OECD has ‘single global standard’ for automatic info exchange

In a major development in the fight against black money, multilateral grouping OECD on Monday unveiled a 'single global standard' for automatic exchange of financial account information by various countries including India and Switzerland.

The new framework, to be presented before a meeting of G-20 finance ministers in September, would mark a significant forward movement from the current practice of information exchange mostly on 

the basis of requests and only in the cases of suspected tax evasion or other financial crimes.

The new global standardwould facilitate a ‘systematic and periodic transmission of bulk taxpayer information by the source country of income to the country of residence of the taxpayer concerning various categories of income or asset information’.