This is the supporting note issued by the G20 on tax havens:<\/p>\n
\nIt is essential to protect public finances and international standards against the risks posed by non-cooperative jurisdictions. We call on all jurisdictions to adhere to the international standards in the prudential, tax, and AML\/CFT areas. To this end, we call on the appropriate bodies to conduct and strengthen objective peer reviews, based on existing processes, including through the FSAP process.<\/p>\n
We call on countries to adopt the international standard for information exchange endorsed by the G20 in 2004 and reflected in the UN Model Tax Convention<\/strong>. We note that the OECD has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of information. We welcome the new commitments made by a number of jurisdictions and encourage them to proceed swiftly with implementation.<\/p>\n
We stand ready to take agreed action against those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in relation to tax transparency. To this end we have agreed to develop a toolbox of effective counter measures for countries to consider, such as:<\/p>\n
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- increased disclosure requirements on the part of taxpayers and financial institutions to report transactions involving non-cooperative jurisdictions;<\/li>\n
- withholding taxes in respect of a wide variety of payments;<\/li>\n
- denying deductions in respect of expense payments to payees resident in a non-cooperative jurisdiction;<\/li>\n
- reviewing tax treaty policy;<\/li>\n
- asking international institutions and regional development banks to review their investment policies; and,<\/li>\n
- giving extra weight to the principles of tax transparency and information exchange when designing bilateral aid programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We also agreed that consideration should be given to further options<\/strong> relating to financial relations with these jurisdictions<\/p>\n
We are committed to developing proposals, by end 2009, to make it easier for developing countries to secure the benefits of a new cooperative tax environment.<\/strong><\/p>\n
We are also committed to strengthened adherence to international prudential regulatory and supervisory standards<\/strong>. The IMF and the FSB in cooperation with international standard-setters will provide an assessment of implementation by relevant jurisdictions, building on existing FSAPs where they exist. We call on the FSB to develop a toolbox of measures to promote adherence to prudential standards and cooperation with jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
We agreed that the FATF should revise and reinvigorate the review process for assessing compliance by jurisdictions with AML\/CFT standards, using agreed evaluation reports where available.<\/p>\n
We call upon the FSB and the FATF to report to the next G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting on adoption and implementation by countries.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I am assured right now that the developing country issue I highlight should be seen as an opportunity for innovation, for bringing forward serious changes to TIEAs and to bring in multilateral exchange agreements.<\/p>\n
The UN has its status endorsed on this issue, as I predicted.<\/p>\n
The commitments to enhanced regulation will, I hope deliver. <\/p>\n
But the developing country issue is key. It’s the focus of the next round of work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"