51 countries signed pact in tax evasion crackdown

Finance ministers and tax chiefs from fifty-one countries signed an agreement on 29 October 2014 to automatically swap tax information beginning in 2017. The agreement that was reached in Berlin will help the participant countries to share financial data and boost efforts to crackdown on tax evasion.

The participant countries will begin automatically exchanging data collected by financial institutions as early as 2017. This agreement was developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in consultation with the world’s top 20 countries.

The countries that signed the agreement include most European Union Nations as well as traditional tax havens like Liechtenstein, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

Apart from this, United States hasn’t signed the deal but said that it will share information as part of bilateral deals, while India has deferred from signing the agreement.

• OECD Secretary General - Angel Gurria