Ghana becomes 2nd African country to sign OECD’s Convention countering tax evasion
Ghana has signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, a comprehensive multilateral instrument available for tax co-operation and exchange of information, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced July 10, 2012.
Ghana is the second African country, after South Africa, to sign the Convention, developed jointly by the Council of Europe and the OECD, since it was opened for signature to all countries in June 2011.
Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper signed the Convention on behalf of the country.
The Convention is expected to help Ghana counter cross-border tax evasion and it also ensures compliance with national tax laws, while respecting the rights of taxpayers.
In a statement, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría applauded Ghana’s demonstrated commitment and effective action on exchange of information.
Signing the Convention, Seth Terkper was quoted in the OECD’s statement as saying “Ghana appreciates the present cordial relationship with the OECD and will adopt the exchange of information mechanism to reduce tax evasion and avoidance of multinational enterprises (MNES) and thereby raise more tax revenue to fund development projects.”
The Convention provides a multilateral basis for a wide variety of administrative assistance including information exchange on request, automatic exchange of information, simultaneous tax examinations, assistance in tax collection and service of documents. It provides governments with a valuable tool for fighting offshore tax evasion and avoidance.
Current signatories to the Convention are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.
By Ekow Quandzie
Hopefully Ghana leaders will commit to necessary accountability in all areas making implementation of this work. Hope member states will be held accountable to respect, to be held accountable if any of these laws are broken.