U.S. Efforts to Detect and Stop Tax Evasion

U.S. EFFORTS TO DETECT AND STOP TAX EVASION IN OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS
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U.S. Efforts to Detect and Stop Tax Evasion in Offshore Tax Havens. The U.S. has made the following efforts to detect and stop tax evasion in offshore tax havens:

• The United States. has an extensive network of bilateral tax treaties and other intergovernmental information sharing agreements. The United States is committed to reaching similar arrangements with offshore tax havens under the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (“OECD”) framework to be more effective in the prosecution of money launderers, drug smugglers, and other criminals who may seek to hide their elicit gains in overseas bank secrecy jurisdictions.
• The United States continues to play a constructive role in the international effort to detect and stop tax evasion.
• The United States is a member of the OECD which has developed international standards with respect to transparency as part of the harmful tax practices initiative. In this context, transparency means two things:

(a) the absence of non-public tax practices, such as the secret negotiation, or waiver, of public tax laws and tax administration rules; and

(b) the absence of obstacles, such as strict bank secrecy or the use of bearer shares, to obtaining financial or beneficial ownership information within a jurisdiction.

• The United States supports efforts to improve transparency as critical to establishing and maintaining an effective information exchange relationship.
• The United States is committed to both tax information exchange and to sanctions for offshore tax havens that refuse to change their ways.