New Zealand to share multinational tax information in OECD

New Zealand has signed up to an agreement of developed nations that will enable the sharing of financial information to help fight tax avoidance by multinational companies, Revenue Minister Todd McClay said Thursday.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement brought New Zealand closer to participating in the global standard for an automatic exchange of information between tax authorities, McClay said in a statement.

Signing the agreement was a necessary and important step in New Zealand's implementation of the new global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) in tax matters.

"The AEOI, announced by G20 leaders in 2013, will be a significant means for improving information to help discover and stamp out tax evasion," said McClay.

"This agreement means we will be better able to target multinationals who elude tax in New Zealand whilst not placing unnecessary burden upon those who are meeting their tax obligation, " he said.

"It complements the work we are separately undertaking with the OECD to tackle the problem of base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals." Endi