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Newsletter | Articles OECD Reports progress in Fighting Offshore Tax Evasion The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has reported progress in fighting offshore tax evasion but says more efforts are needed. According to the OECD many financial centres, both onshore and offshore, are making progress in improving transparency and international co-operation to counter offshore tax evasion, but some still fall short of international standards that have been developed over the last seven years. Progress has been made in the following areas: Nearly 100 more exchange of information arrangements are now in place compared to last year, including TIEAs between the US and Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey The scope of some existing arrangements has been extended. For example, Switzerland has signed a number of protocols to its bilateral tax conventions to allow it to exchange information, including bank information, in cases of tax fraud etc. Some of these protocols also allow for exchange of information in both civil and criminal tax matters in the case of holding companies Access to bank information for tax purposes has been greatly improved in economies such as Belgium Increasingly, legislation requires financial and other service providers to have available details of the beneficial as well as the legal owners of corporate vehicles. In Macao, new anti-money laundering legislation requires financial institutions to verify the identity of customers and their beneficial owners. In San Marino, new legislation requires that starting next year meetings of joint stock corporations must be held in the presence of a notary public who is required to identify holders of bearer shares Some jurisdictions, such as Guernsey and Jersey, have brought into force legislation empowering them to fully implement the provisions of their bilateral exchange of information arrangements The OECD reports that the vast majority of OECD countries already meet or exceed the standards set in 2000 regarding access to bank information for tax purposes, and the direction of change is clear. But it warned that jurisdictions which have not yet implemented the standards for transparency and exchange of information developed by the Global Forum must now do so.