The automatic exchange of information on financial accounts around the world is coming. More than fifty countries have committed to this at an international tax conference hosted by Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
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The exchange of information now agreed will make it easier for fiscal authorities to obtain information about financial accounts held in other countries. In future those attempting to evade taxes will find it much more difficult to hide sources of income from the tax authorities and to hope that anonymous assets will be difficult to tax.
During its current G7 Presidency, the German government attaches great importance to fighting tax evasion. Germany has long been working to improve international cooperation in the field of taxation.
"Banking secrecy cannot stay as it was in the good old days. It is an anachronism in this day and age, when citizens can shift money backwards and forwards around the world at the click of a button," declared Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
The multilateral agreement now signed in Berlin is based on the new international standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information developed by the OECD for the G20. Germany and four other major EU member states (Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom) have been pushing for and supporting this new standard from the outset.
From January 2016, participating states intend to record data about financial accounts held by individuals who are resident for tax purposes in other countries, as well as information about interest, dividends and sales proceeds. In September 2017 this information is to be sent across national borders to the fiscal authorities in other countries for the first time.
In future participants intend to inform one another once a year as to who is keeping how much in their countries, and how these funds are replenished. Tax evasion will thus once and for all be treated as no trivial offence. The Berlin conference is not only the end of a successful process, launched partly on German initiative. It is the prelude for new future efforts.
On 28 and 29 October, Germany is holding the 7th annual meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Berlin. The Global Forum is the world’s largest network for international cooperation in the field of tax and financial information. Its members include 121 jurisdictions (nation states, federal states, municipalities and the European Union). More than 200 delegates attended the conference to find out more about the next steps in international cooperation to fight tax evasion.