The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has announced that Panama has accepted the automatic exchange of tax information with countries with which it has a bilateral agreement for the exchange.

Panama has promised to use the common communication standard for information produced by the OECD and the G20 for this information exchange.

Panama has not yet agreed to exchange tax information within the overall system prepared by the Global Forum on Transparency.

From a statement issued by the OECD:

11/05/2016 – The OECD and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes announced today that Bahrain, Lebanon, Nauru, Panama and Vanuatu have now committed to share financial account information automatically with other countries.

With these new commitments, 101 jurisdictions around the world have committed to implement information sharing in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard developed by the OECD and G20 countries and endorsed by the Global Forum in 2014. The latest commitments call for beginning such exchanges in September 2018.

“We are now seeing an unstoppable movement toward information sharing, on the basis of a single common standard developed by the OECD and endorsed by the international community,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said.

“These political commitments to join the fight against tax evasion must be turned into practical reality, through implementation of the standards and actual exchange of information. Actions must now speak louder than words.

See full statement