Financial Transparency Coalition

I’m not going to get over-excited, I hope, but I think the new UK / Liechtenstein Tax Information Exchange Agreement moves information exchange into a new era. This deal is like no other Tax Information Exchange Agreement. Take this from the preamble:

The Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (together “the Contracting Parties”) desiring to:

(a) regulate the exchange of information with respect to taxes between the Contracting Parties and facilitate tax cooperation and taxpayer assistance, and

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The OECD is holding a meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information on September 1-2 in Los Cabos, Mexico. There are three objectives. The first is to discuss creating new ways of concluding Tax Information Exchange Agreements. The second is to decide whether the Cayman and St Kitts & Nevis legislation that allows unilateral information exchange is acceptable for information exchange purposes. The third is to set up a peer review monitoring group on information exchange. Documents on the first two agenda items are here. The document on monitoring is here.

Strategic dispute resolution has become critical for companies to sustain their global transfer pricing strategies. Now, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced its International Transfer Pricing 2009 book which predicts an increase in disputes around the world as more and more tax authorities aggressively attempt to enforce their transfer pricing rules. “In 2009 we expect that several major territories will adopt new or revised requirements for transfer pricing and the impact of the OECD’s discussion draft on business restructurings will be evaluated,” said Garry Stone, a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- The governments of Singapore and Belgium have amended their tax agreement to "enhance" their cooperation on the exchange of information for tax purposes, Singapore's Ministry of Finance said Friday.