The first milestone in the OECD effort against international bribery was the 1994 Recommendation for countries to take effective measures to deter, prevent and combat the bribery of foreign public officials in connection with international business transactions.

In 1996, at the suggestion of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs, the Council recommended that Member countries that allow the tax deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials re-examine this treatment with a view to denying the tax deductibility of such bribes. This recommendation has met with particular success as the vast majority of Parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention now prohibit the deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials.  In many cases, countries have gone one step further and have prohibited the deductibility of all bribes.

The broad implementation of this recommendation has sent clear messages to the business community: bribery will no longer be treated as an ordinary or necessary business expense and bribery of foreign public officials is a criminal offence subject to serious penalties. The OECD promotes implementation worldwide of the 1996 Recommendation through its extensive network of tax partnerships with non-OECD economies throughout the world.

To ensure effective detection, the OECD issued a Bribery Awareness Handbook for Tax Examiners in 2003, which is now available in 16 languages. The handbook helps tax authorities identify suspicious payments likely to be bribes so that the denial of deductibility can be enforced and so that bribe payments can be detected and reported to law enforcement authorities. It also serves as a guide for countries wishing to develop internal guidelines on bribery awareness.

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