Blackmoney: India to get secret tax info from Liechtenstein

New Delhi: Liechtenstein, one of India’s important partner nations in fighting overseas tax abuse and black money, will shed its secrecy cloak this week and join hands with a host of other countries for automatic exchange of information and mutual assistance in tax matters.

Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said the country will sign the convention during the 21-22 November Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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The step comes as a major boost for India in its fight against tax evasion and stashing of illegal funds abroad as a number of individuals have been detected from the country to have been using banking channels of that country to hide their illegal incomes.

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The announcement by the landlocked nation in Central Europe, virtually pulls down the wall of secrecy and will allow partner nations like India to seek information about suspect individuals and entities and provide for obtaining banking information about such people.

Switzerland, last month, had joined the same convention.

The multilateral convention of the OECD provides for all forms of mutual assistance like exchange on request, spontaneous exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection while protecting taxpayers’ rights.

It also provides the option to undertake automatic exchange, requiring an agreement between the parties interested in adopting this form of assistance.

The OECD is an international policy-advisory body that formulates global tax standards to fight tax evasion and concealment of illicit funds.

The 60 other signatories under the convention, besides India include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

PTI