In 2016, the G20 called on the FATF and the Global Forum to propose ways to improve the implementation of the international standards on transparency, including on the availability of beneficial ownership information, and its international exchange. The Global Forum developed a framework of proposed actions to answer that call, including a plan to facilitate effective implementation through examples of good implementation and technical assistance. This toolkit is in furtherance of the Global Forum’s commitment to support countries’ effective implementation. It is intended to help jurisdictions to develop an understanding of the beneficial ownership concepts contained in the international standards of transparency and exchange of information, and for use in conjunction with technical assistance seminars. It will support policy and implementation discussions in conjunction with capacity building workshops and technical assistance activities carried out by the Global Forum Secretariat as well as other supporting international organizations.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is a multilateral framework for tax transparency and information sharing, within which over 160 jurisdictions participate on an equal footing. The Global Forum monitors and peer reviews the implementation of the international standards of Exchange of Information on Request (EOIR) and Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI). AEOI provides for the automatic exchange of a predefined set of financial account information between tax authorities on an annual basis in order to assist them in ensuring the correct amount of tax is paid. To ensure the AEOI standard is fully effective, the Global Forum carries out a review of each jurisdiction's domestic and international legal frameworks to ensure they are complete, and a review of the effectiveness of the implementation of the standard in practice. This report presents the latest conclusions of the peer reviews of the legal frameworks put in place by each jurisdiction to implement the AEOI standard. The results relate to the 102 jurisdictions that committed to commence AEOI from 2017, 2018 or 2019. A summary is also provided of the Global Forum's reviews of the effectiveness in practice of the implementation of the standard, the results of which are expected to be published in 2022.

This publication contains the following four parts: A model Competent Authority Agreement (CAA) for the automatic exchange of CRS information; the Common Reporting Standard; the Commentaries on the CAA and the CRS; and the CRS XML Schema User Guide.

This book explores the connection between ownership, on one hand, and immunity from legal responsibility, on the other. It presents a definition of the concept of beneficial ownership, the reasons for its concealment, and failures in international legal structures and arrangements. Globally, States confront complex criminality, such as corruption, tax evasion, doctrinal fanaticism, trafficked slaves, terrorism and, war. At the personal level, men and women may seek to escape their creditors, to disinherit unwanted heirs, to cheat divorced partners, and to appear straightforward when this is not the case. The response of politicians and regulators has been a global State initiative to identify beneficial owners via public registers to promote transparency and accountability. Yet, at the same time, there is an equally powerful global and personal counter-initiative to promote beneficial ownership avoidance. Where there is no owner, there is no accountability. This book examines what “ownership” means in legal terms across multiple legal systems and explains why singling out “ownership” as being pivotal to State and personal accountability is a strategy both flawed and disingenuous. It is argued that an apparent lack of political will coupled with shape-shifting definitions of “ownership” have resulted in tokenism. Particular attention is paid to those “orphan” structures which have evolved from standard models, or which have been designed for the purpose in each case of facilitating ownership concealment and avoidance. The author explains how the virtual world of the blockchain, crypto-assets and cryptocurrency, and virtual entities such as the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), all of which elude legal classification, have opened a new world of possibilities. Applicable across all jurisdictions and legal systems, the book will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Financial Crime, Regulation, Compliance, Business, and Accountancy.

Commodity trading presents specific and heightened risks of corruption due to the large amount of money involved in commodity trading transactions, which are source of important revenues for developing countries, and due to the sophisticated mechanisms used to channel corrupt payments.

Revelations from many data leaks, court cases, and media reports are a constant reminder about how easy it is to abuse companies and other types of legal entities for money laundering, terrorist financing, and many other crimes with impunity when the beneficial owners—the real persons who own and control these legal entities—are hidden. Not knowing beneficial ownership information negatively affects countries’ economies. It allows criminals to misuse these entities to hide their identities and the criminal origins of their assets, and to enjoy the proceeds of crimes, which produces all sorts of economic distortions, negatively impacts economic growth, and allows criminals to infiltrate and take control of the legal economy. This book is a guide for practitioners, policymakers, and other researchers to establish comprehensive frameworks for holding beneficial ownership information. It proposes questions to guide strategic thinking and discussion about the establishment of an effective system of beneficial ownership information, for anti-money laundering purposes. This book also sets out how an effective beneficial ownership framework can reduce opportunities for corruption, support efforts against tax evasion, help tackle illicit financial flows, protect national security interests, and benefit procurement transparency.

Non-pecuniary private benefits, a phenomenon in publicly traded corporations, may be extracted by influencing shareholders to the detriment of minority shareholders and corporations. This book, with particular focus on Turkish law and American law, investigates the loopholes paving the way of non-pecuniary private benefit extractions in the context of corporate law. Pehlivanoğlu proposes to use shareholder oppression law’s reasonable expectations standard to expand the reach of involuntary dissolution statutes to cover non-pecuniary private benefit extractions of influencing shareholders.