Question Tag: OECD MTC

You are a tax official working in the Exchange of Information unit of Ghana Revenue Authority. You have been asked to respond to several enquiries relating to the exchange of information with tax authorities in South Africa, Netherlands, Italy and France.

a. A request came from South African Tax Authority which begins with an observation, from the previous year’s data, that taxpayers in South Africa have often failed to disclose foreign source income. South Africa requests the names of all shareholders in Company X operating from Ghana who are resident in South Africa, and information on any dividends paid to them. Company X has a very popular brand in Ghana and has large shareholders.

b. Mr. Johnson Walker is resident of Netherlands. In the course of an ongoing tax investigation, it has been identified that Mr. Johnson Walker failed to declare her bank accounts with Agricultural Development Bank in Ghana. Netherland also suspects that accounts may have been opened in the name of Mr. Johnson Walker’s daughter, Phyllis. As Phyllis is the daughter of the beneficial owner, Netherland requests information on all accounts with Agricultural Development Bank held in both Mr. Johnson Walker and Ms. Phyllis Walker’s names.

c. Yesterday you reviewed a request for information from the revenue department of France. The file, however, is back on your table today as it has been discovered that a loan application which is subject to such exchange of information contains a secret trade formula.

d. Your junior colleague has just sent you an email, asking you to differentiate between “spontaneous exchange”, exchange of information on request, and automatic exchange of information. He believes that information that has recently been obtained upon request from Italy could be of interest to South Africa Tax Authority. Assume that no exchange of information agreement exists between Italy and South Africa.

Required
What will be your response to each of the requests? State reasons for your responses.