Paris – Cyprus was recently awarded a tax compliance rating of ‘largely compliant,’ the same as the US, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and the UK.

The favourable rating was awarded to Cyprus by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in its 30 October 2015 Tax Compliance Ratings Report.

The rating reflects Cyprus’ commitment in harmonizing its tax system with the philosophy and strict guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Cyprus received the near perfect rating after successfully completing two compliance review phases. Phase 1 of the review process examines whether certain criteria on availability of information, access to information and exchange of information are in place. Once those are found to be present, only then will Phase 2 commence in order to rate those criteria as non-compliant, partially compliant, largely compliant and compliant.

Actually, Cyprus was rated as fully compliant on all relevant review criteria, including Banks, apart from Availability of Information on Ownership and Accounting and Timely Exchange of Information, which were found to be largely compliant, robbing the island of a perfect score.

Following the release of the report, the OECD noted:

“Jurisdictions continue to request supplementary reviews to demonstrate changes made following recommendations of the Global Forum. Supplementary reports were approved for Cyprus, Luxembourg and the Seychelles that had previously been rated as non-compliant and in each case, following significant changes to their legal frameworks or practices, the new overall rating of Largely Compliant was assigned.”

The Global Forum has now completed 215 peer reviews and assigned compliance ratings to 86 jurisdictions that have undergone Phase 2 reviews.

The Global Forum is the continuation of a forum which was created in the early 2000s in the context of the OECD’s work to address the risks to tax compliance posed by non-cooperative jurisdictions. The original members of the Global Forum consisted of OECD countries and jurisdictions that had agreed to implement transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. The Global Forum was restructured in September 2009 in response to the G20 call to strengthen implementation of these standards.

The Global Forum now has 129 members on equal footing and is the premier international body for ensuring the implementation of the internationally agreed standards of transparency and exchange of information in the tax area.

The full report can be viewed here: http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/global-forum-on-tax-transparency-pushes-forward-international-co-operation-against-tax-evasion.htm