NEW DELHI, January 20 (RIA Novosti) – The five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed to expand tax policy cooperation and step up their fight against tax evasion, a joint communiqué said on Sunday.
"We agree to extend the cooperation on the issues of tax policy and tax administration, including development of a BRICS mechanism to facilitate countering abusive tax avoidance transactions, promotion of effective exchange of information," said a joint communiqué issued after a two-day meeting of the heads of revenue of BRICS countries.
The BRICS countries expressed concerns at the erosion of the tax base by practices that involve abuse of tax treaty benefits, incomplete disclosure of information and fraudulent claims and made a commitment to address these concerns through mutual cooperation, the communiqué said.
The countries pledged to strengthen the enforcement process by taking appropriate actions for non-compliance and putting more resources on international cooperation, sharing of best practices and capacity-building to deal with the cases of profit shifting by way of complex multi-layered schemes.
The countries also agreed to establish a governance framework by May 2013 in accordance with the overall BRICS commitment to continue the process of cooperation in tax administration.
