Emerging Countries and the Taxation of Offshore Accounts

A new international regime in which financial institutions function as cross-border tax intermediaries is emerging. The contours of that regime will be established during a narrow window of opportunity over the span of the next few years. The resulting regime will have especially important consequences for emerging countries. A uniform, multilateral automatic information exchange system would improve both these jurisdictions’ ability to tax the offshore accounts of their residents and their capacity to tax certain domestic-source income from capital.

Interestingly, multinational financial institutions’ and emerging countries’ concerns with the emerging international regime are largely aligned. As a result, they may find that they are improbable allies in the battle over taxing offshore accounts. With the G-20 as an agenda-setter and international financial law as the model, a governance structure for an automatic information exchange regime that could be useful to emerging countries’ tax administrations and lower multinational financial institutions’ compliance costs could materialize. The paper explores the necessary architecture, as well as steps emerging countries may take to help that architecture develop.