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<p>The UK is at the forefront of multilateral action through the G8, G20, European
Union and OECD to tackle this issue of corporate tax avoidance. The UK used its Presidency
of the G8 to successfully build international support for this work.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>Work is now underway at the OECD, in the form of the Base Erosion and
Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The BEPS project is the most comprehensive reform
of the international tax rules with the aim of ensuring that multinational enterprises
pay their fair share of tax, in the jurisdictions where their economic activity is
located. The project has 44 participant countries, 21 of which are within the EU.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>At the UK’s Lough Erne summit in June 2013 the G8 leaders confirmed
their support for the ongoing G20/OECD work.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>At their
September 2013 summit in St Petersburg, the G20 Leaders fully endorsed the ambitious
and comprehensive BEPS Action Plan set out over 2014 and 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
</p><p>The first phase of the BEPS project is now complete, with participants reaching
agreement on seven reports which have been produced by the OECD and endorsed by G20
Finance Ministers.</p><p> </p><p>The G8 called on the OECD to develop a common template
for multinationals to report profit and tax information to tax authorities to help
assess risks. This work was included in the BEPS Action Plan (action 13) and was one
of seven outputs achieved in 2014.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Subsequently, the
UK announced that it would be the first of 44 countries to formally commit to implementing
the newly agreed BEPS output of a country-by-country reporting template.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>Discussions are ongoing in G20 Finance Minister’s and ECOFIN meetings
to ensure that the momentum of the BEPS project is maintained, so that the project
is completed successfully and on time.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Further to the
BEPS project, international work with G20 and EU counterparts is ongoing with the
Automatic Exchange of Information policy.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The UK put
tax transparency at the heart of its presidency of the G8, calling for the creation
of a new global standard on automatic tax information exchange to tackle offshore
tax evasion. The new global standard was developed by the OECD and agreed in July
2014. At the March European Council leaders committed to implement the standard in
the EU through agreement of the amended Administrative Co-operation Directive, which
they aim to agree by the end of the year.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In total 92
countries and have now committed to implement the new global standard, with the first
information exchanged no later than 2018. This includes all EU Member States, all
of the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories with a financial centre and
the majority of the world’s financial centres. Of these countries and jurisdictions,
51 have already signed an international agreement to implement the standard.</p><p>
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