Peer
review reports on 18 jurisdictions ranging from China to Jersey said
they had made strong progress overall in becoming more transparent on
issues such as tax data, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development said this week.

The 18 completed studies brings the total number of OECD peer reviews of jurisdictions to 59, it said in a statement. 

One of the reports, on Jersey in the Channel Islands, saying that the island had made
“significant progress” in terms of tax transparency, prompted Jersey
Finance, the organisation representing the island’s financial services
sector, to claim that the OECD report was a reproach to campaigners
claiming that offshore jurisdictions fell short.

“So often we hear detractors make misleading claims that Jersey is
secretive and unco-operative and yet the truth based on hard evidence is
very different. An independent, specially formed global body set up by
the OECD countries, which is able to delve closely into our procedures
and ask probing questions of our officials, shows clearly that Jersey is
responsive and co-operative,” said Geoff Cook, chief executive at
Jersey Finance.

The Tax Justice Network, a campaign group, has poured scorn on tax
information exchange agreements (TIEAs), saying such bilateral treaties
often do not assist revenue authorities in hunting after alleged tax
dodgers.

Governments around the world have signed more than 700 agreements to
exchange tax information, and the OECD said that compliance programmes
have already yielded €14 billion (around $19.8 billion) in additional tax revenues from more
than 100,000 wealthy individuals who had been hiding assets offshore.

The OECD said that in general, its peer reviews showed a high level
of compliance with financial rules, saying that many of the reports’ 370
recommendations had already been acted upon.

But it added: “A small number of jurisdictions will not pass to the
next stage of the review process because the deficiencies were
sufficiently serious.”

The latest peer review reports, made up of new and supplementary
surveys, were on on Brunei Darussalam, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Gibraltar, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Macao (China),
Malaysia, Uruguay and Vanuatu, Japan, Jersey, the Netherlands, Spain,
 Mauritius, Monaco, San Marino, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the
British Virgin Islands.

In the 13 new reviews, the most common deficiencies, the
OECD identified related to: lack of available ownership information on
trusts and bearer shares; incomplete accounting information for some
forms of trusts, companies and partnerships (including foreign
entities); and limitations in the authorities’ powers to access
information requested by foreign authorities.

The OECD said supplementary reviews show that jurisdictions’ compliance with the international standards is “advancing swiftly”.

“Mauritius, San Marino and the Turks and Caicos Islands introduced
new legislation improving their requirements related to accounting
information; San Marino, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the British
Virgin Islands removed limitations by the competent authority to access
information; San Marino resolved all its legal deficiencies relating to
the availability of ownership information; and Monaco proceeded to
expand its network of international agreements and brought 14 existing
agreements into force,” the OECD said.

It said the “Phase 2 reviews” of Monaco, San Marino and the British
Virgin Islands – assessing their exchange of information in practice –
will take place in the second half of 2012, while the Phase 2 review of
the Turks and Caicos Islands is scheduled for the first half of 2013.

“We have seen remarkable progress in the Peer Review Group and a real
willingness on the part of jurisdictions to address problems identified
by their peers. Of course, there is more work to ensure that in the
long term, we achieve a comprehensive and effective exchange of
information,” said François D’Aubert, chairman of the peer review group
at the OECD.

Meanwhile, the OECD’s global forum, which examines issues such as
compliance over tax exchange data, has expanded with the membership of
El Salvador, Mauritania, Morocco, and Trinidad and Tobago as new
additions, increasing the forum 105 member jurisdictions.