Conclusions and Recommendations

Abstract

In 1998, the OECD viewed eliminating harmful tax practices as essential to promoting healthy tax competition and, ultimately, global economic growth and development. The OECD identified the two primary contributors to these harmful tax practices as tax havens and so-called preferential tax regimes. It viewed tax havens (comprising for the most part sovereign countries or fiscally sovereign territories) as possessing four key identifying features: (1) no or only nominal income taxes, (2) lack of effective exchange of information (EOI), (3) lack of transparency (relating to the legislative, legal, or administrative provisions of a jurisdiction), and (4) investment with no substantial activities. The OECD established the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) in 2000, which developed the Agreement on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters, or model tax information exchange agreement (TIEA), in 2002. The Model TIEA was developed to address the issues arising from the harmful tax practices project, and in 2005 the Global Forum adopted standards on transparency relating to the availability and reliability of information. A primary objective of the Model TIEA was to compel tax haven jurisdictions to enact laws to override their bank secrecy laws. The OECD further noted that the lack of effective EOI by tax havens denied fiscal authorities access to bank information that was critical to raising revenue and preventing tax avoidance and base erosion.