Zimbabwe joins OECD Global Forum to help fight tax evasion – NewZimbabwe.com

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE has joined the international fight against tax evasion by becoming the 167th member – and 36th African member – of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum).

“We are very happy to welcome Zimbabwe as the latest Global Forum member,” said Gaël Perraud, Chair of the Global Forum. “The steadily growing Global Forum membership underlines the significance given to tax transparency by the international community and demonstrates the resolve of governments to collaborate in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance.”

Members of the Global Forum include all G20 countries, all OECD members, all international financial centres and a large number of developing countries.

Like all other members, Zimbabwe will participate on an equal footing and is committed to combatting offshore tax evasion through the implementation of the internationally agreed standards of exchange of information on request (EOIR) and automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI).

Zimbabwe will also join the Africa Initiative, a programme of work launched in 2014 to support domestic revenue mobilisation and the fight against illicit financial flows in Africa through enhanced tax transparency and exchange of information. The Tax Transparency in Africa 2022 progress report highlights the Initiative’s relevance and major achievements to date.

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the exchange of information on request standard and the standard of automatic exchange of information.

These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.