Newsletter-21

391 TAX LAW the Ministry of Finance (“Ministry”). Such information may be re- quested orally or in writing. Art. 152 regulates the confidentiality of the information gathered. Further, Art. 152/A entitled, “ Exchange of information as per the international treaties, ” was added to the TPC in 2013, in order to authorize the Ministry in matters of international tax information exchange. The said provision reads: “Article 152/A - Ministry of Finance Revenue Administra- tion or others authorized to carry out tax examinations shall collect information, within the scope of tax information exchange provisions of international agreements duly entered into force, in accordance with the procedures set forth by the Ministry of Fi- nance and not restricted to the scope identified within Art. 1 of this Code.” This provision was the first in our legislation as a domestic regu- lation that regulates the international information exchange. However, the implementation of the TPC Art. 152/A is only possible in the pres- ence of international agreements duly entered into force. Tax Information Exchange under the OECD Structure In order to promote the implementation of transparency and ex- change of information for tax purposes, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) has been active through the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (“Global Forum”) since 2000. The Global Forum is a multilateral framework within which work on transparency and ex- change of information for tax purposes has been carried out by both OECD and non-OECD economies. Since its restructuring in 2009, the Global Forum has become the key international body working on the implementation of the international standards on tax transparency. The Global Forum utilizes two methods to ensure standardization of tax information exchange, which are peer review and monitoring systems. In this vein, the Global Forum audits the States Parties in one or two level steps, and presents country reports regarding the states and regions for voting. Unless the state in question is not transparent or willing to exchange information, the reports of such country shall not be approved. Further, if a given country is deemed insufficient