Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes Ms. Maria José Garde

1. What is the mission and mandate of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum)?

The Global Forum is a group of over 160 jurisdictions that includes all OECD and G20 countries, all financial centres, and an increasing number of developing countries, which are now the majority of its members. The Global Forum is charged with promoting the effective implementation of the international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes, either on request or automatic (the standards). Its mission is to ensure a rapid and effective global implementation of these standards through monitoring their implementation, undertaking peer reviews, developing tools and assisting members to implement the standards effectively. Monitoring and peer review processes are ongoing exercises. Jurisdictions are expected to act on any recommendations in their reviews and to report to the Global Forum on action taken. A comprehensive capacity-building programme has also been developed and made available to the members.

The Global Forum is a Part II programme of the OECD.

2. You have been designated Chair of the Global Forum. What is your background and what has convinced you to take up this post? How do you consider your background and experience contribute to such a role and function?

I took office on 1 January 2017 as Chair of the Global Forum and have combined this important responsibility with my duties as Director for Taxation at the Ministry of Finance of Spain. During the past twenty years, I have developed my expertise in a wide range of taxation and tax policy areas, including international taxation. When I was appointed Chair of the Global Forum, I was responsible at home for the negotiation and implementation of tax treaties and EOI agreements, and for the work done on taxation matters within the OECD and the European Union.

I was honoured to take on this role, and felt prepared to promote the work on transparency and EOI for tax purposes. More importantly, I saw this role as an opportunity to ensure better co-operation amongst member jurisdictions. As you can expect, this role is more than just heading and representing the Global Forum. There are times of crisis, during which it is crucial to have an open and consultative position and apply people skills to solve sensitive issues and ensure progress by all our members.

3. What is your main priority as Chair?

As my term is ending at the end of this year, I can confirm that my main priority as a Chair has been to promote co-operation in EOI for tax purposes on a global scale. This included a strong focus on the outreach and technical assistance activities – a programme that celebrated its 10th anniversary last year – to ensure that developing countries could (also) benefit from the transparency and EOI standards. The Global Forum Secretariat in collaboration with regional organisations are providing regional capacity-building programmes

around the globe. Four regional initiatives (Africa, Latin America, Asia and Pacific) with specific mandates are currently ongoing.

4. How would you define the added value of the Global Forum in relation to the work of the OECD in an international context? How does it differ from other international fora dealing with the same topic?

The benefits of the Global Forum are widespread and globally recognised. For 12 years, the Global Forum has worked to support the international community to ensure that all taxpayers pay the tax that is due. It has worked to promote the effective implementation of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes worldwide. In this regard, remarkable progress has been achieved in cross-border co-operation, reflected in the breadth of the membership of the Global Forum, now comprised of 163 jurisdictions. Since 2009, not only has banking secrecy essentially been eliminated, but also over 100 jurisdictions have begun to automatically exchange information each year on vast amounts of financial assets held offshore. In this respect, in 2020, information on more than 75 million financial accounts worldwide, covering total assets of around EUR 9 trillion was exchanged automatically.

5. Are you facing any specific major challenge derived from the current multilateral environment?

I see the diversity of the Global Forum membership as a strength, which brings much opportunity for cooperation to tackle global challenges that can only be resolved if we all work together. In my experience, we have always managed to overcome divergences and to achieve major progress, despite differences. There are new but also ongoing challenges in transparency and EOI for tax purposes that the Global Forum is ready to tackle. In this respect, the Global Forum is working on its future direction to ensure it will keep its relevance and remain able to best address the current and new challenges to the implementation of the transparency and EOI standards.

6. How do you encourage, and ensure national experts engage productively in the work of the Global Forum?

The monitoring work through peer reviews and assessments would not be possible without the dedication of national experts and assessors provided by our member jurisdictions and the national delegates sitting in the working groups of the Global Forum. Thanks to them, in addition to the great expertise they provide, the Global Forum can function on the principle of global level playing field.

In addition, some generous members regularly provide experts to deliver ad hoc technical assistance or trainings. I would like to take the opportunity to thank these national experts for all the work undertaken and without whom the Global Forum would not be able to function on a level playing field.

7. How do you ensure effective decision-making by the Global Forum?

The Global Forum plenary, which includes all members, is the sole decision-making body of the Global Forum. Each member’s voice counts equally and each decision requires consensus (minus one, in some cases) amongst members. In order to facilitate its work, the Global Forum has established three subsidiary groups focusing on different aspects of the Global Forum’s work, all of which report to the Global Forum including with any proposals for adoption by the Global Forum.  The Steering Group, which includes 20 members and the Chairs of the 2 working bodies, prepares and guides the work of the Global Forum.  The Peer Review Group (PRG), which consist of 30 members of the Global Forum, delivers the Global Forum’s peer reviews in relation to the EOIR Standard., which are then submitted for adoption by the Global Forum.

 Finally, the Automatic Exchange of Information Peer Review Group (APRG), delivers the peer reviews against the AEOI standard. The APRG is comprised of 30 members from the AEOI Peers and takes the form of the APRG+, with three additional members, when dealing with confidentiality and data safeguards.

8. Could you mention the most important documents/reports that the Global Forum has issued in the last 2 years? Why are these important and what has been their impact?

All reports from the Global Forum are important but I would like to draw your attention to:  Peer Review of the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information 2021, which presents updated results of the peer reviews conducted by the Global Forum with respect to the domestic and international legal frameworks put in place by the first 102 jurisdictions to implement the AEOI Standard. It also provides details of the peer reviews being conducted by the Global Forum with respect to the effectiveness of the implementation of the AEOI Standard in practice. The detailed results of these peer reviews are expected to be published in 2022.  The Global Forum 2021 annual report, which provides a good overview and key figures on the Global Forum’s activities and achievements.  The Capacity Building Strategy issued at the 2021 Global Forum Plenary meeting has been developed to ensure that developing jurisdictions receive the assistance they need to implement and benefit from transparency and exchange of information.  The 2022 Global Forum Capacity Building Report highlights ten years of progress and provides an update on the Global Forum’s capacity-building programme and outreach activities carried out in 2021.

 The Confidentiality and Information Security Management Toolkit is designed to ensure more developing countries can benefit from the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information. It provides detailed guidance on implementing the building blocks of a legal and Information Security Management framework that adheres to internationally recognised standards or best practices, as required by the AEOI Standard, and ensures the confidentiality of the exchanged information. The toolkit also provides guidance on establishing effective processes to address potential confidentiality breaches.  The Toolkit for the Implementation of the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information designed to assist countries that wish to implement the Standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information (CRS‑AEOI standard or Standard).

9. How do you see the role played by the Secretariat?

The Global Forum has a self-standing dedicated Secretariat, based in the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, in Paris, France. The Secretariat plays a key role to coordinate and advance the work of the Global Forum, under the guidance of the Steering Group, and working with the members of the peer review groups of the Global Forum. In addition, they carry out extensive capacity building and outreach activities for the members. Finally, the Secretariat assists me in my role as Chair.

As its membership has expanded, the Secretariat has also expanded and currently includes about 50 members of staff from around 20 member jurisdictions that speak more than ten languages. They come from a variety of backgrounds including from national finance ministries, tax administrations, legal and advisory firms and academia.

The Secretariat’s role is fundamental to assist the members and provide the support needed to help discussions (and decisions), and to try to reflect all views (including interests and concerns) in the discussions

and decisions. The Secretariat is important to facilitate difficult discussions and to try to build bridges when the positions are very far from each other.

10. What would be your key advice to a person taking up the post of Chair of an OECD Committee/ Group or a Part II body?

My term is ending at the end of this year, after 7 years of chairmanship. It has been an intense and fruitful experience for me and I thank the Global Forum members for their trust and support during my mandate. I would also like to thank the Secretariat for their continuous assistance. To my successor, I would first like to wish him/her the best in this position. International co-operation is more important than ever to combat tax evasion and illicit financial flows. There will be challenges and I would advise my successor to keep the cooperation and family spirit of the Global Forum very much alive to solve differences and continue the progress made in the last 12 years.