Egypt was chosen by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in a conference held in Paris last week, to be part of the steering task group of the extensive framework for a programme to combat base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) on a global level, according to Amr El-Mounir, deputy finance minister for tax policies. The programme includes 22 other countries, as Egypt was represented by Mai Taha Abou Ghaly, the first assistant of the deputy finance minister for tax policies. "The global team will work on deciding on measures to challenge tax evasion as well as monitor developing rules of international tax work and ensuring a more transparent environment," El-Mounir said. The programme is based on four main standards, which include setting up model provisions to prohibit the misuse of agreements of double taxation evasion, which for example, include using intermediate companies to direct investments and evade taxes. The standards also include unifying the reports that can give tax administrations a comprehensive picture of the economic activities, profits, and taxes of multinational companies in order to calculate the real taxes for these companies. Another standard includes combating harmful tax practices, in addition to agreeing on settling international tax disputes through mutual agreement procedures. Egypt will benefit from applying these four standards through exchanging information with other countries and cooperating with them to combat tax evasion. Egypt is the only Arab country in the international team working on the programme. It will be representing the vision of Arab developing countries in the field, said Mai Abo Ghaly.
