The OECD has urged 26 countries to improve the transparency and exchange of tax rulings to combat tax avoidance better, while 113 nations were found fully compliant with international standards for sharing such information in 2024.
The OECD has issued a report calling on 26 countries to improve how they provide tax rulings, which help authorities assess risks and tackle base erosion and profit shifting.
In total, the organisation made 46 recommendations to improve these processes. Meanwhile, 113 other countries were found to fully comply with the OECD’s minimum standard for the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings.
The review focused on how jurisdictions implemented the transparency framework throughout 2024, including the sharing of details on tax rulings affecting various taxpayers.
Harmful Tax Practices – 2024 Peer Review Reports on the Exchange of Information on Tax Rulings
The BEPS Action 5 minimum standard on the compulsory spontaneous exchange of information on tax rulings (the “transparency framework”) provides tax administrations with timely information on rulings that have been granted to a foreign related party of their resident taxpayer or a permanent establishment, which can be used in conducting risk assessments and which, in the absence of exchange, could give rise to BEPS concerns.
The transparency framework requires spontaneous exchange of information on five categories of taxpayer-specific rulings: (i) rulings related to certain preferential regimes, (ii) unilateral advance pricing arrangements (APAs) or other cross-border unilateral rulings in respect of transfer pricing, (iii) rulings providing for a downward adjustment of taxable profits, (iv) permanent establishment (PE) rulings; and (v) related party conduit rulings.
The requirement to exchange information on the rulings in the above categories includes certain past rulings as well as future rulings, pursuant to pre-defined periods which are outlined in each jurisdiction’s report and that varies according to the time when a certain jurisdiction has joined the Inclusive Framework or has been identified as a Jurisdiction of Relevance.
The exchanges occur pursuant to international exchange of information agreements, which provide the legal conditions under which exchanges take place, including the need to ensure taxpayer confidentiality.
The inclusion of the above categories of rulings in the scope of the transparency framework is not intended to suggest that the issuance of such rulings constitutes a preferential regime or a harmful tax practice. In practice, tax rulings can be an effective way to provide certainty to taxpayers and reduce the risk of disputes. Rather, the need for transparency on rulings is that a tax administration’s lack of knowledge or information on the tax treatment of a taxpayer in another jurisdiction can impact the treatment of transactions or arrangements undertaken with a related taxpayer resident in their own jurisdiction and thus lead to BEPS concerns. The availability of timely and targeted information about such rulings, as agreed in the template in Annex C of the Action 5 Report, Countering Harmful Tax Practices More Effectively, Taking Into Account Transparency and Substance, is intended to better equip tax authorities to quickly identify risk areas.
This framework was designed with a view to finding a balance between ensuring that the information exchanged is relevant to other tax administrations and that it does not impose an unnecessary administrative burden on either the country exchanging the information or the country receiving it.
Scope of this review
This is the ninth annual peer review of the transparency framework and covers 139 Inclusive Framework member jurisdictions and Jurisdictions of Relevance. This comprises all Inclusive Framework members that joined prior to 30 June 2024 and Jurisdictions of Relevance identified by the Inclusive Framework prior to 30 June 2024. Of these 139 jurisdictions, there were 29 jurisdictions which are not able to legally, or in practice, issue rulings in scope of the transparency framework, and therefore no separate peer review report is included for these jurisdictions.
Seven other members of the Inclusive Framework have not been assessed under the transparency framework, namely Anguilla, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. These jurisdictions do not impose any corporate income tax, during the year in review, and therefore cannot legally issue rulings within scope of the transparency framework and nor do Inclusive Framework members exchange information on rulings with them. Therefore, these jurisdictions are considered to be outside the scope of the transparency framework.
The reviews contained in this annual report cover the steps jurisdictions have taken to implement the transparency framework during the calendar year 2024. The reviews have been prepared using information from each reviewed jurisdiction, input from peers who received exchanges of information under the transparency framework, and input from the delegates of the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (“FHTP”).
Key findings
Key findings from this ninth annual peer review include:
- As at 31 December 2024, over 28,500 tax rulings in scope of the transparency framework had been issued by the jurisdictions being reviewed. This is the cumulative figure, including certain past rulings issued since 2010. Over 2,300 tax rulings in scope of the transparency framework were issued in 2024 by the reviewed jurisdictions.
- Over 64,000 exchanges of information took place by 31 December 2024, with approximately 5,500 exchanges undertaken in 2024, 4,500 exchanges undertaken in 2023, 6,000 exchanges undertaken in 2022, 6,000 exchanges undertaken in 2021, 5,000 exchanges undertaken during 2020, 7,000 exchanges undertaken during 2019, 9,000 exchanges undertaken during 2018, 14,000 exchanges undertaken during 2017 and 7,000 exchanges during 2016.
- 113 jurisdictions did not receive any recommendations, as they have met all the terms of reference. A further seven jurisdictions received only one recommendation.
- 46 recommendations for improvement have been made for the year in review.
- 94 peer input questionnaires were submitted providing feedback on the conduct of the exchanges by Inclusive Framework members. Peer input is not mandatory, but in cases where it was provided it has in a number of cases allowed jurisdictions to revise their processes and improve the clarity and quality of information exchanged.
- In a number of cases, the peer review process has assisted jurisdictions in identifying areas where improvement is required, and jurisdictions have been able to take action to implement changes over 2025 while the peer review was ongoing. Where these changes were implemented in 2025, they are generally not taken into account in the recommendations for the year 2024. However, these changes would be reviewed in a subsequent peer review.
