By: Aida Sierra
In July 2022, the State of Honduras signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters of the ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD). The officials designated by the government of Honduras to carry out this task were the Chancellor of the Republic and the Minister Director of the Revenue Administration Service (SAR), who together with Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, the Deputy Secretary General of the OECD, signed the document at the OECD headquarters.
The Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters was initially drafted by the OECD together with the Council of Europe in 1988, and was subsequently amended in 2010. This document is considered to be the most comprehensive multilateral instrument to combat tax evasion; it is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese[1], and currently has 146 jurisdictions subscribed to it, including Honduras directly.
According to the country’s tax authorities, “the purpose of signing this document is to improve the country’s transparency system, the collection of taxes and the creation of adequate conditions to avoid tax evasion and double tax payments”. In view of the above, the whole process for the subscription of such document was accompanied by the Revenue Administration Service (SAR), as well as the State Secretariat in the office of Finance.
These actions on the part of the Honduran authorities are positive for the perception of the country at the international level, since it demonstrates the interest to adapt to the current situation of the other countries, in the necessary topics for a better business climate, in this case specifically on issues of tax evasion and tax fraud. Consequently, it sends the right message to foreign investment interested in the country.
It is important to mention that the government of Honduras, is already in the research and adoption of legal instruments that will allow it to have better access to international sources of information, and with this in turn combat new forms of tax evasion and tax fraud.
Sources:
https://www.sar.gob.hn/2022/07/gobierno-de-honduras-firma-convencion-que-permitira-investigar-defraudacion-en-paraisos-fiscales/
Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters – OECD
[1] The German, Spanish and Portuguese versions are not official OECD translations.