OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), located in Paris, has 38 members and its aim is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems.

The OECD also sets international standards on a wide range of topics, from agriculture and tax to the safety of chemicals.

The OECD also sets out to make life harder for the terrorists, tax dodgers, crooked businessmen and others whose actions undermine a fair and open society.

Money laundering is a serious threat to the legal economy and affects the integrity of financial institutions. Fiscal fraud is one of the three main sources of dirty money. Tax authorities can play an important role in detecting and deterring money laundering.

In 2009, the OCDE published a Money Laundering Awareness Handbook for Tax Examiners and Tax Auditors.

This handbook provides guidance in identifying money laundering during the conduct of normal tax audits, and describes the nature of money laundering activities so that tax examiners and auditors can better understand how their contribution can assist FIUs and criminal investigators in countering money laundering. This document can be downloaded on the site of the OCDE.

In 2010, the OECD adopted a new recommendation to facilitate cooperation between tax authorities and law enforcement authorities.

In 2011, the OECD launched the Oslo Dialogue and organised a first forum on “Tax and Crime – A whole of Government approach to fighting financial crime” in Oslo, Norway.

More information on this dialogue launched in 2011 is available on the OECD website.

The OECD also sets out to make life harder for terrorists. In June 2016, the OECD published a brochure on the mechanisms through which corruption and criminal exploitation of natural resources facilitate terrorism.