Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

The Global Forum, with the endorsement of the G20 and support of the OECD, is working to ensure that its members, and developing countries in particular, can benefit from the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters. To that end, the Global Forum released a Plan of Action for developing countries' participation in AEOI in 2017, to frame its capacity-building and technical assistance programme, and an update in 2021: Unleashing the potential of automatic exchange of information for developing countries - 2021 Strategy.

The assistance includes:

• raising awareness and informing on the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information and its peer review process
• assistance in setting up an international framework allowing for automatic exchange of information, in particular through the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information
• support in developing the relevant domestic legal and regulatory framework to implement the due diligence and reporting obligations for financial institutions. This also includes support in organising a consultation with financial institutions
• assistance in the implementation of a compliance strategy and framework to ensure the effectiveness of the standard
• support in implementing an appropriate confidentiality and information security framework to protect exchanged data
• help on administrative and technical aspects, such as the Common Transmission System and the XML schema
• assistance in building a strategy to effectively use exchanged information to enhance compliance and better fight tax evasion and other illicit financial flows

To facilitate the implementation of automatic exchange by developing countries, the Global Forum Secretariat has initiated pilot projects in which a developing country is benefiting from the assistance of a developed country and the Global Forum Secretariat in its implementation journey.

More resources on the AEOI Standard:

• AEOI Implementation Portal: information specific to the implementation of AEOI in jurisdictions around the world, including agreements in effect, information on Taxpayer Identification Numbers and guidance on tax residency rules
  
• Four steps to implement the standard
• FAQs on the application of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

For more information and for submitting requests for technical assistance please contact us at gftaxcooperation@oecd.org.