The G20 Finance Ministers have issued a communiqué following their meeting held on 23-24 July 2016 in Chengdu, China. The communiqué covers a number of issues, including the following tax and transparency related issues:
- Support for the inclusive framework for the implementation of the G20/OECD BEPS package;
- A call for countries to commit to the automatic exchange of information by 2018;
- Endorsement of the OECD's proposed objective criteria to indentify non-cooperative jurisdictions;
- Continued work on issues of pro-growth tax policies and tax certainty; and
- Proposals for international tax transparency standards and information exchange, including for beneficial ownership.
The following is the text of the communiqué concerning the above issues.
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We welcome the first meeting of the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework on BEPS held in Kyoto, particularly its broad membership which will be a key asset in supporting a timely, consistent and widespread implementation of the G20/OECD BEPS package, as well as in tackling the specific challenges faced by developing countries. We call upon all relevant and interested countries and jurisdictions that have not yet committed to the BEPS package to do so and join the framework on an equal footing. We also welcome the recent progress made on effective and widespread implementation of the internationally agreed standards on tax transparency. We reiterate our call on all relevant countries including all financial centers and jurisdictions which have not yet done so to commit without delay to implementing the standard on automatic exchange of information by 2018 at the latest and to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. We support the Global Forum's monitoring of the implementation of automatic exchange of information and look forward to its report before the end of the year. We endorse the proposals made by the OECD working with G20 members on the objective criteria to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions with respect to tax transparency. We ask the OECD to report back to us by June 2017 on the progress made by jurisdictions on tax transparency, and on how the Global Forum will manage the country review process in response to supplementary review requests of countries, with a view for the OECD to prepare a list by the July 2017 G20 Leaders' Summit of those jurisdictions that have not yet sufficiently progressed toward a satisfactory level of implementation of the agreed international standards on tax transparency. Defensive measures will be considered against listed jurisdictions. We encourage countries and IOs (international organizations) to assist developing economies in building their tax capacity and accordingly we acknowledge the establishment of the new Platform for Collaboration on Taxation by the IMF, OECD, UN and WBG, and their recommendations on mechanisms for effective technical assistance in support of tax reforms. We look forward to receiving a progress update by mid-2017. We support the principles of the Addis Tax Initiative. We recognize the significant negative impact of illicit financial flows on our economies and we continue to take forward the work of the G20 on this theme.
We recognize the important role of tax policies in our broader agenda on strong, sustainable and balanced growth and of a fair and efficient international tax environment in diminishing the conflicts among tax systems. As highlighted in our discussion at the G20 High Level Tax Symposium, we emphasize the effectiveness of tax policy tools in supply-side structural reform for promoting innovation-driven, inclusive growth, as well as the benefits of tax certainty to promote investment and trade. In this regard, we ask the OECD and the IMF to continue working on the issues of pro-growth tax policies and tax certainty.
We reiterate our call on the FATF and the Global Forum to make initial proposals by our October meeting on ways to improve the implementation of the international standards on transparency, including on the availability of beneficial ownership information of legal persons and legal arrangements, and its international exchange.
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Click the following link for the full text of the communiqué.