On 23 June 2009 ministers and senior officials of 19 countries came together in Berlin to review the progress that has been made with respect to the implementation of the OECD standards on transparency and the exchange of information in tax matters since their last meeting on 21 October 2008 in Paris.

An English summary of the outcome of the conference can be found here.

The following are the most important aspects as well as future objectives of the conference:

• Acknowledgement of recent endorsements of the OECD information-exchange standards by many significant financial centres, including four OECD member countries.

• Implementation of a multilateral, impartial and transparent monitoring and peer-review process for all jurisdictions which ensures effective implementation of the standards on a global basis. This process will be carried out by the OECD Global Forum on Taxation.

• Development of defensive measures to protect the participating states´ tax base against those countries and territories which do not implement the OECD standards including:

- increased withholding taxes in regard to a wide variety of payments made to non-cooperative jurisdictions;

- denial of deductions for expense payments to payees resident in non-cooperative jurisdictions;

- termination of treaties with countries and territories which refuse to participate in an exchange of information;

- increased disclosure requirements on national and foreign financial institutions and collective investment vehicles to report transactions involving non-cooperative jurisdictions;

- denial of the participation exemption; and

- requests to international financial institutions to review their investment policies with respect to non-cooperative jurisdictions.

Additionally, the importance of the availability of information regarding the beneficial owners of bank accounts, investment vehicles and other financial assets for taxation purposes was noted. The Conference asked the OECD, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the EU to explore ways to facilitate access to information in regard to trusts, foundations, shell corporations and other arrangements which may be used for tax-evasion purposes.

The government of Liechtenstein, which was not invited to take part in the conference, announced that it supports the outcome of the conference and has entered into negotiations with the EU and several other states for implementation of the OECD standards.

During the conference, Hans-Rudolf Merz, Switzerland’s federal president, affirmed Switzerland’s position of international cooperation regarding the exchange of information in tax matters and stated that Switzerland has concluded negotiations on six double taxation agreements.