Australian Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo has been championing the joint audit process Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

In the last 12 months, information-obtaining has come under scrutiny like never before, with the phone hacking scandal that shook News Corporation coming to a head with the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry into media standards. But at the same time, in the tax world, information exchange is continuing to increase, and such flows of information happen not only through formal procedures, but also on an informal level. The tax world is becoming more and more transparent, and with international organisations including the OECD supporting processes such as multi-jurisdictional audits, different countries are increasingly looking to work together on compliance and administration issues. This is even more so given that cross-border transactions and structures are becoming more complex while national budgets remain stretched.

An OECD report commissioned by the Forum on Tax...