19/07/2024 - The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) published today six new peer review reports on Transparency and Exchange of Information on Request (EOIR) standard for Ecuador, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Sint Maarten and Sweden. While all six jurisdictions are rated “Largely Compliant”, reflecting their continued efforts to comply with the EOIR standard, the need for effective supervision and enforcement of the legal and regulatory framework to ensure the availability of beneficial ownership information emerged as a common strand.
A hundred and eighteen jurisdictions have now been fully reviewed in the second round of EOIR peer reviews since 2016 and the ratings assigned are generally positive, with 89% of the jurisdictions deemed “Compliant” or “Largely Compliant”, 9% assessed as "Partially Compliant", and only 2% as "Non-Compliant". The new reports were approved by the Global Forum’s dedicated Peer Review Group in June 2024 and subsequently adopted by the Global Forum members.
Other key findings and recommendations include:
Ecuador joined the Global Forum in 2017 and was undergoing its first review to assess compliance with the EOIR standard. Ecuador has successfully enhanced its legal and regulatory framework over the last two years to better align with the standard, particularly in ensuring the availability of information on the legal and beneficial owners of legal entities and arrangements. Notably, it introduced provisions for a registry of beneficial ownership, to be maintained by the tax authority. Specific improvements remain needed concerning the beneficial ownership of bank accounts related to Ecuadorian fideicomisos (trust-like undertakings). The report highlights the need to implement the registry in practice, as well as the need for more comprehensive supervision and enforcement of the requirements related to the availability of information. Overall, Ecuador is rated “Largely Compliant” with the EOIR standard. Access the report
Israel has made strides in exchanging information with other countries for tax purposes since its last peer review, in 2016. While the report acknowledges legislative advancements, it identifies areas needing further improvement. Although recent legislation (effective 1 October 2024) will facilitate access to beneficial ownership information from banks, the report identifies material gaps in the availability of such information for legal entities and arrangements. These gaps hinder efforts to ensure that adequate, accurate, and up-to-date information is available for all relevant entities and arrangements, as required by the EOIR standard. The review also notes positive developments regarding new immigrants and veteran returning residents, who were subject to a reporting exemption on their foreign income. Legislation adopted in April 2024 facilitates information exchange related to their foreign income, including from sources like trusts and foreign companies. However, this applies only to individuals obtaining this residency status after January 1, 2026. Gaps remain for those acquiring such status before that date. While signposting these areas for improvement, the report also underlines Israel's extensive network of exchange relationships and improvements in the timeliness of response to information requests from partner countries since the last review in 2016. Overall, the latest peer review assesses Israel as “Largely Compliant” with the EOIR standard. Access the report
Lithuania has made further progress in exchanging information in a timely manner since its last peer review published in 2015 through its well-delineated organisational processes and efficient use of information technology. Lithuania has enhanced its legal and regulatory framework, in particular the anti-money laundering and company law frameworks, for ensuring availability of beneficial ownership information, including through setting up a beneficial ownership register. However, the new report notes that guidance, supervision and enforcement should be strengthened for availability of beneficial ownership information in line with the EOIR standard. Recommendations are also made for ensuring availability and access to ownership and accounting information required for exchange purposes under specific circumstances. Overall, the latest peer review assesses Lithuania as “Largely Compliant” with the EOIR standard. Access the report
Moldova joined the Global Forum in 2016 and was reviewed for the first time by the Global Forum for its compliance with the EOIR standard. Moldova has a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework in place to ensure the availability of legal ownership and beneficial ownership information, accounting information and banking information, in line with the standard. However, the report identifies some remaining gaps, notably a lack of sufficient supervision and enforcement actions to the anti-money laundering (AML) obliged persons that are not financial institutions to ensure the availability of the beneficial ownership information in practice. In addition, the effectiveness of the newly amended AML law and related guidance could not be assessed as they were issued after the review period. Moldova has a wide network of exchange relationships and organisational processes and resources in place and was able to respond to requests received from exchange partners in a timely manner. Moldova is rated overall “Largely Compliant” with the EOIR standard in this first full peer review. Access the report
Sint Maarten has made significant progress since its previous peer review report in 2015 and has improved its overall rating. Since 2015, Sint Maarten has amended its laws to prohibit issuance of bearer shares and introduced requirements on submitting beneficial ownership information to the trade register. Notwithstanding, the current report shows there is scope for further improvements, especially in respect of supervision and enforcement of the legal requirements. The need for better supervision is noted in respect of availability of ownership, accounting and banking information. Another area for improvement remains the notification procedure where legal issues identified in earlier reports remain to be addressed satisfactorily. Finally, although Sint Maarten continues to receive a relatively low volume of requests for information from other jurisdictions, the report acknowledges the clear progress made by Sint Maarten on timeliness and effectiveness of its exchange of information, compared to the situation at the time of the previous report. Overall, Sint Maarten is rated “Largely Compliant” with the EOIR standard. Access the report
Sweden has a well-established team and procedures in place to deal with the high number of requests from its partners, which has allowed it to continue to exchange information in an effective and timely manner. Since its last peer review in 2013 which rated Sweden as “Compliant”, the country has updated its anti-money laundering framework and introduced a central beneficial ownership register that will make beneficial ownership information readily available to the tax administration. The new report encourages Sweden to improve its legal framework and supervision procedures with respect to the availability of up-to-date beneficial ownership information, and to address deficiencies in the legal framework to ensure the availability of underlying accounting records for companies that re-domicile outside of Sweden. The overall rating of Sweden’s implementation of the EOIR standard is "Largely Compliant". Access the report
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when on-site visits to assess the implementation in practice were not possible, reports on the legal and regulatory frameworks had already been published for Moldova (November 2021), Ecuador, Sint Maarten and Sweden (in August 2022) and Israel (November 2022). For these jurisdictions, the new peer reviews complement the findings from the earlier reports, by including an analysis of the implementation of the legal and regulatory frameworks and assigning ratings. With the publication of these reports, all reviews that had to be conducted in two phases due to the challenges posed by the pandemic have now been completed.
» Access all EOIR peer review reports published to date
» Browse the schedule of reviews covering all Global Forum members and relevant non-members
The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the EOIR standard and the standard for automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI). These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.
For further information, journalists should contact Manal Corwin, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (+33 1 45 24 18 80), or Zayda Manatta, Head of the Global Forum Secretariat (+33 1 45 24 82 29).