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During their meeting, the G5 Ministers stressed the utmost importance of the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) as a very efficient mean to tackle tax fraud, in particular off-shore tax evasion, and to promote tax compliance. They called all financial centres to join this move.
Emphasising the international developments in this area, they instructed in common their administrations to make the necessary arrangements for signing the AEOI agreements along the new, single, global OECD standard, together and with the 39 other jurisdictions that have committed to join them.
They enhanced the work of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purpose. As to the mutual assistance on request, they insisted that all countries must implement with no delay its recommendations, in particular those whose assessment could not be achieved or that have been rated non or partially compliant. Furthermore, they stressed the importance of designing a framework for monitoring the implementation of AEOI.
In the field of corporate taxation, they reiterated their strong support to the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which is due to report its first outputs to the G20 Finance Ministers in September 2014. They affirmed that the BEPS project must develop, by end- 2015, a comprehensive approach to modernising outdated rules, closing the loopholes of the current international tax system, and developing a single set of global rules. This will tackle the aggressive tax planning practices of companies.
Indeed, the BEPS phenomenon is of major concern, as it threatens public revenues, tax fairness and fair competition between companies. In this respect, the G5 Ministers agreed the following set of measures:
As a conclusion, they stressed that the international developments on BEPS must be reflected at the European Union level. In this context, they decided to encourage the Commission to review the EU law, assess its impact on the aggressive tax planning practices and, on this basis, propose necessary measures. As a first step in this direction, they agreed to support the appropriate changes to the directives on corporate taxation.