Estonia Signs on to Tax Policing Standard
Estonia will be better integrated with international cooperation for cutting down on tax evasion after the signing of a multilateral agreement.
Estonian Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi represented Estonia at the signing of the Multilateral Competent Authority agreement on implementation of the automatic exchange of information standard in Berlin on Wednesday.
The agreement was signed by 53 countries and it is said to signal a new step towards greater transparency. The standard, developed by the OECD in cooperation with G20 countries, will facilitate tax authorities’ access to financial information and boost worldwide efforts to crack down on tax evasion. The OECD standard will also become the EU standard.
"Signing the agreement will make information exchange more efficient as this will now be an automatic process. It makes sense for Estonia to join the initiative, we are, after all, trying to be pioneers in the tax sector," said the minister.