H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance of Bahrain signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in the presence of OECD Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Douglas Frantz, therewith becoming the 112th jurisdiction to join the Convention.
The Convention is the most powerful instrument for international tax cooperation. It provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of taxpayers' rights.
The Convention's impact grows with each new signatory; it also serves as the premier instrument for implementing the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD and G20 countries. In this respect, Bahrain has today also signed the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CRS MCAA), re-confirming its commitment to implementing the automatic exchange of financial account information pursuant to the OECD/G20 Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in time to commence exchanges in 2018. Bahrain is the 93rd jurisdiction to sign the CRS MCAA.
The Convention can also be used to swiftly implement the transparency measures of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project such as the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports under Action 13 as well as the sharing of rulings under Action 5 of the BEPS Project. The Convention is also a powerful tool in the fight against illicit financial flows.
The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988 and amended in 2010 to respond to the call by the G20 to align it to the international standard on exchange of information and to open it to all countries, thus ensuring that countries around the world could benefit from the new more transparent environment.
Bron: OECD
0