Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt and Kenya have endorsed the Yaoundé Declaration to promote tax transparency and exchange of information.

In recent years, countries signed up to the declaration have substantially increased their focus on curbing illicit financial flows (IFFs) and capturing domestic revenues.

Global Forum

The four new endorsements coincided with the 10th Anniversary Meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) and brings the number of African countries signed up to the declaration to 29.

The Global Forum now has 158 members on an equal footing and is the lead international body for ensuring the implementation of internationally agreed standards of transparency and exchange of information concerning taxes. The forum works under the auspices of the OECD and G20.

Discussions

Open meetings in Paris focused on the issues of the utility, relevance and global impact of tax transparency. Participants also discussed the challenges and next steps to promote transparency.

In a members-only sitting, delegates met at the technical level and discussed several documents which aim to shape Global Forum’s work in the coming years, notably the renewal of the forum’s mandate and the documentation necessary for commencing peer reviews of automatic exchanges of information. 

Information exchange

Participants urged the forum to explore possible areas of international tax cooperation such as the use of tax information to tackle IFFs.

They also called for mechanisms to facilitate exchange of information on request for Value Added Tax (VAT) / Goods and Services Tax (GST) purposes and cross-border assistance in tax recovery.

Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News