The Ministry of Finance announced in a statement on 7 June 2017, that Mauritius will sign the OECD Multilateral Agreement to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) by the end of June 2017. The agreement will amend bilateral tax treaties to include measures recommended by the OECD project on BEPS.

About 70 countries at all levels of development have signed this Multilateral Instrument (MLI) at the OECD Centre in the presence of Secretary-General OECD. A number of jurisdictions have also expressed their intention to sign the MLI as soon as possible and other jurisdictions are also actively working towards participation in the multilateral instrument.

With regards to Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements that will not be covered by the Multilateral Convention, discussions will be held on a bilateral basis with the concerned countries to ensure the country’s compliance with the BEPS recommendations while safeguarding the legitimate interests of Mauritius.

Previously in June 2015 Mauritius also signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, jointly developed by the Council of Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Mauritius is equally a member of the Early Adopters Group committed to the early implementation of the Common Reporting Standard on the automatic exchange of financial account information.

Moreover, the country was the first in Africa to have signed up to the Intergovernmental Agreement with the United States for the implementation of the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act.

In view of further supporting its pledge as a cooperative IFC, Mauritius has actively participated in the Ad-Hoc Group set up by the OECD to work on the drafting of the Multilateral Instrument as recommended under Action 15 of the BEPS Report. More recently, the country equally joined the Inclusive Framework to implement the BEPS Recommendations and the new initiative on the exchange of Beneficial Ownership information.