OECD hails tax haven controls

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has issued an update on its monitoring of the global tax system.

According to an update on the Paris-based organisation’s website, developing nations would benefit from a ’new frontier’ in regulation - and that tax is now ’one of the principal’ focuses of policy discussions regarding the third world.

Moves to more effectively regulate tax havens offering offshore private banking services were also near the top of the agenda at the London G20 summit held earlier this month.

World leaders agreed at the meeting to ’name and shame’ nations which provided such services.

The issue was also covered in talks between the IMF and World Bank, which took place in Washington over the weekend.

In the update, OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria commented: ’Spurred on by the G20, governments and financial centres around the world have come forward with pledges to open up bank records to foreign tax investigators. The message could not be clearer: aiding tax evasion is no longer acceptable.’

He added: ’With aid budgets under pressure and trade volumes weakening amid the global economic crisis, governments are looking to tax systems as a new frontier for development policies.’ADNFCR-2318-ID-19143104-ADNFCR