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Has the United States U-Turned on Tax Information Exchange?

November 06, 2014

The OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes met in October and announced additional commitments to the new standard for the automatic exchange of tax information. In May I celebrated the important commitment of the United States; but the Global Forum documents suggest that the US administration has reversed its position. 

The relevant sections are below to contrast and compare, but the point is this: a full commitment to reciprocal and automatic, multilateral information exchange, backed by legislation to ensure beneficial ownership information is available, has been replaced by an indication that the United States will seek to provide information in the few bilateral Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreements that require it, for which the United States accordingly commits to ‘advocate’ for domestic legal changes that would create the necessary beneficial ownership transparency.

After the midterm elections, the success of such advocacy seems unlikely. But it would be a sad irony if the legacy of an administration that began with such strong rhetoric on shutting down tax havens was to leave the United States as the biggest remaining centre of anonymous company ownership. 

US commitment, May 2014

The May 6 declaration, to which the United States is a full signatory [my emphasis]:

WE…

  1. DECLARE that we are determined to tackle cross-border tax fraud and tax evasion and to promote international tax compliance through mutual administrative assistance in tax matters and a level playing field;
  2. CONFIRM that automatic exchange of financial account information will further these objectives particularly if the new single global standard, including full transparency on ownership interests, is implemented among all financial centres;

4. ARE DETERMINED to implement the new single global standard swiftly, on a reciprocal basis. We will translate the standard into domestic law, including to ensure that information on beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements is effectively collected and exchanged in accordance with the standard.

US commitment, October 2014

The October list of ‘Status of Commitments’ from the Global Forum, footnote 1:

The United States has indicated that it will be undertaking automatic information exchanges pursuant to FATCA from 2015 and has entered into intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with other jurisdictions to do so. The Model 1A IGAs entered into by the United States acknowledge the need for the United States to achieve equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic information exchange with partner jurisdictions. They also include a political commitment to pursue the adoption of regulations and to advocate and support relevant legislation to achieve such equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic exchange.

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CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.