OECD Puts Tax Cheats on Radar 

By BOB DAVIS  WSJ

Le communiqué OCDE

Le "Global Tax Forum" 

La position de Pascal Saint Amans ( Le Monde 15.08.09)

OCDE échange de renseignements: un point au 14 aout

Tax Administration Guidance & Information Series

WASHINGTON -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is proposing to greatly strengthen an informal tax-information body as a way to crack down on tax cheating internationally.At a Sept. 1 session in Los Cabos, Mexico, the OECD will press to turn the Global Forum on tax-information sharing, a loose grouping of 84 nations, into a formal international institution with a permanent staff of examiners.

The forum would review whether members are aiding one another in cases involving tax evasion internationally. In particular, the forum would examine whether members are living up to their obligations under tax-exchange agreements, and make suggestions on how to improve.

"We hope to put in place a restructured Global Forum," said Pascal Saint-Amans, who heads the OECD's international tax-cooperation division. The forum would use "a peer-review process to put peer pressure [on countries] to increase transparency and [promote] the full exchange of information for tax purposes," he said.

Under the OECD plan, Global Forum examiners would review a country's compliance with its tax-information-sharing agreements and issue a report, which would be discussed in sessions with other forum members. The idea is to pressure recalcitrant governments to be more forthcoming. 

 The U.S. is lobbying for the measure, but it is far from clear that many developing nations, and especially tax havens, would back a more powerful role for the Global Forum.