The Convention commits its members to all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange of information, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection, while protecting taxpayers’ rights.
The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988 and amended in 2010 to respond to a call by the G20 to align it to the international standard on exchange of information and to open it to all countries. The G20 has repeatedly called on all jurisdictions to sign the Convention and has asked the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to report on progress made by its members in signing the Convention.