On 23 and 24 October 2014 the heads of tax administrations convened for the ninth meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA). Delegations from around forty tax administrations discussed the implications of the project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and the global trend towards the automatic exchange of financial account information.

They reached agreement on a way forward for enhanced cooperation between tax administrations based on existing legal instruments, to deal with global risks as they arise. An international platform, the JITSIC (Joint International Tax Shelter Information and Collaboration) Network, is to focus specifically on cross border tax avoidance. This is open to all members of the Forum on Tax Administration on a voluntary basis. The idea is that this network will combine and integrate existing tax cooperation by some members into a wider cooperation among the whole membership of the Forum.

They also agreed to devote the necessary resources to the implementation of the new standard on the automatic exchange of information. Information obtained by tax administrations would be treated as confidential and secure transmission systems would be used for the exchange of information.

The delegates agreed to improve the practical operation of the mutual agreement procedure so the issues of double taxation could be dealt with more efficiently. Work done by the tax administrations on this issue will be integrated with the relevant part of the BEPS action plan and the competent authorities of all member countries of the Forum will be encouraged to take part in the discussions.

The delegates discussed how to improve taxpayer compliance from the earliest stage of the life of the business so tax compliance would be a key part of business operations from the start. They also discussed further work on cooperative compliance, working with taxpayers and intermediaries to develop principles to form the basis of tax control frameworks. These principles will be extended to the SME sector to help lower the tax compliance costs for small businesses. Work has also been conducted on measurement of the tax outcomes. They discussed the expansion of electronic services and the benefits of investing in taxpayer self-service, and a number of papers on these subjects were considered.