On 27 April 2023 the OECD published Tax Transparency in Asia 2023: Asia Initiative Progress Report. The report documents the progress made by countries in Asia between 2009 and 2022 in implementing the requirements on transparency and exchange of information (EOI) for tax purposes.
There are 22 Asian countries that are members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and are committed to the implementation of the standard on transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR). Of these countries, 16 are committed to commencing the automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) by 2024.
The report notes that the commitment to EOI has enabled the Asian member countries to collect more tax revenue over the years. The Asian members have reported a total of at least EUR 20.1 billion additional tax revenues resulting from EOI since 2009. In the current situation, with Asian countries beginning to use EOIR to support domestic investigations and also implementing AEOI, there is a prospect of significant additional tax revenue being generated in the future.
The effectiveness of the implementation and use of EOI remains inconsistent among Asian countries. Many Asian countries have not yet joined the Global Forum and some countries do not make many EOI requests in practice or have not yet made a definite commitment to implement the standard within a given timetable. This means that some Asian members are not fully benefiting from the tax transparency standards. Further commitment to the standards would help them to mobilise domestic revenue in the post-pandemic situation where additional tax revenue is needed to finance public services and stimulate growth.
The report notes that the Global Forum has a capacity building programme that can be of assistance to Asian member countries in their implementation of EOI and domestic revenue mobilisation. The cooperation with development partners has been shown to be a positive force in facilitating the implementation of the tax transparency commitments in the region.
