Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

06/06/2019 – The Secretariat of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) was in Nairobi on 27 May - 6 June 2019 to help Kenya to implement and benefit from the two international standards on tax transparency and exchange of information (exchange of information upon request (EOIR) and Automatic exchange of information on financial accounts (AEOI)). The Global Forum delegation was led by four policy advisors, Mr. Ervice Tchouata, Mr. Lloyd Garrochinho, Mr. Sivasankaran Pattanam, Mrs. Aurore Arcambal, and an IT security expert, Mr. Richard Burke. 

One meeting was aimed at assessing the implementation of the EOIR standard by Kenya on both the legal framework and the practice. The Secretariat team met with various stakeholders from the Government and the private sector, including, the Ministry of finance, the Attorney General’s Office, the Central Bank of Kenya, the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Capital Market Authority, the Financial Reporting Centre, the Business Registration Service, the Bank association, the Kenya Law Society and the Association of certified public accountants. The mission helped identified potential gaps with regard to the EOIR standards. The Secretariat will provide assistance to Kenya to address the identified gaps in advance to its second round EOIR peer review to be launched in 2020.

The meeting was followed by a three-day training seminar (4 – 6 June) on the theme “Exchange of information as a tool to combat offshore tax evasion”. The training was attended by over 30 officials from the KRA including auditors from the Large taxpayers office, investigations and intelligence officers and staffs working in the exchange of information office and in the High Networth Individual programme. The training equipped Kenya Revenue Authority’s officials with the skills for utilising the EOI tools through the identification of the need for a foreign tax information and the drafting of a request for information in accordance with the international standard. This was the first of a series of training in EOI that the KRA is planning to hold in 2019 and 2020, with the support of the Global Forum Secretariat, as part of its new strategy of improving the fight against cross-border tax evasion through EOI.  

For more information, please contact gftaxcooperation@oecd.org.