The Assembly considers that the fight against tax fraud, tax
evasion and tax avoidance requires new legal or technical standards;
what is urgent, however, is the effective implementation of the
existing standards. The Assembly thus recommends that the member
States:
5.1 ensure an effective
follow-up to its
Resolution
1881 (2012) on promoting an appropriate policy on tax
havens;
5.2 join the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of
Information for Tax Purposes of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), if they have not yet done so, and implement
the OECD’s Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in
Tax Matters on a multilateral basis and via multilateral instead
of bilateral agreements;
5.3 provide sound, transparent, stable and fair national tax
systems, limiting red tape and fighting corruption to encourage
companies and individuals to keep their assets in their country
of residence;
5.4 increase transparency by setting up a publicly accessible
central register of ultimate beneficial owners of all companies,
foundations and trusts, requiring changes to the beneficial ownership
structure to be reflected in this register within a reasonable period
of time, subject to dissuasive penalties for non-compliance;
5.5 maintain close co-operation with the International Monetary
Fund, the OECD, the United Nations and the European Commission on
improving the existing tax models and addressing emerging challenges;
5.6 commit more resources to financial investigation at national
level and strengthen the training in modern financial investigative
techniques of relevant police officers, prosecutors and judges;
5.7 increase the international exchange of information and
good practices on financial investigative techniques;
5.8 consider the need for legislative amendments to ensure
access to financial information at sufficiently early stages of
investigations into criminal proceeds;
5.9 introduce stronger sanctions for banks and legal entities
that assist in tax fraud, including the temporary suspension or
withdrawal of operating licences and the freezing of accounts and
assets;
5.10 make the OECD Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Guidelines
on tax challenges and tax standards, which have already been agreed
by OECD countries and the G20, the new global norm;
5.11 encourage the OECD to review, together with the Council
of Europe, their joint Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance
in Tax Matters (ETS No. 127) with the aim of facilitating the creation of
an international tax co-ordinating body under the auspices of the
OECD, capable of imposing sanctions;
5.12 also draft new international rules jointly with the OECD
to enable the direct taxation of the income and assets of tax haven
companies, thus bypassing the individuals and companies that set
them up and overruling existing legal impediments to such direct
taxation, either by a new convention or in the framework of the
revision of the existing Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance
in Tax Matters;
5.13 sign and ratify the Convention on Mutual Administrative
Assistance in Tax Matters and its 2010 Amending Protocol (CETS No.
208) if they have not yet done so.
