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OECD Gives Tax Transparency Verdict On 16 Jurisdictions; Only Two Black Sheep
Max Skjönsberg
10 April 2012
Only two out of 16 countries probed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development were judged as having laws on tax transparency and exchange of information that are too flawed. The Paris-based group said that Costa Rica and Guatemala will not yet move to the next stage of the process “because the deficiencies in their legal frameworks are serious”. The OECD said that Bermuda, Barbados and Qatar have all acted on the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information's recommendation after an initial review into whether their laws allow transparency and exchange of tax information. Bermuda and Qatar will carry out the second phase of the reviews later this year and Barbados in 2013. Eleven other jurisdictions including Korea, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Malta, Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Slovakia have just undergone similar reviews. The Forum said that all of them will carry out phase two reviews between now and next year. The Forum said that Brazil has the regulatory framework in place to ensure exchange of tax information and over 30 such agreements with other countries. The country has been recommended, however, to speed up the process from signing of exchange of information agreements and bringing them into force.