The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today announced new amendments to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters to help in the fight against tax evasion.The announcement was made during the OECD’s Global Forum, being held at the Fairmont Southampton this week, with a focus on advancing the implementation and peer review process for tax transparency.The amended convention would be opened up to all countries for cross border tax co-operation and information sharing.But the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CFP), which is also on the Island for the event, warned the convention would effectively result in the creation of “something akin to a world tax organisation designed to prop up European welfare states and persecute low-tax jurisdictions”.OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said: “The entry into force of the amended multilateral convention marks an important step in the fight against tax evasion and I urge all countries to join.“These amendments will help counter cross-border tax evasion and ensure compliance with national tax laws as acknowledged by G20 Leaders.”The OECD said in a statement that the updated convention, which incorporated internationally-agreed standards for exchange of information in tax matters, was the most comprehensive multilateral instrument available for tax co-operation, providing a range of tools for cross-border tax co-operation including exchange of information, multilateral simultaneous tax examinations, service of documents, and cross-border assistance in tax collection, while imposing extensive safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information exchanged.In the past year 20 countries have signed the amended convention and more, including both OECD and non-OECD, developing and developed countries, are expected to follow suit shortly. Sweden deposited its instrument of approval last month and Poland is the latest to sign up to the amended convention, having deposited its instrument of ratification yesterday.“There are two smoking guns,” said Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute, who was part of the CFP delegation. “First, the OECD worked with Europe’s welfare states to concoct a bulked-up Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. This may sound dry and technical, but this new pact would be open to all nations and would give high-tax governments vast new powers to impose bad tax law on income generated in low-tax jurisdictions.”He continued: “Second, the OECD then put itself in charge of the ‘co-ordinating body’ that will have enormous powers to interpret the agreement and resolve disputes - thus giving themselves the ability to serve as judge, jury, and executioner.”The Center for Freedom and Prosperity said in a statement released this morning that the although the convention has existed for a number of years, it had been radically altered in 2010, with the OECD now trying to “coerce low-tax jurisdictions into acquiescing to the new arrangement”, obliging them to become “deputy tax collectors” for every nation that joins the convention.Brian Garst of the CFP, who was also in Bermuda for the Global Forum, said: “The convention is another example of how the OECD continues to move the goalposts on low-tax jurisdictions. Having not yet finished jumping through all of the existing hoops, including the establishment of one-sided tax information exchange agreements, low-tax jurisdictions are now expected to participate in this onerous system.”The CFP added that the unveiling of the convention at the forum, combined with the OECD’s “blatant assertion of control over the co-ordinating body”, was reminiscent of the “Mexico City Surprise” at the 2009 Global Forum where the “Paris-based bureaucracy engaged in another power grab by unilaterally asserting that it had the ability to impose rules to restrict tax avoidance and other forms of legal tax planning”.The president of the CFP, Andrew Quinlan, said: “Fortunately, the OECD’s 2009 gambit failed and we hope low-tax jurisdictions will resist this siren song as well.”