Publications & Documents

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) is a multilateral framework for tax transparency and information sharing, within which over 160 jurisdictions participate on an equal footing. The Global Forum monitors and peer reviews the implementation of the international standards of Exchange of Information on Request (EOIR) and Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI). AEOI provides for the automatic exchange of a predefined set of financial account information between tax authorities on an annual basis to assist them in ensuring the correct amount of tax is paid. To ensure the AEOI standard is fully effective, the Global Forum carries out a review of each jurisdiction’s domestic and international legal frameworks to ensure they are complete, as well as a review of the effectiveness of their implementation of the standard in practice. This report presents the latest conclusions of the peer reviews of the legal frameworks put in place by jurisdictions to implement the AEOI standard. It supplements the assessments of the legal frameworks and the initial reviews of the effectiveness of their implementation in practice published in 2022, for around 100 jurisdictions that were the first to commit to commence AEOI. This report also contains the results of the Global Forum’s initial peer reviews in relation to the effectiveness in practice of the implementation of the standard by jurisdictions commencing exchanges in 2019.

Successfully transitioning to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requires effective mitigation policy packages, which include carbon pricing measures: a cost-effective policy instrument that not only reduces emissions but also generates revenue to support the transition. This fourth edition of Effective Carbon Rates provides an overview of the carbon pricing landscape, examining fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes, and emissions trading systems (ETSs) through 2021, with updates on developments until 2023. The policy mechanisms examined directly impact the cost of emitting GHGs, influencing shifts in production, consumption, and investment towards low- or zero-carbon options. The analysis covers 72 countries which together account for approximately 80% of global GHG emissions. The report focuses on developments in ETSs and transport fuel taxes amidst the energy crisis and provides comprehensive and comparable data on the current status of GHG emissions pricing that can assist policymakers in identifying priorities and refining carbon mitigation strategies.

This document provides an integrated view on income-based tax incentives for R&D and innovation. It brings together the latest evidence on the adoption, design, generosity, cost and take-up of income-based tax incentives, and gives new insights into both the long-term and short-term trends in the take-up of income-based tax incentives by business and their cost to governments, including role of policy design changes. Furthermore, the report explores the scope for developing indicators that provide a more complete picture of the value of expenditure- and income-based tax relief for R&D and innovation in the OECD area and beyond.

Citizenship and residency by investment (CBI/RBI) programmes are government-administered programmes that grant citizenship or residency to foreign investors by expediting or bypassing normal migration processes. These programmes can help spur economic growth through foreign direct investment, but they are also attractive to criminals and corrupt officials seeking to evade justice and launder the proceeds of crime reaching into the billions of dollars. This report highlights how CBI programmes can allow criminals more global mobility and help them hide their identity and criminal activities behind shell companies in other jurisdictions. It highlights the vulnerabilities of these complex and international investment migration programmes, including the frequent use of intermediaries, involvement of multiple government agencies, abuse by professional enablers and lack of proper governance of the CBI/RBI programmes. The report proposes measures and examples of good practice, that can help policy makers and those responsible for managing the investment migration programmes address these risks. These include an in-depth analysis and understanding of how criminals can exploit CBI or RBI programmes and incorporating risk mitigation measures, such as multi-layer due diligence, in the design of the investment migration programme.

The effective taxation of corporate profits is at the centre of an active public and academic debate. This debate is often focused on the extent of low-taxed profit of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in jurisdictions with low statutory tax rates or low average effective tax rates (ETRs). However, some affiliates in high tax jurisdictions may also be subject to low ETRs, due to tax incentives or other provisions. To date, a global accounting of the ETRs paid by MNEs that incorporates within-country heterogeneity has been missing. Using a new dataset on the global activities of large MNEs, this paper provides new estimates of the distribution of effective tax rates of large MNEs across and within jurisdictions. The results show that low tax profit is common, and that substantial low-taxed profit exists outside low tax jurisdictions. We estimate that high tax jurisdictions (jurisdictions with average ETRs of above 15%) account for more than half (53.2%) of global profits taxed below 15%, much more than very low tax jurisdictions (those with average ETRs below 5%) which only account for 18.7% of low-taxed profits. This suggests that an assessment of global low-taxed profit that focuses only on jurisdictions with low average ETRs could potentially miss out on more than half of global low-taxed profit.