22/08/17

Ireland compliant with new tax rules: OECD

The OECD issued a batch of peer review reports on the tax and financial transparency of 10 jurisdictions, giving Norway and Ireland top ratings while finding Canada, Germany, and Australia have room to improve, reports the Irish Times.

Jamaica was rated as only “partially compliant,” with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) citing the lack of a legal framework to ensure that beneficial ownership information is maintained and available. All of the other countries reviewed received a rating of “largely compliant” or higher.

The review is part of the implementation of the common reporting standard, a Group of 20-led effort for nations to exchange tax and financial information in the hopes of cracking down on tax evasion and avoidance. The latest group of peer review reports follows up on an initial assessment made in 2011.

The OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes completed the reviews.

‘Largely compliant’

The OECD gave “compliant” ratings to Ireland, Mauritius, and Norway, while rating Australia, Bermuda, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Germany, and Qatar as “largely compliant.”

In the cases of Canada and Australia, both nations’ scores dipped since their 2011 review, due to the failure to implement new standards on the availability of ownership identity, and other accounting information, according to the OECD reports. In the case of Germany, the OECD complained that a restriction on bearer shares-equity in a corporation granted through a physical stock certificate-doesn’t apply retroactively. It also highlighted practical issues with Germany’s implementation of the standards, including that “some of Germany’s partners still have pointed to delays and difficulties in terms of communication.”

Jamaica

The OECD noted that Jamaica has some requirements on beneficial ownership, but doesn’t have “robust mechanisms” in place to ensure that the rules are applied to all Jamaican entities-especially corporations incorporated outside Jamaica but centrally managed from there.

“Jamaica should take appropriate measures to ensure that beneficial ownership information is available in line with the standard for all relevant entities and arrangements for account-holders,” the report stated.

The Caribbean jurisdiction had been rated “largely compliant” in a 2013 review, but has fallen due to its failure to implement recommendations from that report, or for new standards introduced since then.

The CRS exchanges are planned to begin in September 2017.

The US is not currently participating in the system.