Panama Papers: global tax officials to launch unprecedented inquiry

Investigators from 28 countries to meet in Paris in attempt to develop an international strategy for cracking down on secret offshore holdings

Tax investigators from 28 countries will meet in Paris on Wednesday to launch an unprecedented international inquiry following the publication of the Panama Papers.

Senior officials from tax authorities around the world have said they intend to work together to analyse information revealed by the documents, which have provoked international concern over the offshore industry.

Investigations have been launched in a number of countries over the past week, but the Paris meeting will be an attempt to develop a global strategy to crack down on offenders.

The sheer scale of the leak – 11.5m documents, covering 210,000 companies in 21 offshore jurisdictions – has led to Wednesday’s hastily arranged meeting.

The aggressive new approach is being led by the Joint International Tax Shelter Information and Collaboration (Jitsic) network, of which the UK is a leading member.

A spokesman for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) confirmed that it would be sending delegates to the Paris conference.

Jitsic’s chairman, Chris Jordan, has previously spoken of establishing a “global mindset for tackling tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance”.

Jordan, who is Australia’s tax commissioner, has established a reputation for his direct approach to multinational companies over their tax affairs.

He previously set up a six-country collaboration to investigate tech companies, including Apple, and has been praised for revolutionising Australia’s approach to tax collection.

“You are ‘structuring in’ aggressively, we will go after you aggressively,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

He now wants to develop a global approach to the exchange of information on tax collection.
“We’re basically trying to get the bigger picture,” Jordan told the Financial Review. “It’s never been tried on this scale before.

“A number of countries have got slices or pieces of the data and that’s been very useful, but really, the start of the conversation is to work out who’s got what, how we can pool that information and start to work together.”

Jordan has emphasised the importance of speed, telling officials that he expects immediate information exchange, rather than the traditionally slow approach.

The meeting in Paris will be chaired by the Australian tax office’s head of international tax, Mark Konza.
The Panama Papers are the result of a huge leak of information from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in the central American country.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), along with media partners including the Guardian, have spent several months analysing data that highlighted how world leaders and their close associates have used a range of complex financial structures to hide their wealth.

The Icelandic prime minister was forced to step down after it emerged that he had connections to an offshore company.

Among the national leaders revealed to have offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, and Ayad Allawi, the former interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq.

David Cameron has come under pressure after it was disclosed that he had invested in an investment fund set up by his father in Panama.

Last Friday, the UN’s independent expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, stressed the need to end tax secrecy.

“Tax evasion destroys trust in public institutions and the rule of law, and shrinks the fiscal space for investing in public healthcare, education, social security and other goods and services,” he said.



“Public funds that are essential to guarantee economic, social and cultural rights to all are robbed from the people.”

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/12/panama-papers-global-tax-officials-inquiry-paris-meeting?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other