According to the agency, the exchange of information generated additional income of more than 25 billion euros between 2009 and 2021.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published on Tuesday the second edition of its report ‘Fiscal Transparency in Latin America’ in which it highlighted the “encouraging progress” that the region is making in this activity, although it warned that progress remains uneven.

“Latin American countries are committed to fiscal transparency. They translate this commitment by actively participating in global work and sharing their technical knowledge and experience in the different working groups and panels that supervise the application of information exchange standards (EOI)”, indicates the report that has 2021 as the year of reference.

According to the text, 13 of the 16 countries linked to the Declaration of Punta del Este, 81%, including Colombia, consider the exchange of information as a high priority, while the other three have a more moderate level of interest. .
In parallel, the document notes that the majority of the countries, 10 (63%) confess to having a “medium knowledge” about the EOI, especially among staff. Only six countries considered that they have a high level.

Strong network in operation

The text also indicates that the region has improved its results in the standard of information exchange upon request the previous year while some countries have implemented strategies to increase it, however, the agency points out “very few are still being carried out and they still do not use its extensive EOI networks to their full potential.”

According to the text, requests for information exchange in Latin America grew 103% in 2021 compared to 2020, going from 319 to 649 requests.
In general terms, the countries of the region that have signed the Declaration have “solid infrastructures and EOI networks” which are based on the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (Maac).

In total there are 2,034 alliances in this area, of which only 359 are bilateral and the remaining 1,675 are part of the collaborations through the Maac.

(Colombia was the second OECD country with the most unemployment in February).

extra collection

The report also highlights that the exchange of information is representing a considerable source of additional income for the region. Thus, in the period between 2009 and 2021, an additional 25.7 billion euros have been identified for the time being through the voluntary disclosure programs offered before the first exchanges of the CRS-AEOI, EOI and offshore investigations.

In particular, the exchange of information on request is providing additional tax revenue in Latin America for a total of 3.6 billion euros and, in 2021 alone, the CRS-AEOI allowed the identification and recovery of 10 million euros.

Despite good economic data, the report notes that the results may not provide a complete picture because “countries do not systematically monitor how many taxes are identified due to EOI.”

Between 2014-2021, a total collection of 2,600 million euros was achieved, with 2018 being the highest year of collection with 1,815 million.