Offshore Development News

 

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

Hague Convention - Apostilled documents






Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a unique forum where the governments of 30 market democracies work together to address the economic, social and governance challenges of globalisation as well as to exploit its opportunities. The Centre for Tax Policy and Administration examines all aspects of taxation, including international and domestic tax issues, direct and indirect taxes and tax policy and administration, as well as delivering a significant part of the OECD co-operation programme with non-OECD economies. This programme includes work on negotiating, applying, and interpreting tax treaties, transfer pricing and effective exchange of information. 33 Jurisdictions have made commitments to transparency and effective exchange of information and are considered co-operative jurisdictions by the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs.

Although a small number of jurisdictions identified as tax havens in June 2000 have not yet made commitments, the OECD would welcome continued dialogue with these jurisdictions and the prospect of their future commitment to transparency and effective exchange of information.

The Republic of Marshall Islands has refused to make commitments to transparency and exchange information in order to preserve information confidentiality, which has been identified by the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs as unco-operative tax havens (also including Andorra, Liberia, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Principality of Monaco)


Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
According to the current mandate of the FATF, which began in July 1998, the Task Force focuses on the following major tasks:

- Spreading the anti-money laundering message to all regions of the globe;
- Monitoring the implementation of the Forty Recommendations in FATF members;
- Reviewing money laundering trends and countermeasures

During the bank account opening process, the Hong Kong banker(s) may require the documents be certified true by the manager of a banker, a practising CPA firm or a practising law firm from below jurisdiction member(s).

Argentina	Australia	Austria
Belgium	Brazil	Canada
Denmark	Finland	France
Greece	Germany	Hong Kong (China SAR)
Iceland	Ireland	Italy
Japan	Luxembourg	Mexico
Netherlands	New Zealand	Norway
Portugal	Russian Federation	Singapore
South Africa	Spain	Sweden
Switzerland	Turkey	United Kingdom
United States	European Commission	Gulf Co-operation Council

European Commission - member list as below
Austria	Belgium	Cyprus
Czech Republic	Denmark	Estonia
Finland	France	Germany
Greece	Hungary	Ireland
Italy	Latvia	Lithuania
Luxembourg	Malta	Netherlands
Poland	Portugal	Slovak Republic
Slovenia	Spain	Sweden
United Kingdom

Gulf Co-operation Council - member list as below
Bahrain	Kuwait	Oman
Qatar	Saudi Arabia	United Arab Emirates

The Hague Apostille Convention

On October 5, 1961, several nations joined to create a simplified method of "legalizing" documents for universal recognition. This group of nations is known as the Hague Convention. They adopted a document referred to as an Apostille that is internationally recognized by all member nations. The member countries include the followings:-

Albania	Andorra	Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina	Armenia	Australia
Austria	Azerbaijan	Bahamas
Barbados	Belarus	Belgium
Belize	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Botswana
Brunei Darussalam	Bulgaria	Hong Kong (China SAR)
China (Macao)	Colombia	Cook Islands
Croatia	Cyprus	Czech Republic
Dominica	Ecuador	El Salvador
Estonia	Fiji	Finland
France	FYR of Macedonia	Germany
Greece	Grenada	Honduras
Hungary	Iceland	India
Ireland	Israel	Italy
Japan	Kazakhstan	Latvia
Lesotho	Liberia	Liechtenstein
Lithuania	Luxembourg	Malawi
Malta	Marshall Islands	Mauritius
Mexico	Monaco	Namibia
Netherlands	New Zealand	Niue
Norway	Panama	Poland
Portugal	Romania	Russian Federation
St Kitts and Nevis	Saint Lucia	St Vincent & Grenadines
Samoa	San Marino	Serbia & Montenegro
Seychelles	Slovakia	Slovenia
South Africa	Spain	Suriname
Swaziland	Sweden	Switzerland
Tonga	Trinidad & Tobago Turkey	Ukraine
United Kingdom	USA	Venezuela

Our aim is to provide a comprehensive service to our clients in Hong Kong and offshore operations. If you find above helpful, please free to contact us.