More developing countries are set to play a greater role in the global crackdown against tax evasion, ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.

More developing countries are set to play a greater role in the decision-making processes involved in ensuring that multinational corporations are taxed where their real economic activities take place, according to a new roadmap by the Organisation for the Economic Cooperation and Development.

The OECD said in a statement that ten developing countries, including Albania, Jamaica, Kenya, Peru, Philippines, Senegal and Tunisia, will become more involved in addressing the tax processes of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and will also participate in a second round of regional consultations early next year.

The announcement comes ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.

BEPS schemes involve the shifting of profits across borders to take advantage of tax rates that are lower in another country. Popular mechanisms for doing this are hybrid mismatches, special purpose entities and transfer pricing.

A recent report by the G20 Development Working Group highlighted how BEPS issues pose acute problems for developing countries, most of which have lower tax bases than advanced economies and raise a far higher share of tax revenues from corporate taxes than developed countries.

Despite welcoming the step taken by the OECD for involving more countries, Susana Ruiz Rodrigues, an Oxfam tax expert, said it was “regrettable” that the decision had been made half-way through the negotiation process.

"Uncertainties remain on how the 10 developing countries will have enough capacity to influence the OECD technical tax discussions and whether they really will be able to have their priorities listened to," she said.

"The unequal say developed countries have on international tax reform remains, despite the OECD's efforts today. The secretariat has pushed as far as it can, while operating well, given its mandate. It's important to remember that many issues that significantly affect developing countries, such as tax competition and source-versus-residence taxation, are locked out of the OECD-led process,” she added.

With tax evasion set to play a major part of this weekend’s conference, Geoff Cook, CEO of Jersey Finance, has written to UK politician Joe Hockey, who chairs the finance minister’s meetings, saying that he welcomed the G20’s focus on global tax measures for developing nations.

“However, I would also like to draw your attention to a statement from The World Trade Organisation which found that the removal of global trade barriers caused a doubling of income in 10 developing countries with a total population of 1.5 billion, and that the overall annual growth in the world economy – an average of 1.9 per cent per year since World War II – is largely down to increased trade and global finance,” Cook said.  

“A fair and competitive international tax framework would help to get funds flowing, raising living standards globally. In this respect the G20 policy recommendations endorsed by yourself and Prime Minister Abbott are a valuable and constructive contribution to policy direction. The focus on even adoption and active implementation of current regulation and the rollback of protectionist measures is a necessary precursor to achieving the aspiration of 2 per cent improvement in world trade,” he added.

Cook also called for a level playing field on tax regulations.

“I urge you to consider all jurisdictions on an equal footing and not to allow common misconceptions of offshore financial centres to obstruct the goal of achieving greater tax compliance on the basis of a level-playing field,” Cook said.

He cited efforts made by Jersey in combating evasion through international information sharing agreements as well as its strong track record in compliance with global standards on transparency and fighting financial crime.

“Jersey’s current level of compliance is higher than a large number of jurisdictions. As a result we have received extremely positive endorsements: at the G8 Summit in Lough Erne in June 2013, Mr Gurria said that he was 'very happy' with the way Jersey and the other Crown Dependencies had responded to the global drive towards greater international cooperation and transparency," Cook said.