Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan and Yoshiki Takeuchi, OECD Deputy Secretary-General, sign the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. (Photo: VNA)

Before the signing, Yoshiki Takeuchi, Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD, welcomed Vietnam’s participation in the MAAC, saying that it shows Vietnam’s determination to prevent tax evasion abroad, ensure tax transparency, and deal with illegal financial flows.

Following Vietnam’s decision to join the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in December, 2019, this demonstrates Vietnamese commitment to global tax transparency, said Takeuchi.

He praised Vietnam for signing the convention, adding, “We have more than a hundred countries to have signed it and Vietnam can cooperate with other countries on many tax matters. And I would like to say that Vietnam has been doing a great job on tax matters. I’d like to congratulate your country.”

Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation, said that the signing is Vietnam’s next step in integrating into tax administrative cooperation and realizing the prevention of revenue erosion and global tax evasion.

“To participate in the treaty, Vietnam needs more preparations. It hasn’t completed all points of the agreement. In the future, Vietnam will accelerate the building of an information infrastructure to exchange and exploit information from other nations. To that end, Vietnam will continue to modernize its information base in line with international standards on information security,” Minh noted.

Developed jointly by the OECD and the European Council (EC) in 1988, MAAC is currently the most comprehensive multilateral instrument for all forms of tax cooperation to tackle tax evasion and avoidance and support the recovery of foreign tax claims. As of the end of January, MAAC had 146 signatories.