The new UK government comes to power with what is probably the most ambitious package of international tax commitments of any elected party, anywhere, ever.
And Prime Minister David Cameron has been absolutely explicit that they will deliver on their promises.
So, in the spirit of public service, and of this blog in making sure things don’t go uncounted, here’s a cut-out-and-keep guide to each of the three main commitments on international tax and transparency, and some proposed measures of progress.
Commitment 1: We will lead international efforts to ensure global companies pay their fair share of tax
- External analysis of UK positions in OECD BEPS initiative
- Evaluation of UK policies in BEPS areas
- Evaluation of BEPS outcomes (BEPS Monitoring Group)
- Progress in reducing BEPS (tracked by BEPS 11 or alternatives if this Action Point itself fails)
Commitment 2: We will review the implementation of the new international country-by-country tax reporting rules and consider the case for making this information publicly available on a multilateral basis
- Review takes place
- Review engages seriously with views of multilateral partners, especially EU where discussion is currently ahead of UK
- Review findings are well supported by evidence on costs and benefits of publication
Commitment 3: We will ensure developing countries have full access to global automatic tax information exchange systems
- UK provides full access to developing countries
- UK ensures its territories and dependencies provide full access to developing countries
- UK works to ensure other leading economies and financial centres provide full access to developing countries
- Extent to which each developing country ultimately has access to automatic tax information exchange (e.g. % of world GDP, or share of global financial services exports, of those providing information to each country)
