dispute, saying<\/a>\u00a0(paywall):<\/p>\n While the TJN praise the forum\u2019s work for highlighting \u201crampant and notorious tax haven abuse\u201d, implementing some legal changes, giving tax investigators better access to evidence of known cases, increasing the accuracy of information from what was previously available and providing new information about sanctions and enforcement in relation to ownership registration, its findings are predominantly negative.<\/p>\n \u201cInitially I was hopeful the global forum process would be much more demanding,\u201d said John Christensen, director of the TJN. \u201cI\u2019m struck by how much froth and how little substance there has been.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A\u00a0particular\u00a0issue has arisen over the pressure on countries to sign double tax agreements and not\u00a0tax information exchange agreements with\u00a0secrecy jurisdictions:<\/p>\n The [TJN] report argues that developing countries are denied TIEAs with tax havens, and \u201care instead pushed to sign double tax agreements (DTA) which include significantly unfavourable provisions\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis results in a fiscal loss for developing countries through lower withholding tax rates on dividend, interest and royalty payments,\u201d the report states. \u201cWhile the global forum claims to support members signing TIEAs, the reality is that membership of the global forum does not guarantee that TIEAs can be concluded rather than the more costly DTA.\u201d<\/p>\n