Chancellor attends G5 finance ministers meeting and agrees date for automatic exchange agreements
28 Apr 2014 02:52 PM
Meeting on tax fraud and
tax evasion takes place as HM Revenue & Customs writes to taxpayers with
offshore accounts.
Chancellor of the Exchequer,
George Osborne, has today (Monday 28 April) attended a G5 finance ministers
meeting in Paris to discuss further steps on tackling tax evasion and
avoidance.
At the meeting, a date for
signing automatic exchange of information agreements was agreed between the UK,
France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The new global standard of
automatic exchange of tax information – which has been developed by the
OECD and endorsed by the G20 – will be signed by the G5 at the October
Global Forum meeting in Berlin together with other jurisdictions committed to
early adoption.
To date, 44 jurisdictions have
joined the initiative launched by the G5 finance ministers last year for early
adoption of the new global standard.
These jurisdictions have jointly
announced that they will begin to automatically exchange information with each
other in 2017, with respect to data collected from 31 December
2015.
Access HM Treasury’s
timeline that sets out the progress
made on tax transparency so far.
The G5 finance ministers called
on all financial centres that have not yet done so to now join the early
adopters’ initiative. In doing so, they stressed that tackling tax
evasion is a collective responsibility of all countries and financial centres
should take the lead, consistent with their role and responsibilities in the
global economy.
The G5 ministers also reinforced
their commitment to continue assisting developing countries in building the
necessary capacity so they can benefit from these developments as soon as
possible.
The Chancellor’s
attendance at the meeting comes as HMRC begins writing to around 2,000
taxpayers with offshore accounts, data on which has been shared under the EU
Savings Directive.
Part of HMRC’s offshore evasion strategy, this work will inform future compliance
activity and ensure HMRC is ready to use the additional information that will
be received under the new agreements, as soon as it is shared.
The meeting of G5 finance
ministers formed part of a wider visit to Paris in which the Chancellor met
with senior business leaders from some of France’s leading
companies.
The Chancellor
said:
Today we take another step to
fight tax avoidance and evasion. We’re working with key international
partners to promote greater transparency and co-operation, and to reform the
global rules. Alongside this, we are taking tough action
domestically.
The government is on the side of
the hardworking majority who pay the taxes they owe on time but there remains a
minority that think they don’t have to play by the
rules.
For those evading their
responsibilities and hiding their money offshore the message is clear; time is
running out. If you have something to disclose, come to us before we come to
you.
At the meeting, the G5 Ministers
reiterated their strong support to the OECD-G20 Base Erosion and Profit
Shifting (BEPS) project to develop a single set of global rules to tackle
aggressive tax planning.
They stressed the importance of
delivering to the agreed timetable and looked forward to first outputs that
will be reported to the G20 Finance Ministers in September
2014.