On 15 October 2018 the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes published a further seven peer review reports. These reports relate to Austria, Aruba, Bahrain, Brazil, St Kitts and Nevis, Singapore and the UK.

The Global Forum aims to improve global tax transparency, curtail banking secrecy and reduce opportunities for tax evasion. A set of international tax transparency standards has been developed and the Forum is monitoring their implementation by its members.

The reports assess the compliance of these jurisdictions with the updated international standard on transparency and exchange of information on request. The updated standard includes a requirement to provide beneficial ownership information for all relevant legal entities and arrangements under the definition in use by the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Austria, Aruba, Brazil, St Kitts and Nevis and the UK received an overall rating of “Largely Compliant”. These jurisdictions have demonstrated that they have made progress on the issues identified as deficient in the first round of peer reviews. These issues included processes such as improving the access to information; developing braider networks of information exchange; monitoring the handling of information requests received; and implementing the strengthened standard on availability of beneficial ownership.

Bahrain and Singapore were given an overall rating of “Compliant”.

The OECD’s Global Forum is the leading multilateral body taking action to ensure that jurisdictions adhere to and effectively implement the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of information. To achieve this objective the Global Forum has begun a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum is also responsible for technical assistance programmes to provide support in implementing the international standards and to make use of cross-border information sharing channels.