Agreement on exchange of information

Twenty-eight countries and jurisdictions, including the UK,  have signed the OECD multilateral competent authority agreement (MCAA) for the automatic exchange of information under the OECD Model rules for reporting by digital platforms.

The agreement will allow jurisdictions to automatically exchange information collected by operators of digital platforms with respect to transactions and income realised by platform sellers in the sharing and gig economy, and from the sale of goods through such platforms.

A separate MCAA has also been signed by various countries (also including the UK) supporting the Model mandatory disclosure rules on common reporting standard avoidance arrangements and opaque offshore structures (CRS mandatory disclosure rules). The OECD reports that the agreement will ‘enable the annual automatic exchange of information collected from intermediaries that have identified arrangements to circumvent the common reporting standard and structures that disguise the beneficial owners of assets held offshore with the jurisdiction of tax residence of the concerned taxpayers’.

The signing of both agreements took place in Seville alongside the 15th Plenary meeting of the Global forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.