Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG9: The Rule of Law & Public Administration (Physical) Author(s) Irena Klemenčić University of Zagreb Zagreb Croatia Prof. dr. Maja Klun, Faculty of Administration. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Title Exchange of Information – Experiences from Slovenia and Croatia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Irena Klemenčić Abstract Globalization and cross-border movement of persons and capital have brought on new challenges before national tax systems as well as international taxation. In the past 20 years there has been an unprecedented development of the exchange of information, a previously auxiliary instrument which has developed into the widely accepted global means of fighting tax evasion. The exchange of information has evolved from the instrument of limited scope used for the implementation of tax treaty provisions to the sophisticated system of automatic information exchange, encompassing a vast majority of countries, including infamous tax havens. The notions of tax secrecy and tax transparency have therein undergone the reevaluation process resulting in new global paradigms directed to unveiling previously secret transactions. The banking secrecy has been abolished even in countries with the strong tradition thereof. As some time has passed since the introduction of the latest global standard of automatic exchange of information, this paper will reflect on its most important aspects of exchange of information, regulated by tax treaties, the OECD's CRS, EU's DAC and FATCA. Following the theoretical introduction, which will provide historical and comparative overview of the information exchange instruments, the paper will present practical results of the implementation. Findings of evaluation of the instrument conducted by key international stakeholders will be accompanied by available statistical information depicting how helpful it has been in preventing tax evasion in Slovenia and Croatia and recovering lost public revenues. The effects on national budgets will also be evaluated. The paper is expected to result in identifying shortcomings of the national applications, based on analysis of best global practices and statistical data as well as providing tax authorities with recommendations for the improvement of exchanging information. As the system is still in a rather early stage of implementation, the paper will present the current tax administrations' involvement in exchanging information, which will enable further evaluations in future stages of implementation of the instrument.
