THE Philiippines is one of the four countries in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s list of noncooperative tax havens, news reports from Paris today said.
Reports said after G20 summit in London earlier Thursday, the OECD agreed to name and shame Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uruguay for having “not committed to the internationally agreed tax standard.”
Agence France Presse quoted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the end of the April 2 G20 summit in London as saying,”The banking secrecy of the past must come to an end…”We have agreed that there will be an end to tax havens that do not transfer information upon request.”
The Paris-based OECD is an international organization of developed countries that practice and promote representative democracy and free-market economy.
Reports also said the OECD listed another 38 territories as those that “have committed to the internationally agreed tax standard, but have not yet substantially implemented” the measures.
They include Belgium, Brunei, Chile, the Dutch Antilles, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore, Switzerland and Carribean island nations including the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
A third list of 40 countries named those that had substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard. It included Britain, China (with the exception of special administrative regions), France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
Reuters reported the Group of 20 leading industrialized and emerging nations pledged to take action including sanctions against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens, using information from the OECD as its basis.
The noncooperative centers are accused of harboring foreign tax avoiders who park billions of dollars out of reach of their home authorities.
Read more about the countries’ compliance with the agreed tax standard.