​During the 8th meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes held in Bridgetown, Barbados on 29 – 30 October, the members of the Forum confirmed that Luxembourg is compliant with the international standard on the exchange of information upon request for tax purposes.

This standard is incorporated in Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and provides that the tax authorities must exchange such information as is foreseeably relevant for carrying out the provisions of the relevant double tax treaty or domestic tax laws. In particular, the standard prohibits a State from declining to supply information solely because the information is held by a bank, other financial institution, nominee or person acting in an agency or a fiduciary capacity or because it relates to ownership interests in a person.

The Global Forum examines compliance of each jurisdiction with the standard through a peer review that analyses both the legal and regulatory aspects of exchange and the exchange of information in practice.

It should be noted that the exchange of information upon request will be largely superseded in the future by the automatic exchange of information as provided for example by the EU Common Reporting Standards, the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance on Tax Matters and the US FATCA legislation.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is the multilateral framework within which work on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes has been carried out by both OECD and non-OECD economies since 2000. The Global Forum currently has 128 member jurisdictions together with 15 international organisations participating as observers.