In accordance with the requirements of the BEPS minimum standards, jurisdictions are obliged to implement measures that are covered by the Action 13 of the BEPS Action Plan (Transfer Pricing Documentation and Country-by-Country Reporting (CbC)). Consequently, all members of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS commit to implementing the Action 13 minimum standard and to participating in the peer review. The peer review process covers three key elements for each jurisdiction: (i) the domestic legal and administrative framework, (ii) the exchange of information framework and (iii) the appropriate use of CbC reports.
The key findings of
the released compilation of peer review reports (116 jurisdictions) are as follows:
- Domestic legal and administrative framework: Over 80 jurisdictions have a domestic legal framework for CbC reporting in place, though a small number of these require secondary legislation or administrative guidance to implement a requirement for the filing of CbC reports. In addition, a few jurisdictions have final legislation approved that is awaiting official publication. At the same time, 41 jurisdictions have received a general recommendation to put in place or finalise their domestic legal or administrative framework and 17 jurisdictions received one or more recommendations for improvements to specific areas of their framework.
- Exchange of information framework: In total, 67 jurisdictions have multilateral or bilateral competent authority agreements in place, effective for taxable periods starting on or after 1 January 2016, or on or after 1 January 2017.
- Confidentiality: Of the covered jurisdictions, 73 have undergone an assessment by the Global Forum on confidentiality and data safeguards in the context of implementing the automatic exchange of information standard and did not receive any action plan. In contrast, 12 jurisdictions are currently working on an action plan issued by the Global Forum as a consequence of its review.
- Appropriate use: Since the first annual peer review, an additional 19 jurisdictions have provided detailed information, enabling the CbC Reporting Group to obtain sufficient assurance that measures are in place to ensure the appropriate use of CbC reports. This brings the total number of jurisdictions with such measures in place to 58.
The peer review of the Action 13 is an annual review taking place in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. The next annual peer review round (“phase three”) will commence in 2019 and will aim to review all the jurisdictions of the Inclusive Framework, focusing on progress made by jurisdictions to address the existing recommendations.
