Andorra Signs Up To OECD Tax Pact

Tom Burroughes

19 June 2014

The tiny European state of Andorra, sandwiched between Spain and France in the Pyrenees, has become the 48th signatory to an OECD Declaration that commits countries to end bank secrecy for tax purposes, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development said yesterday.

Andorra’s decision to join the Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters will oblige it to implement a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information being developed at the OECD, it said.

Dozens of nations have signed the pact as part of efforts by Group of 20 nations, and others, to stamp out tax evasion and forms of tax avoidance. Some critics, such as the Washington DC-based think tank, the CATO Institute, have argued in the past that such efforts are the equivalent of trying to build a sort of global tax cartel, with damaging long-term consequences for growth.

The declaration was endorsed during the OECD’s annual Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris on 6 May by all 34 member countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Africa.