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Governments agree to multilateral tax information exchange
HMRC will swap data with their counterparts in four major European countries, after the government entered into the creation of a multilateral tax information exchange programme.
The UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain yesterday agreed to work together to develop and trial an initiative that will see tax information being shared automatically between the five EU nations, in an effort to tackle international evasion in a way that minimises costs for businesses and administrations.
The pilot will be based on the USA’s Model Intergovernmental Agreement to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA, which was signed last summer by all the governments taking part in the new European programme.
The prime minister has previously expressed his aim to to use the UK’s presidency of the G8 to explore options for greater levels of tax information exchange, particularly on a multilateral basis, and he sees the latest agreement as an important early step in a wider move towards a new international standard.
The Exchequer secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said: “This is an important further step in the fight against tax evasion and represents the next stage in promoting a new standard in the automatic exchange of tax information.”
