United Nations Code of Conduct on Cooperation in Combating International Tax Evasion

E/RES/2017/3View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 18hInternational cooperation in tax matters, published in 2017.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 topics

Codes of Conduct International Cooperation Tax Evasion

What does this mandate say?

11 operative paragraphs

Decides to adopt the following code of conduct, and invites States to consider adopting the goals and substantive actions set out therein:

United Nations code of conduct on cooperation in combating international tax evasion

I.Goals

The United Nations code of conduct on cooperation in combating international tax evasion has the following goals:

To ensure that all States following the present code of conduct, in an effort to combat international tax evasion and avoidance, and to protect their tax bases from non-compliance with their tax laws, provide that high levels of transparency and exchange of information in tax matters are adhered to, in particular, automatic exchange of information;

To assist in the development of international norms, practical steps and capacity-building programmes that those States may follow, with a view to preventing and combating international tax evasion and protecting their tax bases from non-compliance with their tax laws.

II.Substantive actions

States following the present code of conduct intend:

To effectively exchange information in both criminal and civil tax matters;

To have appropriate confidentiality rules for information exchanged and safeguards and limitations that apply to taxpayer information;

To endorse the work carried out on automatic exchange of financial account information, including the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, the so-called Common Reporting Standard;

To encourage all countries that have not already done so to consider becoming a party to the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters;

To affirm the need to work within the United Nations, as well as with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the Group of 20 and other concerned multilateral bodies and relevant international organizations, in order to help developing countries and countries with economies in transition to identify their needs for capacity-building and technical assistance on automatic exchange of information, including on addressing confidentiality issues;

To also affirm the need to conduct technical meetings, seminars and other capacity-building or technical assistance events on automatic exchange of information, including confidentiality, for developing countries and countries with economies in transition, with the involvement of concerned multilateral bodies and relevant international organizations.

The substantive actions are intended to be taken by means of two broad types:

Unilateral means: the national implementation of automatic exchange of information may necessitate that countries amend their domestic legislation and practices and develop necessary administrative resources and information technology infrastructure;

Bilateral or, as appropriate, multilateral means, including regional approaches: the principles of transparency and effective exchange of information will generally be implemented through international cooperation (capacity-building), bilateral or multilateral arrangements in order to exchange information automatically, including by implementing the substance of article 26 and the accompanying commentary of the United Nations Model Double Taxation Convention between Developed and Developing Countries, as finalized by the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.

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