Improving tax evasion forum

Sep 29, 2010
By Jonathan Kwok
A GLOBAL forum to implement better standards on exchanging tax data has attracted more members but it now needs to work to prove to international observers that it is effective.

That is the view of Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport, who addressed the body's annual meeting here on Wednesday.
Mrs Lim told the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes that the organisation has become more inclusive and representative. It now has 95 member jurisdictions compared with 87 a year ago.'The Global Forum allows all members, whether big or small, developed or developing, to participate on an equal footing,' she said.'Members are held to a consistent set of expectations with regard to the implementation of a common and internationally agreed standard for the exchange of information.

'The forum was established in 2000 and radically restructured last year during a meeting in Mexico, when it was given a three-year mandate to strengthen the campaign against tax evasion.

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