25 July 2024
本報告書では、脱税や不正資金の流出を防ぐ上で、実質的受益者の透明性が果たす重要な役割を検証しています。G20の指針を参照しながら、税務の透明性や情報交換の基準に基づく実質的受益者要件の実施状況を詳しく分析しています。
具体的には、各国や地域における取り組みの現状を評価し、要請に基づく情報交換の効果的な実施に関するピアレビューの結果を解説しています。また、グローバルな課税環境において実質的所有者の透明性を向上させるためのベストプラクティスも提示しています。
さらに、各国・地域が強固な実質的所有者の制度を構築できるよう支援する能力向上活動に焦点を当て、本報告書の最後では今後の展望についても考察しています。
この報告書は、2024年7月に開催されたG20財務大臣・中央銀行総裁会議での議論に資するため、G20ブラジル議長国の要請に応じて、OECDと税務透明性・情報交換に関するグローバル・フォーラムによって作成されたものです。
要約
近年、受益者所有に関する透明性の重要性がますます高まっています。この問題は、税務の透明性、金融システムの健全性、そして法執行の取り組みにおいて重要な役割を果たしています。所有者が不明瞭な場合、脱税や汚職、マネーロンダリングなどの不正行為が横行する恐れがあります。企業や財団、パートナーシップ、信託などの複雑な事業体を利用することで、実質的所有者が不透明になる状況が続いています。さらに、無記名株式や名義株主、ペーパーカンパニーといった仕組みが匿名性を助長しています。このような状況により、税務当局や法執行機関が真の受益者を特定する能力は大きく制限されています。
本報告書は、法人や法的取り決め、銀行口座に関する受益者所有権の透明性を向上させることで、脱税や不正な資金流動に取り組むG20の努力を基盤としています。2013年にG20は、グローバル・フォーラムに対してFATF（金融活動作業部会）の定義を参考に、透明性と情報交換（EOIR）基準の要件を定義するよう要請しました。また、金融口座や暗号資産取引の報告に関連する自動的情報交換（AEOI）基準にも、実質的所有者に関する概念が含まれています。
2016年には、G20が国際的な透明性基準の実施を改善する提案を求め、グローバル・フォーラムとFATFは、法人および法的取り決めに関する実質的所有者情報の取得と国際交換に焦点を当てました。この要請に応じて、グローバル・フォーラムは3つの要素からなる行動計画を策定しました。この計画に基づき、ピアレビューが行われ、課題や改善点が明らかになりました。
主な成果と課題
第一の要素として、ピアレビューでは銀行口座の受益者情報に関しては良好な結果が得られましたが、法人や法的取り決めの受益者情報に関しては、評価した112の管轄区域の約半数が法的枠組みや実効的な実施に重大な欠陥を抱えています。これらの欠陥には、法律の不備、データ品質の問題、監督・執行の弱さが含まれます。
第二の要素では、グローバル・フォーラムとFATFが協調し、実質的所有者に関する枠組みの調和に取り組みました。FATFは法人や法的取り決めに関する実質的所有者情報の基準を強化し、ピアレビューで特定された主要な課題に対応しています。
第三の要素として、グローバル・フォーラムはベストプラクティスの共有や技術支援活動を強化し、発展途上国を含む加盟国にメリットをもたらしています。これには研修やツールキットの提供、eラーニングの導入が含まれます。
将来の展望
技術の進歩に伴い、多くの国が法人や法的取り決めの受益者情報をデジタルで管理する制度を導入しています。こうした進展により、税務当局が国外の情報に迅速にアクセスできる可能性が広がっています。OECDは不動産分野における税務透明性の向上に向けた技術的、法的、財政的な検討を進めており、この取り組みが実質的所有者情報へのアクセスをさらに向上させる可能性があります。
原文
Abstract
This is the ninth edition of Tax Policy Reforms: OECD and Selected Partner Economies, an annual publication that provides comparative information on tax reforms across countries and tracks tax policy developments over time. The report covers the tax policy reforms introduced or announced in 2023 in 90 member jurisdictions of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, including all OECD countries. The publication provides an overview of the macroeconomic environment and tax revenue context in which these tax reforms were made, highlighting how governments used tax policy to respond to elevated inflation levels, as well as to address long-run structural challenges.
Executive Summary
The issue of transparency of beneficial ownership has gained relevance over the last years:
it plays a significant role in tax transparency, the integrity of the financial sector and law enforcement efforts. Tax evasion, corruption, money laundering and other illicit financial flows can all flourish in the shadows of opaque ownership. By using intricate chains of companies, foundations, partnerships, trusts, and similar entities across jurisdictions, the true identity of those who ultimately control the assets – the beneficial owners – remains obscured. This anonymity can be further amplified through mechanisms like bearer shares, nominee shareholders and directors, and the strategic use of entities such as shell companies and inactive corporations. As a result, the ability of tax authorities and other law enforcement agencies to identify the true beneficial owners is significantly hampered.
This report builds upon the G20’s commitment to combatting tax evasion and illicit financial flows through increased transparency on beneficial ownership of legal entities, legal arrangements and bank accounts. In 2013, the G20 called on the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) to draw on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) definition of beneficial ownership to define the requirements under its second round of reviews under the Transparency and Exchange of Information on Request (EOIR) standard. The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) standards also include the concept of beneficial ownership, similar to the definition in the FATF Recommendations, as a cornerstone in the reporting of financial accounts and crypto-assets transactions.
In 2016, the G20 called on the Global Forum and the FATF to develop proposals for improving the implementation of international transparency standards, particularly on the availability of beneficial ownership information of legal persons and legal arrangements, and its international exchange. The 2016 G20 call anticipated the benefits of robust implementation of beneficial ownership standards. To answer this call, the Global Forum developed in 2016 a three-component plan. This action plan guided the Global Forum on ensuring a widespread implementation of the beneficial ownership standards for EOI purposes. Challenges and areas where further improvement is needed have been identified through the implementation of the action plan.
The first component of the action plan focused on peer review of beneficial ownership requirements. The peer review results were satisfactory with respect to beneficial ownership information on bank accounts. However, regarding beneficial ownership of legal entities and arrangements under the EOIR standard, close to 50% of the 112 jurisdictions assessed to date have severe deficiencies in their legal framework and/or in the effective implementation of their beneficial ownership framework. Challenges identified include weak legislation, data quality concerns and lack of supervision and enforcement. The results of these peer reviews demonstrated that the key elements of a robust system include (i) stronger legislative frameworks mandating a multi-pronged approach to beneficial ownership, (ii) effective supervision and enforcement to ensure the availability of accurate, adequate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information and (iii) enhanced collaboration both at domestic and international level on information exchange. On the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), the requirements with respect to beneficial ownership essentially concern the reporting of information on non-resident controlling persons/beneficial owners of investment entities that are financial institutions or passive non-financial entities (i.e. entities or legal arrangements typically used to hold financial assets and financial accounts). This is to ensure that such information is automatically available to tax administration in such instances. In this regard, the results of the legislative assessments for AEOI shows that 103 of the 111 jurisdictions assessed have fully implemented the requirements in their legislative frameworks. The initial effective reviews in relation to AEOI ensured that the scope each jurisdiction’s compliance framework satisfactorily covered all relevant entities and legal arrangements, which showed around 1/3rd of jurisdictions were “ontrack”, and the second round of AEOI effectiveness to fully assess implementation in practice is ongoing, to be finalised by the end of 2025. The satisfactory results on the AEOI legislative assessment concur with those assessing the availability of beneficial ownership information on bank accounts under the EOIR standard.
Under the second component on closer institutional cooperation, the Global Forum and the FATF have worked collaboratively on the issue of beneficial ownership. While the Global Forum’s standard on beneficial ownership is outcome-based, the findings of the EOIR peer reviews to date show that the Global Forum and FATF work on beneficial ownership framework closely converge. The FATF identified key elements of a robust beneficial ownership framework similar to those found in EOIR peer reviews after 2016 and has recently updated its Recommendations on beneficial ownership information for legal entities (Recommendation 24) and legal arrangements (Recommendation 25). The synergy of implementation will continue to grow as the FATF embarks on reviews of how well countries adhere to the revised FATF Recommendations.
Under the third component, the Global Forum focuses on compilation and dissemination of best practices and examples of effective implementation and on providing assistance. These efforts have benefited all members, and especially developing jurisdictions. The implementation of a robust framework for beneficial ownership is critical to fight tax evasion and other illicit financial flows. The Global Forum collaborates with its partners to conduct trainings and other technical assistance activities. The Global Forum also released a toolkit, together with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which was published in 2019. Given the rapid developments in the area of beneficial ownership, the results of the peer reviews and the progress made in implementation, the toolkit was subsequently updated in 20211 and in 20242. The Global Forum also launched an e-learning course, together with the Asia Development Bank (ADB) in 2020.
Several key lessons and follow-up actions warrant consideration. While recent years have witnessed demonstrable progress in the implementation of beneficial ownership frameworks, the importance of peer review mechanism to monitor the effectiveness of the beneficial ownership frameworks cannot be overstated. The Global Forum continues to follow up on recommendations issued to members regarding deficiencies in their beneficial ownership frameworks and implementation. Furthermore, the implementation of the revised FATF Recommendations 24 and 25, in synergy with the EOIR and AEOI standards, will further bolster transparency. To ensure all jurisdictions reap the benefits, a robust approach to capacity building activities, including targeted assistance with implementation of beneficial ownership framework, is paramount.
In light of technological advances and the increasing number of jurisdictions that have a digitalised ownership registers, the OECD is exploring pathways for more efficiently leveraging beneficial ownership information that is relevant for tax purposes. Many jurisdictions have implemented, or are in the course of implementing, beneficial ownership registers with respect to legal entities and arrangements located in their jurisdiction in response to obligations imposed under various international standards. Recent amendments to the FATF’s international standards on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) require that companies hold adequate, accurate and upto- date information on their own beneficial ownership, and that jurisdictions also require beneficial ownership information to be held by a public authority or body functioning as beneficial ownership registry or an alternative mechanism. These registers are increasingly digital and provide different level of access to law enforcement agencies, other parties with a particular interest or the public at large. In the medium term, these developments may provide an opportunity to better enable tax authorities to gain fast-track access subject to agreed conditions to up-to-date information about resident taxpayers that are beneficial owners of legal entities or arrangements for tax purposes, where such information is held in foreign registries and is relevant for tax purposes. The OECD is currently exploring the technical, legal and financial feasibility of such a technology-driven potential architecture, in the context of its work on enhancing tax transparency with respect to real estate. The outcomes of this work may then also inform the potential further advances that could be made to enhance access to tax relevant information on beneficial owners of legal entities and arrangements more broadly.
