Lebanon Joins OECD’s Multilateral Tax Pact

Lebanon became the 111th jurisdiction to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters on May 12, 2017.

The OECD describes the Convention as the most powerful instrument for international tax cooperation. It provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations, and assistance in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of taxpayers’ rights.

In signing the treaty, Lebanon is preparing to begin exchanging financial account information for tax purposes with other jurisdictions by 2018. The Convention can also be used to swiftly implement the transparency measures of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, such as the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports under Action 13, as well as the sharing of advance tax rulings under Action 5 of the BEPS Project.

On the same day, Lebanon also signed the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CRS MCAA), proving its commitment to implementing the automatic exchange of financial account information pursuant to the OECD/G20 Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in time to commence exchanges in 2018. Lebanon is the 89th jurisdiction to sign the CRS MCAA.