Important step in tax transparency

The Minister of State, accompanied by the Minister of Finance and Economy, have presented to Mr Angel Gurría, Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development at La Muette, headquarters of the OECD in Paris, the instrument of ratification of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, signed by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.

At present, 107 jurisdictions are participating in the Convention, including all G20 countries, all OECD countries, major financial centres and a growing number of developing countries. Of these 107 jurisdictions, the Convention has now entered into force in 91 countries, including Monaco.

The Convention, which was signed on October 13, 2014, will take effect in Monaco three months after its ratification, for the exchange of information on request and also for the spontaneous exchange of information.

As a reminder, the Principality of Monaco has undertaken to implement the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts to begin trading in 2018 on information collected in 2017.

On the other hand, Monaco is one of the signatories to the Multilateral Agreement between Competent Authorities on the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts, which clarifies the Convention and will take effect at the same time.

In addition, the “common reporting standard” provides that the tax administration collect from financial institutions information concerning the accounts of their non-resident customers in the Principality and automatically forward them to the tax authorities of their country of residence, while preserving the rights of the taxpayers by guaranteeing the confidential treatment of the data exchanged.

All these commitments made by the Principality of Monaco are in conformity with the wish expressed by Prince Albert to increase transparency in tax matters and all measures implemented since 2009.