The Council of the EU has moved the Bahamas and Saint Kitts & Nevis to the lower-risk annex II of the EU’s list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. This reflects commitments made by both jurisdictions at a high political level in March to remedy EU concerns.
The Council of the EU has reached agreement on an updated tax good governance provision for inclusion in relevant agreements between EU member states and third countries.
The updated provision, which replaces the version adopted in May 2008, reads:
The OECD has released the first peer reviews of the country by country (CBC) reporting initiative, focusing mainly on the domestic legal and administrative framework.
The review covered 95 jurisdictions. As of 12 January, the key findings were:
Paraguay has become the 119th signatory to the ‘Multilateral convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters’.
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has launched six new ‘large business and international compliance’ campaigns, among them three which target non-resident alien individuals. These concern compliance with treaty exemption claims, rules on deductible expenses, and tax credits claims.
The government has made statutory instruments covering implementation of the BEPS multilateral instrument, and treaties with Switzerland and Uzbekistan.
Tim Sarson (KPMG) provides your monthly update on international tax.
The OECD inclusive framework has released the results of 11 preferential regime reviews in connection with BEPS Action 5 (harmful tax practices), updating the October 2017 progress report. These show:
The United Arab Emirates has become the 116th country to join the OECD’s inclusive framework on BEPS. Other joiners since November 2017 are: Bahrain, Saint Lucia, Anguilla, Serbia, Mongolia, Zambia, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Qatar, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.