Tax Treaties: Mutual Assistance

• Council of Europe & OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (1988)
• Nordic Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters (1989)
• OECD Model Agreement on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters (2002)
• TIAA: U.S. and Bahamas (2002)

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Tax Cooperation

Not so long ago, the general view was that countries had no obligation to assist each other in the administration of their tax systems. Indeed, it was not considered particularly outrageous for countries to assist (for a fee) residents of a foreign country to avoid or even evade their taxes.

Those days are over. Although a consensus has not yet emerged on the extent of a country's obligation to assist other countries in assessing and collecting taxes, there is a growing consensus that countries do have some obligation to prevent themselves from complicity in international fiscal fraud.