Kommentator:
Professor Bertil Wiman
Leder for evalueringen og veileder:
Midtveisevalueringen ledes av professor Ulf Stribeck
Xiaoqing Huangs veileder er professor Frederik Zimmer
For disposisjon og tekstutkast, kontakt Xiaoqing Huang
An analysis on automatic information exchange for tax purpose – from a Chinese perspective
Tax information exchange upon request (EOIR), being considered as a tool of tackling tax evasion and improving tax transparency, is nothing new in international taxation law. Different from this form of tax information exchange, automatic exchange of information (AEOI) involves the systematic and periodic transmission of “bulk” taxpayer information on a routine basis. Due to impetus from OECD, and the wide implementation of FATCA model promoted by United States, this mechanism has gained great concern during the very recent years and been high on political agenda of G20. Against this backdrop, a single global standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information was published by OECD in 2014, including Model Competent Authority Agreement and the Common Reporting and Due Diligence Standard. A global meaning of this document was underlined by 51 jurisdictions’ signing of a Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement soon afterwards.
While the whole society is witnessing rapid institutional changes in the area of international tax administrative cooperation due to this, the impact of AEOI remains uncertain. Although there already exist various legal basis for AEOI, crucial terms and provisions are yet to be clarified and tested in court. In addition, AEOI imposes new requirements on tax authorities, tax payers and financial institutions, leading to potential difficulties and ambiguities in practices.
These problems are highlighted in developing countries. Questions are raised in relation to whether or not developing countries have fully participated in the rule making process, and more importantly, if the implementation of AEOI will cause extra burdens to developing countries.
In light of this, this dissertation seeks to:
1) Analyze the institutional and operational structure of AEOI.
2) Provide analysis on two implications of AEOI: taxpayer’s right protection and cost sharing issues. They were selected due to their uniqueness in context of AEOI and special meaning to developing countries. China’s related rules and practices would be discussed at this point.
3) Discuss how China should deploy the automatic information exchange mechanism in future, given the prevailing legal framework and practices.