Uruguay off tax haven 'black list': OECD

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Economic Times

Uruguay off tax haven 'black list': OECD
4 Apr 2009, 0305 hrs IST, AGENCIES

PARIS: Uruguay has been taken off the OECD blacklist of tax havens that had not agreed to respect international standards, after assurances from the country's finance minister, the organisation said on Friday. "The OECD welcomed today the formal endorsement by Uruguay of its tax information exchange standards," said the Paris-based organisation in a statement published on its website.

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The letter accepted the "standards on transparency and exchange of information, as set out in the 2005 version of Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention," said the statement. "I am pleased that Uruguay joins a growing number of nations willing to co-operate in fighting tax evasion and other tax abuses," Gurria said in the statement.

On Thursday, just hours after the G20 summit agreed to crack down on tax havens, the OECD released a "league table" of countries listed according to their degree of compliance with international standards in this area.

Uruguay was classed in the lowest category, along with -- Costa Rica, Malaysia and the Philippines -- designating countries that had "not committed to the internationally agreed tax standard. "Uruguay was quick to deny the accusation.

"In Uruguay, we are not a tax haven. Uruguay may not be a monastery, but it is not a casino," Uruguay's President Tabare Vazquez said Friday, during a visit to Chile for the summit of center-left world leaders.

Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Uruguay-off-tax-haven-black-list/rssarticleshow/4357355.cms

[tomm2thumbs]

1. in some instances, a monastery might be worse than a casino (g)