Signing of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and the Amending Protocol

November 4, 2011
Japanese

On Friday, November 4 (November 3, local time), Mr. Motohide Yoshikawa, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Japan to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and the Amending Protocol at a signing ceremony which was held in Cannes, France.
This Convention entered into force in 1995 as a multilateral agreement aimed at facilitating the implementation of: (1) exchange of information on tax matters; (2) mutual assistance in recovery of tax claims; and (3) mutual assistance in service of documents on taxes, between tax authorities. The Amending Protocol has entered into force in June of this year. This Protocol brought the Convention in line with the latest international standard, as well as opened the Convention for signature by all countries, not just those belonging to the OECD and the Council of Europe, as had been the case up to now.
The Convention and the Amending Protocol are expected to enhance the mutual administrative support network among tax authorities, and make it possible to deal more appropriately with acts of international tax evasion and avoidance.

(* The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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