Although the recent G20 conference in St Petersburg failed to reach a consensus on the best way to deal with the Syria crisis, they did agree on a long term strategy to make it harder to hide money in tax havens. The ultimate goal, to force companies to pay tax in the countries where they make the profits, will take a number of years to organise as the necessary legislative changes required will no doubt take time.
The breakthrough was facilitated by the Chinese who finally agreed to align with the other members of the G20 by signing an agreement to share tax records.
The G20 accord states:
“Cross-border tax evasion and avoidance undermines our public finances and our peoples’ trust in the fairness of the tax system,” it read. “We endorse plans to address these problems and committed to take steps to change our rules to tackle tax avoidance, harmful practices, and aggressive tax planning.”
The G20 members have committed to begin the exchange of information by the end of 2015.
