Developing countries are placing an ever-increasing focus on generating domestic revenues, leading to increased demand for tax support and a corresponding expansion of OECD activities in this area.
Tax Co-operation for Development: Progress Report on 2024 provides an overview of the wide-ranging activities delivered last year by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) in supporting developing countries improving their tax systems. The OECD’s comprehensive offer includes policy analysis and design, tax administration, international collaboration, and multilateral and bilateral capacity building.
The report shows that OECD programmes trained more than 24 000 officials in 2024, supported nearly 80 countries in tax transparency and exchange of information activities and 40 countries through bilateral programmes on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting and transfer pricing. As part of Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB), a joint OECD/UNDP initiative to strengthen tax audit capacity through technical assistance and capacity building, a record 25 programmes were launched, with 66 programmes running at the end of 2024.
Through these capacity-building initiatives, developing countries have identified an additional EUR 45 billion from tax transparency through offshore tax investigations and voluntary disclosure programmes in the period 2009-2023. TIWB has helped raise an additional USD 2.4 billion since the initiative was launched in 2015. In 2024 alone, 40 developing countries made improvements in the implementation of the standards on transparency and exchange of information, 22 implemented new or updated legislation on BEPS and transfer pricing, while an additional 9 gained access to Country-by-Country reports.
The report also highlights the significant progress made in incorporating developing countries into key OECD datasets, providing developing countries and researchers with high-quality internationally comparable statistics on tax administration revenues, pricing greenhouse gas emissions and tax incentives, among others. This represents a major step forward in supporting evidence-based policymaking, enabling greater global visibility and more targeted support.
The scope of the tax and development programme is encompassing new areas of support for developing countries, adapting to the evolving global tax landscape and the growing demands of developing jurisdictions. In respect to tax policy, the OECD has developed a Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) Framework which identifies country-specific tax policy measures and estimates their tax revenue potential to mobilise additional domestic resources in low- and middle-income countries. OECD work on tax morale has provided new data on public perceptions of taxation and the social contract in 26 countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The report underscores the vital role of partnerships in delivering effective support on taxation, noting that many workstreams are delivered collaboratively, with key contributions from the United Nations Development Programme in respect to TIWB, and regional partners such as the African Tax Administration Forum and the Asian Development Bank. Financial contributions from Australia, the European Commission, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, plus the contributions in kind of expertise from an even wider group of countries play a crucial role in enabling this work.
An independent evaluation, referenced in the Progress Report, recognises the OECD as a key player in supporting developing countries on taxation matters, and commends the record scale of assistance across all aspects of tax, from policy considerations to implementation and enforcement.
The evaluation, undertaken by SEO Amsterdam Economics, found that “Overall, the OECD’s Tax and Development Programme is widely regarded as relevant and effective in strengthening the capacity of developing countries in the area of international taxation”. The stakeholder survey undertaken as part of the evaluation found that over 85% of survey respondents agreed that the OECD and Global Forum’s support improves tax officials’ skills and job performance, as well as strengthens processes and procedures in their respective administrations. Importantly, over 75% agreed that the support enabled developing countries to meaningfully contribute to the negotiations of the Inclusive Framework.
The evaluation makes a number of recommendations, and adjustments will be made in 2025 to improve the impact of the ongoing work supporting the implementation of the international standards on tax. In addition, the OECD will continue to adapt its support to developing countries. TIWB will continue to evolve in response to demand as it enters its second decade, capacity building will begin in implementing the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, and developing countries perspectives will be integrated into the Inclusive Framework workstreams on global mobility and taxation, inequality and growth.
More information on the OECD tax and development work can be found at: https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/policy-issues/tax-and-development.html
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