OECD toolkit for ‘aggressive’ tax planning
Thursday February 03 2011 | 02:58 AM

A toolkit for national tax authorities to ward against "aggressive" tax planning by large corporations and the very wealthy with funds offshore has been published by the OECD.

Published on Tuesday, the document reveals measures including mandatory disclosure initiatives that help national authorities to prevent wide-scale tax avoidance. Strategies recommended include cooperative compliance programmes and increased reporting obligations.

"I hope that this report will be widely used by tax policy makers, tax administrators, other stakeholders and the public at large and that it will contribute to the discussions on the design or revision of disclosure initiatives around the world," writes Jeffrey Owens, director of the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, in the foreword.

"Disclosure initiatives, and in particular early mandatory disclosure rules, can substantially reduce the time-lag between the creation and promotion of aggressive tax planning schemes and their identification by the authorities, thus enabling governments to more quickly develop a targeted response."