At a multilateral level, the OECD has been busy over the last few weeks on the base erosion and profit shifting front, and on December 23 released new tools for tax administrations to gauge how they are performing in the area of tax debt management and the reduction of compliance burdens.

It announced that it has developed new “maturity models,” featuring performance benchmarks against which tax agencies can better self-assess how their processes are performing against best standards and their peers.

Tom Boelaert, the Administrator General of the Belgian Debt Management Agency, which led the work on this model, explained that: “Tax debt management plays a crucial role in ensuring the effective and fair operation of the tax system. We should therefore always challenge ourselves to do better. Within my own agency, this new maturity model has facilitated frank and in-depth conversations about our future direction. From comments we received from other administrations as we developed this maturity model, I am sure that it will be a useful new tool for all tax administrations.”

The OECD said it expects further models on other aspects of tax administration will be published over the coming years. These models will complement existing tools such as the International Monetary Fund’s Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT).

Somewhat later in the month, it was revealed that additional interpretative guidance to give greater certainty to tax administrations and MNE Groups on the implementation and operation of Country-by-Country (CbC) Reporting (BEPS Action 13) had been published.

The new guidance makes clear that, under the BEPS Action 13 minimum standard, the automatic exchange of CbC reports filed under local filing rules is not intended.

For more information on this, and other topical international tax matters, please visit: https://www.cchgroup.com/roles/corporations/international-solutions/research/global-tax-weekly-a-closer-look

OECD