The OECD's Global Forum on Tax Transparency has published its 2011 Progress Report. Ireland is one of only eight jurisdictions to have been found as having all the elements in place for effective exchange of information with no significant improvements needed. The United Kingdom needs to make improvement in three areas for effective information exchange including access to information.

The Global Forum now includes 105 member jurisdictions and the European Union, together with 9 observers, making it the largest tax group in the world. The Global Forum is tasked with promoting the effective implementation of the internationally agreed standard on transparency and exchange of information.

Peer reviews are conducted to monitor the implementation of the international standards on information exchange which requires an appropriate legal and regulatory framework to be in place. In this regard, the peer reviews assess:

• the availability of information, in particular accounting, banking, and ownership information;
• the access to information and powers to obtain it by the competent authorities, in particular without a domestic tax interest requirement, and without hurdles which would unduly delay information exchange;
• whether exchange of information mechanisms (which generally are bilateral agreements, either Double Tax Conventions (DTCs) or Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs), multilateral conventions or, more rarely, unilateral domestic legislation) provide for effective exchange of information.

For full details of the report see http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/35/48981620.pdf