The Current Signatories To The OECD’s Convention

On 29 May 2013, a further nine countries signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (the "Convention"), at a ceremony held by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD described the Convention as 'a freestanding multilateral agreement designed to promote international co-operation for a better operation of national tax laws, while respecting the fundamental rights of taxpayers.'

Another nine countries, including: Austria, Belize, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the Slovak Republic have signed the Convention; following the steps of Morocco that has recently signed the Convention. Furthermore, Burkina Faso, Chile and El Salvador signed a letter of intention to sign the Convention.

Moreover, Belize, Ghana, Greece, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands including its Caribbean islands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten deposited their instruments of ratification.

The OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurria, informed that 'this is a historic moment for the Convention and another winning round in the fight against tax cheats [...] In the past 2 years more than 60 countries have signed the Convention or stated their intention to do so, marking an important milestone on the road to closer cooperation and more transparency - to making the international system fair to all taxpayers.'

One of the great supporters of the OECD's Convention is the G20 group. The OECD worked closely with the successive presidencies (US, UK, Canada, South Korea, France, and Mexico) towards the same goals to implement more transparency and equity in taxation and to improve the cooperation between both organizations.

To date Cyprus has been very cooperative with the OECD and has, consequently been included on the OECD's White List (unlike other EU financial centres such as Luxembourg and the Netherlands, who were not included in the initial White List). This list includes countries that have...