The guide covers key development steps and provides country-specific examples of effective investigation methods.
The OECD published a guide titled Designing a Tax Crime Investigation Manual: Key Elements and Considerations on 16 June 2025.
The guide aims to assist jurisdictions in creating their own manuals for investigating tax offences.
The guide outlines essential components to consider in the development process and includes a range of country-specific examples to illustrate effective investigation approaches.
Tax crimes have a detrimental impact on all countries, hindering domestic resource mobilisation and eroding public confidence in government and financial systems.
This can result in wide-ranging negative outcomes, as resources are diverted away from critical public services and infrastructure, and in many cases, used to finance other serious crimes such as corruption, the trafficking of goods and people, and terrorism.
Combatting tax crimes requires a swift and coordinated response from tax and other financial crime authorities, governed by clear and transparent laws and processes. This guidance tool is designed to encourage and support governments in the development of domestic manuals to guide law enforcement authorities through each stage of a criminal tax investigation.
Adherence to legal and operational procedures is critical to any successful enforcement action, and jurisdictions are encouraged to use this guide to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and integrity of their tax crime investigations while ensuring that suspects’ rights are upheld at all times.
