The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has announced that Panama has accepted the automatic exchange of tax information with countries with which it has a bilateral agreement for the exchange.
Panama has promised to use the common communication standard for information produced by the OECD and the G20 for this information exchange.
Panama, Bahrain, the Cook Islands, Nauru and Vanuatu are the countries that have refused to join the OECD agreement for automatic exchange of tax information.
Laestrella.com.pa reports that "... According to data provided by the Global Forum on Transparency, linked to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), these five states are the only ones who have been unwilling to adhere to the automatic exchange. "
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released a plan for the design of international standards to prevent abuse of rules such as the one that lets companies avoid paying taxes in two countries.
Nacion.com reports that "The secretary general of the OECD, Miguel Angel Gurría, accompanied by the G20 finance ministers, today in Moscow presented an ambitious plan to combat the shortcomings of countries tax systems and halting tax evasion by multinationals. "
Costa Rica will make modifications in its legal system to avoid the penalties proposed by the G20 for countries that do not exchange information on taxes.
Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga agreed that the issue of transparency in tax matters and the international exchange of tax information, although it was raised for years, was recently priorized due to the recent decision by the G20 to recommend sanctions against countries that do not cooperate in this regard.